I wrote his name in the sand

September 23, 2015September 23, 2015 / Greg / Leave a comment

As my San Diego trip was winding down back in June, my mind was starting to drift to my dog, Chewy, back at home. He had probably already forgotten about me, such as it is with dogs, who seem to have the uncanny ability to live completely in the present. With a bit of melancholy coming from the combination of the last day of a vacation as well as looking ahead to returning home the next day, an afternoon walking along Coronado Beach was the right pace for an afternoon.

I had already fallen in love with the beaches around San Diego before Coronado. This sprawling beach just added to my love affair:

Walking the beach, I thought of how this would be my mental health respite if I lived in San Diego. The perfect sand, the white noise of the waves crashing ashore and the stunning views would never get old.

Continue reading →

Mmmmm, San Diego beer

September 16, 2015 / Greg / Leave a comment

Full disclosure – I’ve starting writing this piece about the wonderful craft beer I had an opportunity to sample in San Diego while sitting at my “home” craft beer bar in Halifax. It’s a case of Nova Scotia craft beer fuelling some writing about beer.

Whenever I visit a new place, that city’s craft beer breweries and bars jump to the top of the must visit list for me. In San Diego, seven days would be nowhere near enough time to sample all I wanted to, especially considering some of this trip was work related and needed my full attention. After enjoying a Karl Strauss mosaic ale at a Padres game (my opinion: that might be the perfect ballgame beer), I visited their brewery just a few blocks from my hotel to try some of their other brews. Of the four samples, I really enjoyed the slightly spicy Windansea Wheat and one of their iconic beers, the Red Trolley Ale:

Continue reading →

A week of tacos

September 5, 2015September 5, 2015 / Greg / Leave a comment

I have written many times about my love of really good tacos, so it will come as no surprise that before leaving for San Diego I had a long list of taco places I wanted to visit. In particular, I wanted to try what might be the official food of San Diego, the fish taco. So, wasting no time, on our first night in the city my wife and I made our way to the downtown location of Puesto, a restaurant that consistently wins the “best fish taco” award in a couple of San Diego’s alternative weekly papers.

Another great thing about Puesto, and really all of the taco joints we would hit, is they offered great gluten free selections for my wife. Unfortunately, no Baja fish tacos (they’re normally breaded and fried), but she didn’t mind as she enjoyed (and happily shared!) her plate of chicken verde, carnitas and vegetable tacos (picture on the left). That drink in that picture was a mango margarita and hands down the best drink of the entire trip. My fish tacos (picture on the right) were incredible. The fish was perfectly fresh cod, battered using blood orange beer and topped with cabbage, chile cream, avocado and tomatillo roja. One night in, and I would have agreed to live in San Diego just to keep eating these tacos.

Continue reading →

Giraffes, elephants and hippos, oh my!

August 24, 2015August 24, 2015 / Greg / 2 Comments

My wife and I have a travel agreement in place – wherever we travel in a calendar year, she can pick one (and only one) zoo to visit. It’s not that I don’t like zoos, but usually the idea of dedicating a day to wander around looking at animals isn’t normally on the top of my list. I love animals, but for me, once I’ve seen a giraffe, I don’t really need to see more giraffes for a while.

On our trip to San Diego, the rule about zoos went out the window. It’s arguably the finest zoo in the world, and I was just as excited as my wife to visit. We planned to make a full day of it, so we arrived just as the zoo was opening. My wife had mapped out all of the stops she wanted to make during the day, and her itinerary had us taking the aerial cable car to the far end of the zoo to start our exploring. Not only was it a smart logistical decision, but it gave a great view of the zoo and also of the city of San Diego to the south.

Continue reading →

Root, root, root for the home team

August 8, 2015 / Greg / 5 Comments

How’s this for a laid back Sunday on the west coast – sleep in, go for a long beach walk (with a delicious mid-stroll stop for a feed of crab), then an early evening baseball game… pretty good vacation day eh? I’m always excited to visit a new stadium, and Petco Park in San Diego is one of the nicest I’ve been to. Like usual, we arrived early to wander around, but unfortunately, there was no batting practice to watch. As you can see by my face, that didn’t faze me too much.

Like most of the newer ballparks, Petco doesn’t really have a bad seat anywhere. At least on our exploring, we didn’t come across one. Deep down the first base line, these seats would be ok by me:

Continue reading →

The first of many beaches

July 30, 2015July 30, 2015 / Greg / 7 Comments

When I think back on the week I spent with my wife in and around San Diego, I’ll remember the beaches the most. I’ve always felt drawn to the water, and that place where land meets ocean has always had a hold on me. After spending the partial day we arrived in San Diego on a city tour and eating tacos (I’ll be writing much more on tacos later!), we spent a lazy Sunday morning in bed with good coffee and the New York Times before deciding to head north of the city to Pacific Beach.

With cloudy skies and the temperature only barely touching 20°C, the normal Sunday crowds were nowhere to be found, giving us more than enough space to enjoy the sound of the waves of the Pacific Ocean lapping up on shore.

Continue reading →

Beaches, tacos and giraffe feeding

June 7, 2015June 7, 2015 / Greg / Leave a comment

I am just back and shaking off jet lag from a second trip to the Pacific Coast in about a month. This past week in San Diego reaffirmed my affection for the west coast. From a personal perspective on this mixed work/vacation trip, the leisure portion of the week provided me and my wife a much needed breather and change of scenery. In only seven days, San Diego gave us what felt like two weeks of vacation. The west coast has always done that for me and this trip was no different.

Each day brought something unique and memorable. On one day it was a walk along Pacific Beach north of the city and a feed of fresh crab overlooking the ocean. Another day was spent at the San Diego Zoo where we got an opportunity to feed a giraffe, watch a polar bear swim up close, and wander among koalas. We ventured over to Tijuana, Mexico, and got a guided tour of the city including visiting a local market, walking along a beach just south of the Mexico-USA border, and sitting down for a lunch of tacos the likes of which I have never experienced before. Speaking of tacos, I had a feed of them every day and every which way – baja tacos, grilled fish, carnitas, al pastor, pollo verde, carne asade, conchita pibil. There was a fun night at a Padres game, some touring of the city of San Diego, a quiet morning in a rooftop pool, some more beach time over in Coronado, more than a bit of craft beer sampling, and a whole lot of R&R.

It was a splendid first visit to San Diego and to Tijuana, even if it is now causing me severe taco withdrawal.