Hello from California. A month ago we found out that the Crocs Nascar tour was cancelled and as a result we got an unexpected weekend off from work. I decided that it was time I finally went to San Diego to visit JD, my best friend from high school. In the past our schedules have been too busy to visit each other and we could never coordinate a good time to visit but it actually worked out for once!
So here I am in California. It is a gorgeous weekend, sunny and warm, but not humid like the east coast. I flew in late Thursday night after a day killing time near the Reagan airport (mostly reading books and newspapers at Starbucks). Friday morning I woke up JD took me to a popular restaurant down by the beach called The Mission for breakfast. It was a great restaurant with lots of healthy food and fresh ingredients (my favorite kind of restaurant). My breakfast was good, just the standard eggs, potatoes, fruit, and toast, however JD's was awesome. She got a dish with fried tofu. I don't know what kind of sauce it had on it but it was amazing. It was sort of asian inspired. After breakfast I had to drop JD off at her job and then I took her car back to Mission Beach.
I walked along the boardwalk all afternoon. I was sort of searching for a coffee place that JD had taken me to back when we went to her beach house in 8th grade. Back then she swore that this place had the best caramel machiattos (I have no idea how to spell that). I think I found the place but they only took cash, which I didn't have of course. I guess I wasn't meant to have one now that I actually like coffee.
Friday night we met up with J's friends Kate and Allison at a local mexican restaurant called Gringos. I had an amazing pomegranate margarita. It was one of the best margaritas I've had in a long time. Faudy's top shelf are still a great traditional margarita, but this one is the best fruity one I've had. :) After dinner I got a taste of the bar scene in San Diego. It wasn't like Oregon at all. I felt a little overwhelmed I'm not going to lie. We went to an area called PB, which stands for Pacific Beach I think. It was a long street that started at the beach and kept going. There were a ton of bars along it. We started at one that had happy hour until 10. JD thought the bartender had rung up our bill wrong when it came to a grand total of $6 for 3 drinks. We went to a different bar later in the night and danced for a while. JD was getting harassed by a very creepy guy that wouldn't leave her alone and take the very obvious hint that she wasn't interested. Allison had just gotten a new treo phone and it was glued to her hand the entire night. JD and Kate gave her a hard time about it all weekend.
The car was parked in front of a frozen yogurt shop that Allison wanted to try out so JD and I went along with her. It was a self-serve place so you got to take tiny cups and try samples and then fill your own bowl with as much or as little as you wanted. I liked the strawberry, vanilla, cookies and cream and heath bar the best. After you got the fro-yo there was a bar of toppings that you could put on it. After you were all done picking out your toppings they weighted it and charged you 30¢ an ounce. It was pretty cheap and it was a lot of fun trying the different flavors and being able to do it all yourself.
Saturday morning JD and I took a drive up to Point Loma so I could look out over the city. Unfortunately my camera was acting up so I couldn't take any pictures but it was a gorgeous blue-sky day. (I guess you will all just have to go see it yourself.) It was great to have some one on one time with JD. We haven't hung out as much as we did since high school. She is a very different person from the homebody she was in high school. I like the new social butterfly. In the afternoon we went to the beach at met up with her friend Kate. I took a nap and got sunburned. Oops. It was nice to be able to have some time on the beach. I finally felt like it was summer.
Saturday night was a USD football game that JD had to work at. I dropped her off and noticed some people barbequeing in the parking lot. I asked JD about it and she said that was their version of tailgating. Seriously, the only tailgating was a small group of people around 1 bbq at the end of a parking lot. I wanted to start laughing because it was so different from Oregon. The whole game was very different from Oregon actually. It was just on a much smaller scale. I felt like I was back in high school. The only difference was that I only knew 2 people at the game! Overall it was a fun game. We finished the night by watching the movie Gone in 60 Seconds. I had never seen it before but it was really good. I'd recommend renting it if you haven't seen it.
Sunday was another lazy day. We woke up late and headed down to Pacific Beach to get breakfast with Kate and Allison. We went to a place called the Broken Yolk. Allison overslept and didn't make it but the three of us had a great time. At the table behind us four guys were doing an eating challenge. Pretty much they had to consume a massive amount of food in an hour and they would get it for free. It was disgusting to even see them attempt it. Our waitress said that it was absolutely horrible to do, the calories and cholesterol were really high. When we left they all still had a lot to eat. Our breakfast was tasty. Kate got a breakfast burritto that looked yummy and JD and I both got omelets but we had them made frittata style.
From the Broken Yolk we walked down the street to a local bar to watch the San Diego Chargers game. We were there early so we managed to get a table outside on the porch where we could see the inside tvs. It was great to be in a bar watching football. I felt right at home. That might sound bad but it just felt like what we used to do in Oregon so often. I love being around sports and fans. Once I realized that San Diego was playing North Carolina I had to switch teams and cheer for Jonathan Stewart. I couldn't believe how much playing time he is already getting. Go J Stew!
Kate, Allison, JD and I at the bar watching the Chargers game
That evening we drove out to JD's grandfathers house, her Grampa Pete. Her mom was in town so they were all getting together for dinner. It was great to see JD's mom outside of Park City. She was a lot more relaxed and not constantly on her cell phone. JD and I drove to a local taco shop to pick up dinner for everyone. We put in our order and waited a long time. Quite a few people that ordered after us got their food and left while we were sitting there. Finally we went and asked what had happened to our order. They had to remake it for us because they didn't have the ticket. Well a few minutes after we replaced our order a guy came back in carrying three bags of food. It turned out that he had taken our order. It was all a big mix up. The tacos and burritos were really tasty though so it was worth the wait.
Monday was an interesting day. In the morning I went on a long run and hung out at JD's house. It was nice to be able to just lounge around on a couch and read my book, do laundry. All those stupid little things that sometimes you hate doing and other times you like. In the afternoon I borrowed JD's car again and went downtown. I walked around the Gaslamp District so that I could get a feel of the city. It wasn't anything special though, mostly just shopping. From there I headed to Balboa Park to hang out and read the paper. I found the park easily. I read the newspaper and hung out for a while enjoying the California sunshine. The day got interesting when I left the park to go back to JD's house....
I knew I had to go North. I was trying to find I-5 which is how I had gotten downtown but I never found it. I ended up going into the Mission District to the west of the city. That wasn't right so I backtracked to a sign for highway 163 north that I had seen. Once I was on the highway I knew it wasn't quite right but I did recognize one of the streets on the exit signs so I took it. I ended up by Mesa College. I knew it was possible to get to JD's house from there because she had pointed the college out the night before. I drove around in circles trying to get off the mesa that I was on. It was really frustrating because I could see a tall white building in the distance that I knew I had run past earlier in the day. I just needed to get to that building to get back but I couldn't get off the damn mesa. Ugh. Well after looping around and backtracking and taking my wrong turns I finally made it off the mesa and in the right direction. From there it took a few more tries to get on the mesa where JD lives but I finally did it.
My trip to San Diego ended with Monday night taco night. We went with JD's roommates and friends to a local bar called Peabody's. We ordered turkey tacos and fries. The tacos were so good and I don't even know why. It was such a simple taco: meat, cheese, tortilla, lettuce, onions, tomato and guac. Simple is good I suppose. After taco night JD dropped me off at the airport to catch my red-eye flight back to Washington DC where I am now.
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