Notice
This was written before I spent the evening with Richard (Fisher! Tim!) and Mrs. Robot drinking Mint Juleps and watching the Republican National Convention on the TeeVee.
Hey Rudy! I didn't realize that the 9/11 terrorists were connected to Iraq. Wow! You are f*cking smart!
OK. My holiday.
Hello San Diego
We arrived in the S.D. on a Friday afternoon (Viva flying to the west coast time difference!) and picked up our Chrysler Sebring convertible - the official car of the white couple tourists in California.
The S.D. suffers from painfully pleasant weather.
The hotel we stayed in was the Prava, which is located in the slightly hokey, quite touristy Gas Lamp District. I suppose this is S.D's historical district full of restaurants and little shoppes like every other town has.
It's a nice area, but nothing to write home about.
Our favorite restaurant in the Gassy Lamp District there was the Sun Diner, which we ate at every morning. Tasty and cheap.
The Prava hotel was pretty sweet - our room was huge and we even had a kitchenette. It does get quite loud down there in the Gas Lamp District, so I could see that some people would be bothered by that when trying to get to sleep. We were always so exhausted that it didn't really matter.
Note, that the bars there close at 2am, so you'll have a sudden increase in noise as the tards come out of the bars yelling, 'whooooooooo!' over and over. That will wake you up no matter what.
i mean, i think san diageo... honestly? very pretty, but a bit 'hokey'
La Jolla
After mis-pronouncing the name of the town of La Jolla a few times, we headed out there for our first evening.
F*cking Beautiful.
Just gorgeous. In a way, I wish we'd stayed there as it was much more our slow, quiet vacation speed (on vacations, we usually age like 40+ years and don't 'party' like we do when at home).
Our first dinner in So.Cal. was at Sushi on the Rock (ROCK!) which was just amazing and made me realize that maybe, just maybe, NY sushi isn't that great - but that's another post for another day.
We ate at the bar and chatted with the chef and just went along with whatever he recommended. Instead of beer, we had small bottles of Chandon Sparkling wine, which went beautifully with the sushi. Really - I may swear off beer and sake with sushi forever in exchange for crisp and dry sparkling wines or champagne.
We also watched baseball on the TV.
The highlights were the albacore tuna lightly seared with jalapenos and the basic sashimi plate with slices of fish that melted in your mouth. Man oh man.
Zoo
Naturally we went to the zoo in San Diego. The orangutans and gorillas were the best - while the pandas were pretty buzz killing in their mediocrity (damn it panda! Entertain us!).
I think our orangutan biological clock was ticking.
Catalina
After some bumming around the S.D. (took a lovely bike ride around Coronado), we headed up to Long Beach and jumped on the ferry to Catalina Island.
Snorkle!
Oh, so I have to rewind a bit. When planning this trip, Mrs. Robot, in some sort of Travelocity commercial inspired moment, decided to book us a snorkeling class/session at Catalina. Yay! I was stoked.
She called the snorkel-y place and reserved us a spot.
Then they called us four times over the course of our vacation.
Call #1
We need to fax you a liability release form so you can fill it out and bring it with you
Call #2
Well, you don't really need to fill out the form now since you don't know your fax number at the hotel you haven't checked into yet.
Call #3
Did you get the form? You don't really need it. Did you get it? You never gave us your fax number.
Call #4
Can we change your reservation to be minutes after you get off the ferry?
Oy! The most neurotic snorkel company folks ever!
Open Water
We planned on doing an Open Water spoof. Like coming out of the water and standing there in waist deep water and yelling, "The Boat left us! They left us!" as orange carp swim by.
Menacingly - the way that orange carp do.
Back to Catalina
Points in rapid sucession
1. driving golf carts around the island: fun!
2. our room at Snug Harbor Inn (ahhhh) a bit overpriced for what it was.
3. Catalina is a lot better when the cruise ships haven't docked.
4. we ate well.
5. it's a beautiful spot.
6. I finally swam in the Pacific. Damn cold ass ocean.
7. Snorkling was fun. Lots of fish zooming around. The only issue is that you have to compete for space with these bastard glass bottom boats, so the water got really choppy.
8. Big comfy bed.
Pleasant!
Let me restate for the record, that as far as weather goes, San Diego is painfully pleasant.
Jerry!
Jerry Seinfeld was performing in San Diego. This was the promo picture they used in the local paper.
This Girl
This girl we knew. Back in the day.
Well, she's now part of the team prosecuting Michael "Dude, I am so crazy" Jackson.
See her here: yea. that's mark's ex-wife. nutty, eh?
News
A bag of candy shocked a local grandmother and will most likely shock you
