C is for cake, California, creamery...

Before I start recounting the trip, let me post a picture of the Taco Bell birthday cake that I made for Duane. It was an intensely chocolatey cake; one layer was double chocolate and the other was triple chocolate. The whole thing was frosted with chocolate frosting and decorated with sugar crystals!


Now, let me tell you about the trip, which was definitely not what I expected at all. When I think of San Diego, I think of marinas and beaches -- basically, I imagine it to be all about the water. As you will learn, that wasn't quite how it was in reality.

The day before we left, Christina wasn't feeling well, which was not a good sign, but she loaded up on medicine and hoped for the best. I stayed up all night because our flight was early, and I wanted to sleep on the planes (not that I wouldn't be able to anyway, but whatever). Gina woke up and didn't feel so hot either -- another bad sign.

Day 1:

I was asleep before the first flight pulled away from the gate. That's how I roll. I woke up shortly before we landed in Salt Lake City. Our flight was late (because only one runway was open), and we basically had enough time to deplane and get in line for our connecting flight to San Diego. I slept on the way to San Diego, too.

The San Diego airport looks like no other airport that I have ever seen. It is like a mall or something -- a fancy one. Anyway, we stepped outside to look for the shuttle to our hotel, and the weather was pretty awesome. By the time that we got to the hotel and checked in, we were starving, so we quickly put our stuff down and headed out to find something to eat.

If the first dining experience in San Diego was to be an indication of the rest, I would have killed myself. We had lunch at Cappell's, a small Italian restaurant in downtown, which really should be named CRAPpell's because it was that bad. We ended up there out of desperation and severe hunger. I should have known from the first sip of fake soda that this was going to to be bad... very bad. I had pizza, which might have been the worst pizza I have ever eaten in my entire life. There was an overwhelming stench of bad body odor lingering in the air, and there were some flies hanging around. It was awful. We were not off to a good start.

Later that afternoon, we made our way to the Gaslamp Quarter. This was definitely the best part of downtown San Diego. We had an early dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. You can't go wrong with that.

On the way back to the hotel, however, we experienced something that I had never imagined to find there -- BUMS GONE WILD. I have never seen so many homeless people in my life. It was crazy. (I'm sure LA is worse, but this was nuts.)

Day 2:

Since we went to bed early the night before, we got an early start and took the trolley to Old Town. Again, this wasn't what I expected; I thought that we could spend the day there. Unfortunately, this historic area was too small and occupied us only for a short while.

From there, we headed to Balboa Park and took a free tram around the park. First, we ended up with some jerky lady and were lucky enough to end up with a driver who looked like Elvis and wanted to have his Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonation on YouTube! The guy was crazy; he talked about his pet horse and tried to get the people on the tram to go see his band. He was a weirdo, but entertaining nonetheless.

After we left the park, we walked blocks and blocks and blocks to find a place to eat because there is no food in San Diego, the weirdest place ever. How is it possible to have this many office buildings and residences in the downtown area with so few restaurants? It took nearly an hour to find the 6th Ave Bistro. Mind you, we walked into this place and there was only one other customer, who was sitting at the bar with his young child. Who brings a kid to a bar? The kid was falling asleep when one of the waiters told him that he could take a nap in one of booths. As it that was not weird enough, the father dude left with a waitress while his kid slept there! Speaking of the waitress, she was a mess. She forgot our order, came back to confirm what Christina ordered, and ended up bringing me something else entirely. At that point, I didn't want to eat -- I noticed that the mustard on the table expired in January of 2008. I was done.

Fortunately, the day looked up when we took the ferry to Coronado. I love high seas adventures, and the ferry was a nice little trip. Coronado is beautiful, but the real highlight was MooTime Creamery. Oh man... I love ice cream, but this was out of this world. We all had dessert nachos and felt like we were in heaven. The 'chips' were pieces of freshly made waffle cone and were covered in marshmallow cream, hot fudge, and caramel. Then, you got to pick two flavors of ice cream to go in the middle. AMAZING! That was the only meal that I ate that day, but it could not have been better.

Day 3:

We made the trek to La Jolla. What a mission... it took forever, and I turned into Pukey Brewster on the bus. (I didn't actually throw up, but I wanted to.) My nausea was so bad that we had to get out of the bus early and walk a good amount (before we eventually got back on the bus because we still had too far to go). While we were out, we walked down to the ocean to set foot in the Pacific. That was a good plan until I got drenched. With my pants rolled up to my knees, I attempted to stand in the water, but the waves receded and weren't returning up as far on the shore, so I kept walking farther out. Still, nothing. Finally, Gina asked me to turn around, so she could take my picture. Once I turned around, a big wave crashed and got me soaked... up to my butt. Can I just tell you how much it sucks to walk around in wet jeans? Not only did I look like I peed in my pants, but my legs were so itchy that I wanted to cut them off.

We were starving yet again and managed to choose a good spot for lunch. We ended up at the Bull & Bear Bar and Grill (for those of you that love menu-reading as much as I do: http://72.51.35.40/bull_and_bear//). It was really tasty; I had a chipotle chicken wrap with chips and salsa. Other than the ice cream, this was the best meal that I had eaten.

With fuel in our bellies, we finally made it to La Jolla Cove. The views were intense. I wish we could have gone kayaking or gone down into the cave, but, still, it was worth the mission it took to get there.

We headed back to the hotel and kicked back for a while before attempting to decide where to have dinner. We took the hotel shuttle to Little Italy, and, upon the recommendation of our driver, had dinner at Little Italy Spaghetteria (http://littleitalyspaghetti.com). I ordered the manicotti and had to send it back because the pasta was so overcooked that it tasted like baby food. The second dish I ordered was better, but not good. If they can't make pasta in Little Italy, there's a problem.

After dinner, we attempted to go out, but the place Kane led us to was closed. What the crap? Why do things close so early in San Diego? Oh, I know... because San Diego is weird.

Day 4:

Before going to San Diego, I did a little restaurant research. One of the places that came up was Mexican Fiesta. What I thought was going to be a restaurant was actually a taco stand on the side of the road, but, still, the rave reviews made me want to try it. I got a chicken burrito. To my surprise, it was mostly dark meat (nasty) and some peppers and onions. That's it -- no rice, no beans, no cheese, no sour cream. It tasted more like an egg roll than a burrito. I was so disappointed I could have cried.

This was the sunniest and hottest of the days that we were there, and we chose to walk (a long walk, mind you) to Seaport Village. It was nice -- shops and restaurants set along the water. From there, we boarded the Seal Tour, an amphibious bus/boat tour. It started out as a bus on land and adapted to the water as a boat. I love the high seas! Hahaha. It was actually really cool. Christina took me as a birthday gift -- thanks, Christina!

After the tour, we had lunch at San Diego Burger Co. where I had a mediocre bacon cheeseburger. As soon as I finished eating, I had to get up because there were way too many birds for my liking. I felt a stupid little bird's wings fluttering against my arm; I almost had a heart attack. I took shelter inside the burger shack until Gina, Christina, and Kane finished their lunch. We walked along the harbor and had a mini-photo shoot of Gina and Kane, portraying the famous sailor and nurse kiss.

Later that night, we went back to the Gaslamp, and, finally, we saw people! It was nice to see the streets lively for a change. We had dinner at the Rock Bottom Brewery (http://www.rockbottom.com). It was pretty good until some bad singers took the stage. Christina and I left, walked around for a bit, and went back to the hotel.

Day 5:

Christina still wasn't feeling well; from the night before we left up to this point, she actually felt worse. We took our time to get ready while Gina and Kane were at the Midway museum. We had lunch at Los Panchitos, a fast-food type Mexican place, and, once again, I was disappinted by another dark meat-filled chicken burrito. Oh well...

We walked around downtown for a while before heading back to Coronado. Alas, we had good Mexican food at Costa Azul (http://www.costaazulcoronado.com)! I figured I'd go with a chicken burrito one last time, and it paid off. The meal was delicious! We followed that up with one last trip to MooTime Creamery -- I had a s'more sundae and loved it.

We parted ways with Kane as he made it back to the ship and took the ferry back.

Day 6:

My birthday! Woooo-hoooooo! We left the hotel and headed for the airport. Two flights and three airports later, we made it home! We did have a birthday Cinnabon and a birthday Krispy Kreme doughnut to celebrate, though!

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Of course, some other highlights happened during the trip. Christina started doing a Dracula-like impersonation of the Terminator. Kane overused the phrase, "I must admit." We walked less than I would have liked, but more than Gina, Christina, and Kane wanted or needed to. I slept on the floor one night atop a makeshift pillow bed in between an actual bed and the wall in a space so small that you'll have to see the picture to believe it.