San Diego has been on my list to visit forever. We even booked a summer family trip there back in January of 2020 but didn't get to go. So when Niraj mentioned that he was interested in going, it didn't take me long to make it happen.
FRIDAY
First thing we did was get lunch at The Crack Shack. A work friend told me about this place in 2017 and I finally got to try it.
The spicy chicken thigh was way better than the regular chicken breast. Worth the wait!
Next we headed over to Stone Brewing at Liberty Public Market.
They had a large outdoor space, but we grabbed an open spot at the bar. Niraj was able to pull up the Illinois game on his phone while we sampled beers.
From there we were pretty close to Sunset Cliffs beach so we headed over to walk off some of the beer.
I call this next one, Ocean Wisdom.
We stayed around for the sunset. Only appropriate given the name.
We were staying at the Hotel Republic. Here's the lobby.
And here's us having a pre-dinner cocktail at their terrace bar.
For dinner, we walked to the Gaslamp District and opted for a spot recommended by our first driver, Tacos El Gordo. Here's the action shot of the guy cutting the meat for our adobada tacos.
We each had two adobada and one carne asada. Really great.
Afterwards, Burnsy found a place called the Whiskey House.
Upon entering we found out it has the world record for number of whiskey bottles.
They had a lot of classic and wild stuff on the menu. I couldn't help myself once I saw they had a peanut butter old-fashioned. As I was ordering, I thought there's no way this is going to good, right?
But it was. It was incredible. It tasted like whiskey and peanut butter but in the best way. I still can't believe it worked.
I even got the bourbon brownie, because I'm built different.
SATURDAY
We started Saturday by going to Morley Field for disc golf. We found out when we got there that it's known as the best course in California, it has tee times and admission fees.
The funniest part is that with about 20 people watching, I shanked my first shot a full 90 degrees to the right, into the parking lot, narrowly missing a bunch of cars. I then had to play in a group with 3 strangers for 3 hours after hitting such a terrible shot.
This is the ideal male body. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like.
After disc golf, without having eaten anything, we had our first meal of the day at 2:45pm. We got a car up to La Jolla Cove and ate at George's. Lunch with a view!
After lunch, we walked down to get a closer look at the La Jolla sea lions.
All that walking meant it was time for beer. To Ballast Point Brewing!
This is Little Italy at the golden hour.
We had dinner outside at Bencotto, and it was awesome.
We started with the 30-month aged parmesan reggiano that came with carmelized figs that were as good as the cheese.
Then I had the best lasagna of my life.
Burnsy got the squid ink pasta with shrimp.
After dinner, we wanted to check out this tiki bar I had researched online, False Idol. We walk in, we see a display case with a False Idol logo on a napkin. I ask for a table and they seat us.
So here we are and they give us a menu that doesn't have any tiki drinks on it.
I was very confused. I start googling for the tiki menu. I find one online.
So I'm thinking they gave us the wrong menu. But Burnsy is way ahead of me. He says were not in the tiki bar yet. I'm like what do you mean. We saw the logo. He says there's a secret entrance with skulls. It's a hidden bar within a bar.
So I start wandering around this bar, and sure enough, there is a secret entrance with skulls.
We had to wait a bit since we didn't have a tiki reservation, but soon we got in to the hidden bar within a bar.
The glasses were so cool that we each got one.
SUNDAY
As luck would have it, Illinois advanced to the Big Ten Championship AND it was St. Patrick's Day. So we went to the best sports bar in San Diego AND it happened to be an Irish pub.
I got the whiskey-buffalo wings and they were so good. Top all-time wings?
Good place to watch Illinois be crowned champs!
After that, we got a ride to Coronado Island. The Hotel del Coronado is pretty fancy and was built in 1888, the largest resort in the world at the time. We knew we didn't want to stay here, but that didn't stop us from checking it out.
Or visiting their beach.
I even found time to make my first Calcutta pick.
Before we left Coronado Island, we stopped to get some gelato.
When we got back to the hotel, I took this shot from our 6th floor window.
For our last dinner, we went back to The Whiskey House because it was so good two nights prior.
Burnsy got some insane nachos and I got the en fuego burger.
MONDAY
On our last day we checked out of the hotel and walked to Little Italy again.
This time we went to Not Not Tacos, a restaurant by Sam the Cooking Guy, a youtube chef I watch a lot of. Delicious.
After that we walked around before getting our last beers in at Hidden Craft, a self-service bar. I love the self-service so I can basically make my own flights one at a time.
One last time to marvel at the low planes arriving over downtown San Diego.
This was a super fun trip and a nice change of pace from the usual San Francisco/Kansas City visits.
Unexpectedly awesome food town for sure.
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