San Diego!

San Diego has always been on the "Places We Might Move To" list.  Good food scene, reasonably cheap rental market, great weather, good ocean access, the list goes on and on.  But for whatever reason, the only time I have visited was in high school as part of a marching band trip.  Unfortunately it was during my Sophomore year, and I had yet to assert my authority as head band geek as opposed to middle management limbo.  This severely limited my social options at that time.

I think the biggest reason I avoided San Diego is the proximity to LA.  I have no interest in LA and judging by the indigenous population's behavior in LAX, that is probably a good thing.  Lets just say that we didn't get along.  

Mmmm, Hammerhead

All of a sudden, I am headed to San Diego.  The shipping for the motorcycle was extremely inexpensive and it was also quick.  Less than 10 days door to door, all told.  I had everything lined out.  The boat was supposed to arrive on Monday and unload on Wednesday.  I would fly in Thursday morning, pick up the bike and take it to the mechanic just in time to catch the 24 hour parts order deadline.  Instead, the boat was delayed a day thanks to Tropical Storm Something or Other in the Pacific.  Said storm never made landfall but the shipping company held their container ship a day to avoid any issues.

Instead of the bike being available for pick up when I arrived, it was being unloaded that day.  The shipping company actually did me a solid to even get it that day.  What this meant though, was I missed the deadline to order parts by about five hours.  Parts were now coming in on Monday to be installed on Tuesday-Wednesday the following week.

We hang out with the Romney's

Molly reached out to her old friends Tim and Liz, who were incredibly gracious and put me up in their spare room.  What was supposed to be a couple of days turned into a little over a week.  I had a plan for alternate lodging at the cheapest hostel in San Diego (If you have read the Singapore post, you know this violates the very important 3rd cheapest hostel rule) but when I brought it up Liz yelled at me and made it very clear that I was to be a guest at their house for as long as necessary.

Liz took me on a tour of the North Coast up through Encinitas, where we stopped at Pannikin Coffee.  I had the Hammerhead, which is a shot of espresso in a 16oz black coffee.  Pannikin is also known for their baked goods, which were epic.

These things creeped me out

Tim took me snorkeling in La Jolla and fishing off of Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach.  We got to see the phenomenon of the Tuna Crab invasion.  Little red lobster looking things as far as the eye could see.  They were definitely the reason we didn't catch anything.  Couldn't be that I am a crap fisherman.  

The water in La Jolla was pretty cold for this spoiled Maui guy.  The only way I got in the water was by telling myself that it was just going to get colder the further north I went.  I was about knee deep when I looked over at Tim.  It was pretty obvious the only reason he was heading in was to humor me.  Thanks Tim!

Tim warned me about the Stingray Shuffle and told me his tale of being stung.  The medical treatment is very similar to centipede stings on the islands:  stay drunk until you feel better.  Even so, I nudged 2 scary looking things off the bottom before I just sucked it up and dove in.  

I had never swam in waters near Kelp beds before.  That was a new experience.  We spotted a couple large stingrays, like garbage can lid sized rays.  I had made a point to read up on how much damage one of these critters could do to me the night before so I adopted a strict "live and let live" policy from the get go.  After our Cryo Treatment, we headed south along the coast and saw the Sea Lions and Seals.  It is always amazing to see the diversity of life the sea can provide for.  

The seals thank you for the fantastic sea wall

Balboa Park is awesome

Liz and the kids took me to Balboa Park and we ran around in the park all day.  Every Tuesday there is a rotating selection of attractions free to San Diego residents.  There was a guy warming up the 100 year old pipe organ, we hit the cactus garden and the Japanese Friendship Garden.  I ended up sunburned.  The ambient temperature is so moderate I didn't feel like I was cooking.  I am used to feeling toasted when I burn.  Nope!

I like boats.  San Diego has cool boats

The following day, Liz was kind enough to take me to the Coaster Station and throw me out.  I headed to downtown San Diego to meet up with an old friend from New York, Julie.  Julie and Fred are rock star motorcycle touristas and gave me a ton of advice as I was getting set up for the trip.  In addition to the advice, Julie took me to "Sausage and Meat".  AWESOME.  Everything we had was fantastic.  We had sausage.  We had meat.  Julie had bacon in her cocktail.  I heard at least 1 David Bowie song on the stereo.  It was a great evening.  I have no pictures because we plowed into the food like we hadn't been fed in a week.

I was having such a great time in San Diego it was almost sad to be on my way.  Add in Liz making two of her specialties and I had to pry myself out of the house.  Koshari (Egyptian Dish) and Chicken Paprikash with Dumplings (Polish) were sooooo good.  Between the great people and a very active city, San Diego has definitely moved up on the list!