My husband had traveled to San Diego many times in his last job and absolutely loved it. He told me he would bring me back “someday.” Well someday became last week, when he got the opportunity to attend a training at the Hard Rock! This is a longer post, but it recaps the things to do in San Diego! For place to eat and drink in San Diego, hang tight for my next blog post!

Sights on our Bike Ride

one of the things to do in San Diego that I recommend is renting bikes! We arrived mid-day, quickly freshened up and rented the free bikes from our hotel. I was nervous at first, but realized that there is not a ton of traffic in downtown San Diego, and the drivers are very bike friendly around here. My husband led the way, and showed me all his favorite places to eat and drink from when he was here before, and then we headed down to the water. We drove all along Harbor Drive, saw the USS Midway, and Seaport Village. We decided to head back to grab a drink and a snack, and found Sally’s, right on the marina. It was a great spot to people watch, watch the sunset, and have great drinks and seafood. We just got a beer each and a spicy tuna roll, which was not your average spicy tuna roll!

Almost a Biking Disaster!

After our snack, we rode back towards our hotel, and all of a sudden, I felt like I wasn’t pedaling against anything. I yelled to my husband to stop, then I said never mind, after it felt okay. Then, I went to slow down (we were on fixed gear bikes, where you brake by pedaling backwards) but when I went to brake, the pedal stopped and I was not slowing down. As I panicked, I yelled for my husband to move over, and I used my sneaker (thank god I wasn’t wearing flip flops) to drag myself slower and eventually stop. We flipped the bike over and we were able to get the chain back on with a team effort!

Dinner and Drinks

We decided we needed a drink and rode back to the Whiskey House that we saw earlier. It caught our eye because we really love whiskey and bourbon. When we arrived, we locked our bikes up on the railing outside the bar, went in to wash the chain grease off our hands and opened up the happy hour menu. Whoa! What a deal! That night we had reservations at the Blind Burro, which was excellent.

San Diego Zoo

“It never rains in Southern California….” oh but it does. Well maybe only because I was there and really wanted to lay out by the pool, but it did, it was cloudy and rainy most of my time there! I’ll let it slide. They desperately needed rain, but come on man! Well, since it was cloudy with a chance of rain one day, I decided to walk…yes WALK to the San Diego Zoo. It was “only” 2.5 miles. No big deal. Well, one thing about San Diego is that there is a large homeless population. So bad that the streets often reek of piss, because where else are they allowed to go?

Well, my walk to the zoo was not my smartest move, but it really was fine. I might have seen a homeless man zipping up his pants after peeing, but no big deal. The area I walked through was a bit rough, but that just made me walk faster and get to Balboa park faster! 🙂 My feet hurt, and I knew I had more walking at the zoo to do, so I did not explore the park, but there were many museums and other sites to see. Very beautiful!

 

I still have mixed feelings on zoos. I hate seeing the animals cooped up in tight spaces, but I admire the ability to see rare animals up close and know that zoos allow for research and education opportunities. Must sees at the zoo were the elephants, polar bears, and pandas! Oh and I almost forgot to mention you can get BEER AT THE ZOO. Yes. It’s a wonderful thing when there are 1000 schools on a field trip there!

Lyft Ride to Pacific Beach

I decided to give Lyft a try, and was given $5 off my first 10 rides if I used them in 14 days, which I knew I would! PS, if you want to give it a try, it is just like Uber, and you can get $10 off by using this code! APRIL05018. Pacific Beach was my first ride, and my driver was very helpful with recommendations and dropped me off at a great stop. I decided to take a long walk up and down the boardwalk to get some exercise and scope out the place.

I would have gone for a jog, but I had a backpack with all my stuff, and decided to walk instead. Crystal Pier provided great view of the surfers and the whole beach on the Crystal Pier and then decided to lay out for a bit. After I laid my stuff down, I went to put my feet in the water, and it was FREEZING! What?! Well I guess when it is 70’s all the time, the water also never gets too warm! It was ok because it was a cool day, and I was able to comfortably layout, listen to my audio book, and take a little nap. At this point I was starving, and went to El Prez for a drink and some more TACOS!

My New Groove Cruise Friends

The most entertaining part of the trip was our last night. I laid by the pool, even though it was cloudy, to MAYBE get some sun, relax, and listen to my audio book. A few moments later, I hear “wooooo!” and in come a crew of people in huge sombreros and banana costumes, back flipping into the pool, dancing and having a great time. Instead of getting mad, I turned my book off, and started to people watch! Where did all these people come from? They all had wrist bands on and seemed to know each other.

As I flipped onto my stomach for a better view, I overheard the cocktail waitress mention they were on a Groove Cruise to Cabo. I laid there for awhile, and then decided it was time to take a shower. Since I didn’t want him to miss out, I told my husband all about the party that started at the pool, and he insisted that we go back. I got changed, and we headed to the pool for a few drinks.

Well now that was embarrassing!

We met some guys, including one dressed as Harambe, that were going on the cruise and they told us all about it. They were even buying us shots trying to get us on the ship. We laughed and thanked them, but said we already had plans for Vegas. My husband needed to go back to his training for some nerdy competition thing, so I stayed at the pool bar mingling. Since I didn’t really know anyone, I made eye contact with the guy in the large foam sombrero and I introduced myself. I mentioned my encounter early as the loud crew came in.

He stopped and asked if I was the girl laying “over there.” I confirmed that that was me…and he then proceeded to tell me that everyone was admiring the mirror that was behind me. The mirror that MAGNIFIED the image in front of it. Yep. The whole place had a great view of my ass. OMG. I wasn’t sure if I was creeped out, wanted to laugh, or humiliated. I laughed because what the heck haha. When my husband came back, we met more of their generous friends got us each a drink. They told us all about where they were from and Groove Cruise stories. Later we went back to the Blind Burro, where we inspired them about our journey. They convinced us to take a Groove Cruise in the near future!

Be sure to check back when I post my blog about the food in San Diego!