San Diego, Los Angeles, and then home again!

March 19 – 22, 2014

We drove from Palm Springs to San Diego in what seemed a very roundabout way… google maps are you playing tricks on me??? We need to get a real map next time!

We arrived in San Diego mid afternoon and tried to check into our Bed and Breakfast. They weren’t quite ready for us but recommended a few restaurants just around the block. We chose one based on the recommendations of our bed and breakfast. (The restaurant is called Brigantine… it appears to have pretty good reviews on Tripadvisor… which just goes to show you you can’t always trust them. It was okay… but not good.) Honestly, I wouldn’t bother eating there again. The food was just mediocre, and our server was extremely uninterested… but the patio made it quite enjoyable 😀

Our bed and breakfast

After lunch we walked around Coronado Island a bit. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting. The houses actually looked a lot like houses from home… very Victorian. I think I expected it to look more like suburb boxy houses. There was a lovely beach and lots of shops and restaurants.

We didn’t really get a chance to explore San Diego as we had left going to the Outlets until the very end of our trip and it basically took up an entire day. The outlets were about 15 minutes from Coronado Island to the south. Do not miss the exit… if you do you will be in Mexico! Seriously! There wasn’t a sign on the highway letting us know the outlets were coming up, but there were sure a lot of signs warning us if we didn’t exit we’d be in Mexico! The Premium outlets were awesome as usual… and we both left satisfied. On the drive home is where we saw a highway sign that made me gasp. It said caution and showed a family fleeing across the highway. It made me wonder… what happened here to warrant this type of sign???

That evening we went out for drinks and appies at the Coronado Hotel. You can’t miss it. It is the giant hotel on the beach. It’s been there for about 125 years and is absolutely beautiful. This is a luxury hotel (way out of my price range! ) and you will pay a premium for drinks and appies too. It was worth it though!

Coronado Hotel in the background

Afterwards we took a walk along the beach path and enjoyed one of our last evenings on this California vacation.

We didn’t really see anything  touristy in San Diego, so are keeping it on the list to come back to.

We would definitely stay at our bed and breakfast again… The 1906 Lodge at Coronado. It was also pricey (not as much as the Coronado Hotel though!) but had a lovely room with a Jacuzzi tub and an extremely comfortable bed. It was just a couple of blocks from the beach. The breakfasts were absolutely incredible. Like no breakfast I have ever had before. The first morning was eggs florentine (along with all the other regular breakfast items… including baked goods), and the second morning was homemade carrot cake pancakes with maple syrup. These breakfasts were both amazing!

I have to warn you we get a little crazy when we are on vacation… here is photographic evidence! :)

On our final day we headed back to L.A., but decided to get accommodations near the airport because our flight left Saturday morning. We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn, which was very reasonably priced and quite nice.

After we checked in we drove down to Venice Beach because I just wanted to have Larry’s Pizza one more time! It was a relatively quick drive (less than half an hour) to Venice Beach where we enjoyed Larry’s, the sunshine, the crazy people, the beach and a walk on the pier one last time.

The only other thing of note was that when we were in the airport the next morning Steve had another celebrity sighting. He saw one of the guys from The Vampire Diaries (I don’t watch it so can’t tell you who it was.) He was trying to decide if it actually was him when the two teenage girls near us starting having conniptions… that confirmed it… he was from the Vampire Diaries. They begged their parents to let them go chase him... to no avail 😀

Okay… one more thing. We booked our flights on Priceline, which we had never done before. This ended up causing us to switch airlines in Portland from Alaska to Air Canada. Our first plane was late arriving so we had to run when we arrived in Portland. When we got to the boarding gate we weren’t even checked in!! Luckily it was all good and it didn’t matter, but the gate agents were mumbling and rolling their eyes a lot. It made me think that if I’m going to change airlines in the middle, I need to leave ample time for connections.

Okay… I just remembered one more thing… this is the last thing I promise… and it’s a bit of a rant. On our flight from L.A. to Portland I ended up beside a rather large lady. This seems to be my fate on airplanes… more often than not I am beside a large and many times smelly person. I’m getting use to them spilling over their armrest into my seat. This time was slightly different however. She was in the aisle seat, and when we arrived she had already flipped the armrest up. Why you might ask? Well because she needed part of my seat because she didn’t fit in her own. I’m not trying to be mean or disrespectful but this is not right. I paid just as much for my seat as she did, and now I am squashed over and leaning into Steve’s seat because this big lady can’t fit in her own seat. She was lovely, and I felt bad for her… it must be embarrassing… but she should have paid for two seats. The airlines need to do something about this. It isn’t discrimination, it’s fair. Lucky for me the flight was short… I think I would have been quite a bit less pleasant if it was a long haul flight. Rant over.

Well now our California vacation is over 🙁… time to start planning my next trip!