Bill, having completed both Covid vaccine shots, felt a new sense of travel adventure so he booked a west coast/east coast escape from cold and wet April in New York. Trip expectations were tempered due to social distancing (I have only had 1 of 2 vaccine shots) and that SoCal was still somewhat locked down.
His arrival on Thursday, April 1, was planned so that I would
have the two Electra bikes unloaded and ready for use upon arrival. We planned to pick up Bill at the airport,
park the car near the bikes in Liberty Station, then bike to Point Loma Seafood
and split a fish taco lunch. And since
the bikes were waiting near Stone Brewery Liberty Station we thought why not have
pints first?
Oh my, how things have changed due to Covid. I had placed a Stone Brewery reservation that
morning – good thing otherwise we wouldn’t have been seated. Once seated, we could order online using a QR
code to start the process. Nothing like
a poorly designed UI to get me fired up.
I fiddled with the “app” for about 10 minutes. Bill was chagrined that Ruination wasn’t available
(but was on the menu!#!#!#!#!#). We then
waited and waited for the pints to arrive.
The next step was to message Stone asking where are our pints? Two responses: (1) that pints of beers we
didn’t order were already delivered(????), and (2) No, they don’t have our
order. We were getting thirsty. Finally, we flagged down someone and asked where
did our order go? That person sent over
someone else who needed to hear our story.
Finally, Hillary came over and took our order. The app UI needs some work.
We biked to Point Loma Seafood for lunch afterward. Post lunch, we biked around Liberty Station
to enjoy the sunshine and being outdoors.
And being Thursday, we stopped at Pizza Port to join the Cymer Surf Crew
for pies/beers and socialization within my bubble.
Friday we loaded up the bikes and traveled to Balboa Park
for the Seven Bridges hike. We cheated
and biked between bridges. Notably, we
traveled around Bankers Hill area (quit a few stately homes!), learned that I
need to read all of the directions (after carrying the bikes down/up steps on
the suspension bridge, the instructions said to return to the beginning point
to continue), then we abandoned bridge #7 when traveling to it required traversing
a high-traffic area. Lunch was splitting
a grilled cheese at Panama 66. Living well.
Saturday was a walk to Del Mar. We enjoyed an overpriced croissant from the French
bakery while relaxing at the Del Mar Civic Center.
Sunday we took the bikes to Coronado Island to continue our
theme of social distancing (outside) and enjoying the sunshine. We biked and explored Coronado: plenty of
beautiful older and newer (McMansion) homes, and great views to San Diego
downtown. Coronado is a quieter and
calmer place for biking. I was getting
bike-butt so Bill suggested a bink at or near the Del Coronado. Good idea!
Seems the Del was under minor construction so we found a beach bar and
ordered drinks and tacos. Good location
since I could stand to alleviate the bike-butt. Lunch was followed by a beach
walk.
I had invited Bob, Kathy, and Carsten over for dinner that
evening. Dinner/dessert consisted of strip
steak, grilled onions, roasted Brussel sprouts, and roasted pears/ice cream. Oh, also a nice red wine brought by Bob. More living well. Great conversation: Carsten returning to NYC
for college, Bob/Kathy talking about their recent Croatia vacation, and general
fun/laughs. I love having good people at
my home.
Monday we biked north into Encinitas. Along the way, we used the new Cardiff
multi-use trail that took us away from those pesky autos and on a separate
trail. The lunch stop was at La Especial
Norte for the obvious choice of Tortilla Soup.
Yummy. Bill got a Mexican Coke:
reading the contents we discovered it contains about 10 teaspoons of raw sugar. WOW! The
ride back south to home was taxing so we stopped at Culture for a pint. Much less sugar - I think.
Tuesday we walked about Solana Beach then biked to The
Brigantine for lunch. Lunch was
splitting a Fish Taco plate and ensuring that Bill had the preferred view to
the DM fairgrounds and dog beach. More
living well.
