We wound up arriving at the Argyle steakhouse at the Four Seasons hotel in Carlsbad around 6:30. Some company was having their Christmas party there too, and well, let's just say the walls aren't soundproof. We went with the $99 pre-fixe menu for 2 people and that's the only way I would have eaten at a place this nice. As we sat down, I saw this tiny dish with two powders along with the two tiniest spoons I've ever seen. The two substances were simply salt and pepper. So I could tell right away that this was no ordinary eatery. We started with an included glass of wine each. Then came popovers with a smoky red tomato and roasted pepper and garlic spread. It was amazing. We had a cream of cauliflower soup. For salad, Mom got the iceberg wedge with blue cheese. I got the spinach salad with whole hazelnuts, pears and braised salted bacon. It was hands down the best spinach salad I have ever had. Then again, all I had to do was add bacon!
For entrees, we both had the flat iron steak. Mom had a bleu cheese crust while I had a shallot and red wine sauce. They came with gourmet potato tots (like deep-fried mashed potato) and parmesan jumbo asparagus. They also included a garnish of roasted garlic and roasted tomato. The meat was very tender and the sauce complimented it beautifully. We both ordered sweet potato pound cake with a chantilly whipped cream and we loved it. I wasn't overly comfortable dining in such a fancy restaurant, but I will say Mom picked a fine, fine place. After another 15 minutes of driving, we arrived in Encenitas at David and Jane's place around 8:30. A Stella, some casual conversation, and I was ready for bed!
Day 5 arrived and I awoke early to use the Internet. This thing ran so slow, I think it took 45 minutes to load wfan.com alone. It was just a disaster. Anyway, we left at 10:15 and I had already been awake for three hours. We first went to La Jolla, a bougie coastal town and had breakfast at a place called Brockton Villa for some Coast Toast. Basically, this is like a thicker cut of French toast combined with an orange souffle. With a little bit of their berry preserve spread, it was really good. I would probably return for it, I don't know if it's worth $12 though. And I had a side of thick cut bacon too...There was a guy sitting next to us with his wife. Mom mentioned how nice his hair was, how texturized it was, whatever that term means. But his laugh was so loud and so over the top, people at two tables moved inside just to get away from him. After the guy left, Mom and Jane mentioned to the cute girl server about him. She said "Oh, that's my boyfriend's father." Unreal.
Anyway, right across the street from the BV is a small park and a beach with a ton of large rocks. And the rocks were absolutely overrun by loads of pigeons and seals. I also spotted a stray pelican or two. Throw in 65 degrees and that I was wearing shorts in December, it was a pretty radical departure from life in the Midwest. We then drove south into the Beach towns: Pacific Beach, Mission Beach, and Ocean Beach. PB has a pretty good nightlife reputation and even a bar with every Chicago sports team's flag flying outside of it. MB, directly south, is a smaller, quieter town while OB is all about surfers and used to be a hippie neighborhood. It's a little more of an off-beat, funky spot now. I wanted to get to Hodad's for a bacon cheeseburger, but...the line was out the door, it would have been so good!
Anyway, we went onto Del Mar, a very affluent beach town before visiting Torrey Pines, first the famous golf course of the name. The South course has hosted the U.S. Open tournament, has an annual tournament every January, and is also the spot Scott Peterson was arrested for killing Laci. Anyway, I brought an orange Greg Norman golf shirt, 45 bucks or so. Just for laughs, I checked the green fees of the South course. For San Diego residents, it costs $61. Not too bad. For non-residents, $183. I was hoping that number was pesos. I mean, it costs three times as much? Crazy, crazy. And then we went to the TP state park and hiked the trails up and downhill for almost three hours before reaching the bottom, leading two walking the beach for a half hour to get back to the car. And we got to the end of the beach just as the sun was setting.
We were all pretty spent, so we drove into Del Mar for happy hour at the Brigantine. I had mentioned I wanted to try some fish tacos, and did I ever. They come in a corn tortilla with fried fish filets, cheddar cheese, ranch, pico de gallo, and cabbage. I squeezed on a little fresh lime and hot sauce and wow! The fish was crispy, the veggies tasted fresh. The combo of ingredients sounds strange, but they marry togetyher just beautifully. A typical order of two costs $9.50; each one at happy hour cost just $2.75. Before it was all over, I wolfed down four and washed them down with a pair of Coronas. Thanks to Dave for picking up the check. I also met Zach (Dave's grandson) and Lauren, his GF.
We went back to the house and put up some lights and ornaments on the Christmas tree. A woman named Anne, who I guess works for American Airlines in San Diego, came over and she and I almost duked it out when she started talking about how great Tom Brady was, althought she could not remember his name. What a shock. By this time, I was half asleep anyway, so I just said a subtle good night and headed into bed.
Day 6, my final full day, Christmas Eve Eve. It was about one place all day long and that was the San Diego Zoo inside Balboa Park. With my height issues, I still wasn't totally comfortable taking the Sky tram to the other side of the park, let alone paying $4 to board it! But we did it anyway and headed straigtht to the Happy Feet 4D theater. polar bears pandas elephants orangutans zebras sloth bear tigers giraffe rhino Lunch turned into an absurd adventure. stuffed polar bear and a mouse pad with maybe 11 animals on it.
We left around 3:30 pm and had about 4+ hours to kill before going to Croce's Jazz Bar in the Gaslamp district. We checked out Seaport Village for some window shopping and cupcakes. We drove up India Street, just north of downtown and west of Balboa Park That six or so block stretch is Little Italy. We somehow found a place to park and walked down the street looking for a place. I had read about this place that blended Brazilian steaks and an Italian steakhouse. I think they should just name the place Heaven’s Restaurant. A bit more than we wanted to spend, so we kept going. Eventually, we found a place and I can’t remember the name. We wound up having a few salads (my second spinach salad inside of a week). I liked that on the menu it advertised that the pizzas were made with bottled water and semolina flour. So we took the bait and split a very nice 12-inch pie, made with prosciutto, artichokes, tomatoes, and mushrooms.
From there, we spent 20 minutes driving around the jammed Gaslamp District searching in vain for a parking spot. I wound up swallowing the figurative shoe polish and paying $10 for a spot in a garage. So we walked about three blocks and arrived at Croce’s Restaurant & Jazz Bar around 7:45. We found two open seats at the bar and was very happy to hear Jim Croce music playing. The restaurant is rather smaller than I expected, but it does have some nice memorabilia. So I walked around for a few minutes and observed some of the rare photos of the late great singer-songwriter and his family.
Since Croce's menu is very fancy and expensive, I just ordered dessert and picked the apple tart with butter pecan ice cream and caramel corn. I had never seen a combo like this. It was an acquired taste, but it made sense. The saltiness and crunch of the corn complemented the sweetness of the ice cream and caramel quite nicely. For $8.00, I don’t think I would order it again though. I saw Jim's widow Ingrid very briefly before she disappeared for the night. Although she walked right by me, sadly, I didn't get to meet her.
A blues band played that evening, a four-piece band and a vocalist. It was pretty cool, and I have to point one thing out and it’s awkward. The vocalist was a black woman, around maybe 60. Her chest was so largely out of proportion to her the rest of her body, that I couldn’t even bear to look at her. We were both pretty worn out, so we called it a night pretty early. There was one pleasant surprise though. When we got our bill, we did not see the $10 per person for the cover charge. So we took off for Encenitas around 9:15; we had been out for maybe 13 hours by that point.
And so then there was Christmas Eve. Day 7. It was about the Jets versus the Giants and what a freaking disaster. We left early in the morning following another unsuccessful attempt to use the internet. I got to the Gaslamp District around 9:20 in the morning. There were a few people walking around town, but it was closer to empty. Mom and Jane went off to Coronado for sightseeing and some shopping. After taking a few pictures of Croce’s and some other sights, I walked south on 5th Avenue to Henry’s. As I opened the door to enter, I couldn’t believe what I saw. There were Jets banners hanging from the ceiling, inflatable Jets dolls, and about 30 Jets fans already there. I think we wound up getting to around 100 people by game time. They even had a special menu for Jets fans. Went with a $5.00 breakfast sandwich and I have to say it felt very strange eating breakfast with football about to start.
I met a few interesting people. Rob, the organizer of the group, is a loud fun-loving Hispanic guy and was very welcoming. A little overly optimistic, but that’s ok. Sergio is the photographer and he looks just like Rex Ryan and he actually dresses like Rex for the games. I’m not saying that’s a good look to be sharing, but that’s the way it is. Todd was the first guy I talked to, pretty big guy, very nice. Colin was a little younger than me, I sat at his table most of the day. Brittney and Melissa are both gorgeous, they came across as legit So Cal socialites and they sat at our table too. Britt actually took off during the second quarter and went shopping, never to be seen again. I think I annoyed Melissa since I stated my dislike for mayonnaise. Well, whatever, it wasn’t the first time. I must say I found Michelle very attractive. She lives in Oceanside and is a Jets fan despite living in California her whole life.
The less said about the game, the better. Just one of the worst regular season losses I have ever seen. The Jets absolutely gave that game away. And to see the cocky Giants fans bragging on the internet…it was just disgusting.
So when it was time to leave, I turned on my Ipod and played some classic Benigno rants. I just walked a few blocks west to Nordstrom’s in a complete stupor. I may have let out a couple of loud groans and yells in the middle of downtown San Diego. I came across three Jets fans I saw at the bar, including a girl named Jen and we hugged. It took Mom and Jane about 15 minutes to find the car. When we stopped at some café for lunch, I passed. They had French Onion soup and split some kind of funky salad with chicken, apples, and some other California-esque ingredients. I did wind up eating some leftover French bread, but whatever.
We got back around 5:00 and I drank a couple of Stellas, I think I had five in three days. And so it was time to go. Around 5:20, we took off north up I-5 for LAX. The 2-hour commute went pretty smooth, we just hit a touch of traffic in Orange County. We got in really early, around maybe 7:00 for an 11:20 flight. With the extra time, we split some chicken nachos at On the Border. And when you run out of beverage for 10 minutes at a Mexican joint, that’s a problem with the staff. Getting the flight turned out to be a very close call, we really didn’t know if we’d make it. If we missed, we would have to wait over six hours for the next one. Thankfully, we got the last two seats on the plane. Since I and everyone else with any common sense was sleeping, the 30 straight minutes of turbulence was not a welcome part of the trip. But we got through it, and landed around 5:15 in Chicago on Christmas morning.
We got home around 7:15 and I unpacked while Mom napped. We managed our way up to Willow Creek Church for the Hybels family service at 10 pm and I’m glad we did because it would have been a shame to not at attend church during all of Christmas weekend. But we went, really enjoyed the service, arrived home for the second time at noon, and collapsed.
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