Road Trip Day 9: San Diego, CA

We left Vegas...as good as time as it was, it was time to move on. We headed towards San Diego via I-15. There was a lot more traffic today and as many times as I have bashed Indiana drivers as a chicagoland driver, I'm ready to go after California drivers. Holy crap they are horrible! When it says "slow traffic keep right", they stay left. They all pass from the right, try to mush themselves into spots where there is NO ROOM for them to merge, all because they think that they are going to get through the traffic if they pass two cars. UGH! After having a near death experience and almost putting my car in the ditch because these people have no sense of driving skills or how to properly use their breaks, I cruised in the right lane, letting them pass at will, and taking my time. The best part was that when we got to agriculture control, they were all stuck (dead stop) in the left lane, while those of us in the right lane sailed on by and had multiple lanes to go through the check in. It was awesome.

So, now that I have that out of the way, we made the rest of the drive to San Diego without incident and checked into our hotel near Mission Beach called The Pearl. It's a quaint, boutique hotel that only has 23 rooms. It's great though because there is a small pool in the courtyard that is surrounded by the rooms, and a bar/restaurant area opens up to the pool, so there are nightly events, great drink specials, and good food. We threw our bags in our room, said hello to Barnaby (a beta fish lives in every room, and he's ours), and headed down for happy hour. The weather is gorgeous here and a welcome break from the heat that we've been in for the past 9 days. We chatted with a couple of the servers to get the lay of the land and then headed out to Ocean Beach.

Barnaby, our fishmate

I've never been to San Diego before, so this was a welcome surprise. People are very laid back and the city isn't hard to get around. Traffic is pretty minor, so you can get to most places in less than 15 minutes. Plus, did I mention the weather?!

Sunset at Ocean Beach

We headed to Pizza Port, located in the Ocean Beach area, grabbed a parking spot and went in. It wasn't what we were expecting, but not in a bad way. There are a bunch of long tables, you order your food, grab a seat where ever, and they call your name when your pizza is ready. Easy, simple, and a good way to meet new people. We were lucky enough to snag a couple seats at the small bar...so we sampled a bunch of beer, had an amazing pizza and some garlic bread...all for $20. AMAZING! Who knew you could eat in California for those prices. This place might actually be okay! Feeling full, but happy with our first successful stop, we walked a couple blocks to check out Ocean Beach as the sun was setting. There were lots of surfers and the breeze off the water was rather cool, but it was peaceful. Good way to start the trip in SoCal.

Sunset at Ocean Beach

Our next stop, since it was still pretty early, was Mission Brewery, which is located downtown near Petco Stadium, where the Padres play. There was a game, so getting around the streets with closures and whatnot was a bit of a hassle, but with literally no traffic, we found a parking spot and walked a couple blocks to the brewery. It's located in an old warehouse, so as you can imagine, cement floor, high ceiling, big open space. It was great! They had a ridiculously huge bar area, some high-top tables, you could see all of their brewing equipment, and there were games for entertainment. The bartenders were super nice and helpful and the beer was great. Some of the beers even kicked our ass on the hop factor, yikes! We just split a sampler, got some ideas for the next day, and bid adieu to our new friends.

The Pearl, our boutique hotel

It was a successful night, and we'd had a long day with the drive and all, so we headed back to the hotel, driving along the bay, which was really pretty at night. Our hotel was party central when we got back, living up to it's nightspot label, but we were so tired that the thumping music and screaming people couldn't keep us up! Good night San Diego...until tomorrow!

Road Trip Day 8: Las Vegas, NV

Today, we got up bright and early (well maybe not bright, it actually looked like it might rain at Zion) to make our drive to Las Vegas. We hadn’t showered in almost 5 days, so we were excited to get on the road and have hot water and soap!

We took route 9 to I-15, which leads straight to Vegas in a short period of time. I have to say, that of all the roads that I have driven (and that’s been many), the section of I-15 that goes through the Virgin River Gorge is probably the best driving scenery I’ve ever witnessed. High canyon walls, colored rock, winding roads, and hills…it was awesome! It only lasted for about 11 of the 29 miles that you are in Arizona at that point, but it’s worth checking out if you like scenic drives.

Blu Pool at Bally's

With the time change, we rolled into Vegas a little before 9:00am. We went straight to Bally’s checked-in and got a room. The lady probably looked at us and realized how bad we needed to shower, so there was no hesitation in giving us a room right away! We headed upstairs and proceeded to take the longest showers of our lives. We had dirt in places that you definitely shouldn’t and our hair…should I really mention that it could stay in ponytail form on it’s own, with no hair tie? Gross…but the showers were amazing and it was time to head to the pool. Yay! Fun in the sun and no timetable to keep.

The “Blu Pool” at Bally’s was cool. Not huge, but enough space to spread out, good service, and not too many kids. It was easy to find chairs in the sun and we plopped ourselves next to a smaller pool so that we could jump in easily when necessary. And it was necessary within 30 minutes. That sun was hot! Overall, we hung out for about 4 hours, had a couple drinks, and headed in to shower again and get ready to go out for the night.

Jen at Sin City Brewing

Me at Sin City Brewing

We wanted to check out Sin City Brewing, which was at the Flamingo. There are a couple of locations, but this was the closest. We also wanted to grab a snack since we had only shared a sandwich for lunch. We met some new friends at the bar, but there was no food…and when it came time to leave because we had bought tickets for a show, we were a little hungry…oh well.

We headed to Paris to see a comedy show with Aisha Tyler. It was awesome! Her opener was a guy named Ari who has performed on Logo before. (Sorry I can’t remember his last name!) The show was great and so were the buckets of beer that we went through…but by then end, we were starving, and a little beyond tipsy. But we’re in Vegas right?!

At Paris with Aisha Tyler and Ari

Bally's bc I'm a dork

We then headed to Harrah’s where there is a restaurant Jen wanted to check out called KGB (Kerry’s Great Burgers). We got there and there weren’t too many people in the restaurant, but there was a wait. This was a little annoying. We finally get seated and service was slow. It was hard to get a refill on your water (yes, we changed our drinks at that point), and you couldn’t ever find a server when you wanted one. The food was solid. We had mac n’ cheese sticks and then each ordered a burger. The burger was great, big and juicy, lots of toppings, but the service sucked and people who came in after us were being served way ahead of us. For a good burger, yes…for everything else with the service from the hostess to the servers, absolutely NOT!

My new friend Tonto

The strip, kind of...after a few drinks?

At this point, we were both a little irritated, full, but irritated, so we headed back to the hotel and called it a night. Probably good at this point because we are heading to San Diego tomorrow!! Viva Las Vegas!