Road Trip Day 10: San Diego, CA

View from the pier at breakfast

Today was our day to explore the city a little bit and get into the beer scene. We started off with breakfast at Mitch' Seafood on the pier, which was great because the sun was warm with a cool breeze, we could eat outside and watch the sea lion (or harbor seal?) swim around amongst the boats, and see the birds hunt for their breakfast. It was peaceful and a great way to start the day.

From there, we walked back to the hotel where our car was and headed to the north side of the city. We had a few stops planned, but figured that we would ask around as we went. Jen was excited because we were driving by Miramar again, which is pretty cool. Sometimes you can see the pilots practicing and the sound of the jets as they pass is crazy!

We started at Ballast Point Brewery. They had way more on tap than we were expecting, but lots of great beers. It was a simple tap room, with a good size bar and servers who knew their beer. They also had brewery tours for the "beer bus" people. We then went to AleSmith, which is a newer brewery. They had a smaller taproom, but it had a more sophisticated feel. We tried a few beers there, said hello to the beautiful huskies that were enjoying the afternoon with their owners and moved on.

Rough Draft Brewery

Inside Rough Draft Brewery

The next stop was Rough Draft. This place was a little tricky to find because it's located in a office building/warehouse type of area (as many of the breweries here are), and only has a small storefront. Inside however, it's fairly large. They have only been open for a few months, but seem to be doing well and are looking forward to bottling and distributing soon. The beer was solid and the place started to pick-up as we were leaving. We then headed to Hess Brewing, which was tiny and literally had a garage door as a door. It was like a storage space that they opened up each day and served beer from. There were a lot of people there and like many of the breweries, they had a food truck outside for people to snack from. The brewer was the server and they only had 5 beers, but it looks like they have a dream and they are going for it full force. Great place to check out.

Hess Brewery

Green Flash Brewery

Next stop was Green Flashing Brewing, which is a larger brewery that distributes across the country. They just moved into a new, large warehouse space, where you can see their entire production line while drinking your beer. Like Ballast Point, they had too many on tap to try them all, but we did what we could:) Great place and more friendly people.

The last stop was Wet n' Reckless Brewing, another brand new, brewer run place. It had the same style atmosphere as Hess, but a few more beers to try. There were a lot of beer fanatics there checking this place out...and it was worth the stop! We also met some people who are going to the Stone Sour Beer Fest, which is the reason we drove all the way down to San Diego. So we chatted a few people up and then decided to head back to the hotel and relax a little bit...we'd had A LOT of beer and needing something to eat.

San Diego at Sunset

On the way back, we decided to stop at In-n-Out Burger. Jen had been looking forward to this since before we even left, so this was the chance....Double-Double animal style with animal style fries and a drink. YUM! Makes you feel a little gross later...but good at the time! After refreshing and eating, we headed to the lounge at our hotel, grabbed a couple drinks, talked to some new people, and then took a walk down by the bay. It was a beautiful night and we needed to walk off some of the booze. Lots of people were out and about as well, waiting for the sun to set. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped back by Mitch's and grabbed some fish tacos, which were awesome! I'm not a huge fish/seafood person, but these were great. When in Rome...

All in all, a very productive day and I like San Diego even more now! Check it out sometime...great place.

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!