San Diego: The Vibes Were Just Right

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I took the opportunity to visit San Diego for the first time. What’s great about following WWE wherever they go — and in this case, John Cena’s second-to-last match — is opportunities like this. I never take for granted how privileged I am to be able to do such trips. The reputation on San Diego is that it’s a gorgeous place to visit because the temperature is almost always around that nice 65-70 degrees (at least when I went!), and I would add now, as teased by my title, the vibes were just right, too.

My hotel was situated in downtown San Diego — within the Gaslamp Quarter — and that was intentional to keep mostly everything I wanted to do within walking distance. So, I landed the day before Thanksgiving, and by the time I arrived and settled in at my hotel, it was happy hour time. I try to come somewhat prepared for these trips with a list of possible eateries, drinkeries, sights to see, historic museums to visit, and so on. Obviously, the first thing I wanted to do was take in a drink after a long day of travel, though.

This, then, was my first stop officially in San Diego:

The Altitude Sky Lounge is exactly what it sounds like: a lounge, or bar, atop the Marriott Hotel overlooking downtown San Diego, and for my purposes, better yet, Petco Park. The WWE Survivor Series: War Games event wasn’t until Saturday, but given it’s such a big show, they were already set up within the stadium testing the lighting and sound:

Admittedly, I wasn’t too impressed with the cocktails. I’ve come to prefer the mojito as my go-to cocktail these days, and the way mine was made just had too much plantage (not a word) going on! I don’t like to have a lot going up with the liquid in my straw, if you know what I mean. Nonetheless, the views were beautiful, and this stop led to unexpected night to come. A party of three (two women and a man, who I later learned were coworkers at the same place) happened to sit next to me. As soon as I heard them mention wrestling, I couldn’t resist asking if they were here for the show. Normally, I’m not someone who initiates socialization. I’ll be a social butterfly (depending on the topic, at least) if someone initiates first, but most times, I hang back unless I see an interesting opening, then I flutter on in there! The four of us ended up talking periodically throughout the next hour or so through food and more drinks, and the man of the group even bought me a drink. One of the girls made a joke that I looked like a Christmas tree, owing to my green shirt and red hair, ha. They took to calling me Cincinnati since I’m from Cincinnati. And for the record, they weren’t in for the show, they’re natives to San Diego and hopping bars is what they do on a Wednesday night (before Thanksgiving!) apparently.

The three of them got up to leave and then implored if I would continue on with them. Normally, I would have found a way to awkwardly nope out. I was beat after a day of travel and going through three different time zones. By my Eastern Time Zone, it would have been like 10 p.m., which is late for me. But I figured it would be fun to keep up the shenanigans and see what happens. So, I followed them to the next bar, Werewolf, which also happened to be a karaoke bar. As we were drinking and eating chips, I learned one of the girls (the one who called me a Christmas tree) put my name in to do karaoke. I’ve never done karaoke before, and I’ve often joked, even an ample amount of alcohol would not induce such an occurrence. But peer pressure for the win! When my name was called, surprising me, I stepped up and took the microphone from the guy running the karaoke. I don’t remember what the song was, only that it was a duet. The duet fact of it messed me up and I ended up not singing half the song. And I’m sure the half I did sing was atrocious. I sat back down and kept it moving. Then, the three people I was with put everyone’s names in and we did a group rendition of “You Belong to Me” by Taylor Swift. When the guy came to give me the microphone again, he said, “This is your chance for redemption.” The bastard (but he’s right). After that, I finally put my name in myself and sang “Yellow” by Coldplay. Awful choice by me, but for some reason it was the only song that popped into my head. If I had my wits about me, I would have sung a more karaoke-friendly song like “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, although that’s also a duet! After that experience, I followed them to the second thing of the evening I’d never previously done: a nightclub. Prior to that night, I’d never gone to a nightclub. While it’s debatable if I should have followed them to the karaoke bar, at least that was a fun experience. What’s not debatable is I should have ended the night after that. Not that anything bad happened at the nightclub! It’s just not my scene at all.

With that, my first evening in San Diego was complete and I had been up for (accounting for my time) nearly 24 hours, and I was also quite sloshed as the Brits, I think, say. I bring that up because it took me a while to rebound the next day, which worked out well enough since not much was going to be open (so I thought) on Thanksgiving. I eventually rallied and readied to get a move-on at around 1 p.m. I figured Thanksgiving was perfect for an excursion via Uber that would be open and free. That’s the La Jolla Cove, about 23 minutes or so from downtown San Diego. I’m so glad I did it! Once I arrived at La Jolla Cove, I did the Coast Walk Trail, where there are plentiful seals, sea lions, and seabirds quite literally within swimming distance. Look how beautiful:

The seals (sea lions? I really don’t know the difference) weren’t shy about making their voices heard!

One of my favorite parts of the walk was what’s known as the Children’s Pool, which is often closed to humans so the seals and such can have free (and safe) roam of the beach. It’s also famous for being enclosed naturally by a seawall. You can walk along the seawall! That’s where I took this video of one of my favorite sounds, the tide coming in:

After enjoying the walk and the gorgeous Thanksgiving day — there were also a lot of people around, not at all deterred by the holiday or the impetus to stay inside and eat turkey — I decided to take my Uber driver’s tip and check out Sunny Jim’s Sea Cave. I hopped over to the end of the line just in time to hear one of the workers say they’ll make sure everyone gets in before they closed at 3 p.m. (it was a little after 2 p.m. at that point). I was grateful to make it in in time! It’s a rather unique set-up, as the Sunny Jim’s Sea Cave has the store itself built over top of the underwater cave, so you walk into the gift shop and head down the stairs, take a left turn, and suddenly, you’re walking down these cave steps:

I believe that’s about 145 steps down, and when you come around to the left, you see the cave opening into the water:

This was well-worth the $13 I paid, even though it obviously only took a short amount of time to enjoy and the 145 steps coming back up were brutal. An underwater cave! I mean, come on! After that side quest, it was time to finally partake in some actual San Diego cuisine, or at least one of the nearby establishments I had found in my prior research, Duke’s La Jolla, a Hawaiian restaurant, which was also notable for being open on Thanksgiving (they had specialty meal and everything). What was spectacular about La Jolla’s — in addition to the best salmon I’ve ever had, hands down — was they had ledge seating with a spectacular view. What’s fun about traveling solo is that you can walk into a place like Duke’s La Jolla, which was slamming on Thanksgiving, and easily find seating at the bar and/or this specialty seating along the ledge of the second-story rooftop with this view:

Interestingly, I sat next to a woman named Mia. Now, contrary to the previous night where I initiated the discourse, I was not going to initiate any sort of conversation that night. I would have been perfectly happy letting my phone charge while I aimlessly scrolled and ate some food. I wasn’t partaking in any alcohol, either. I needed a break from that as well. But she did initiate conversation, largely sharing with me her personal story and journey through medical issues. I would later reciprocate at least about what I do professionally when she inquired. It was a perfectly fine conversation, and it was great timing to be at the restaurant at that spot to see my first San Diego sunset. How fortunate was I to meet four friendly people in back-to-back nights my first two nights in the city? That’s why my title applies to more than just the weather. That said, at a certain point, my social battery is depleted and it’s time to nope out, which I did before venturing for any dessert. So ended my second night in San Diego. (I was not going to be staying up as late again!)

Since Friday was my last full day in San Diego without a wrestling commitment, I planned to use it to see two of the biggest items on my list that I’d already previously bought tickets to: the San Diego Zoo and the USS Midway. I promptly started with the zoo first when they opened at 9 a.m. As I mentioned in my review of Epic Universal, and as anyone probably knows at this point, it’s very helpful to get around these massive parks with the park’s designated app, which includes a map. I would have been completely lost without it (as it was, I was still finding myself turned around; I’m geographically challenged). I’m always mixed about zoos. On one hand, I come from Cincinnati, which is notable for having what is likely the top competitor to the San Diego Zoo in terms of being the “best zoo” in the United States. Additionally, I love seeing animals! It makes me happy and appreciative that we share a world with them. Finally, I’m cognizant of the work zoos do in all manner of conservation and education around animals. And yet, on the other hand, you cannot ignore that the essence of a zoo is captivity, and wild animals are not meant to be confined. It’s especially jarring to think of a cheetah, which is at the San Diego Zoo, as being confined. That creature needs to run! When I saw the tiger doing the telltale pacing back and forth only reinforced the dread of confinement. There are trade-offs in life, and the trade-off of all the good zoos do is still recognizing the fact of what life is like for these animals in captivity.

All that said, what a delight it was to meander into the reptile zone and see these tortoises moseying on about:

What’s interesting about trying to explore the zoo, particularly given I knew I wanted to leave time for the USS Midway, which closed at 5 p.m., is how apples to oranges it is compared to exploring Epic Universal or Universal Studios. With the latter, I often just went by the estimated wait in line and what was relatively close to me. However, with the zoo, well, there’s no wait time listed (although certainly exhibits and animals command a bigger audience, which also depends on if the animals are doing something), and I didn’t have much of a gameplan other than it would be neat to see an elephant, a bear, a lion, etc. What I’m saying is, I meandered a lot, but tried to hit as much as I could within about four hours.

Here’s a sampling of what I saw:

One of my favorite parts of the zoo non-animal related, and what perhaps sets it apart from the Cincinnati Zoo (including the bridge in the final picture in the above gallery!) was the Skyfari, which carries people from one of side of the park to the other and vice versa.

Two other notable aspects of the San Diego zoo. First, you do have to wait in line to get into Panda Ridge to see the pandas and red pandas, although, of course, that doesn’t mean you’ll actually see them. In the gallery above, you’ll see my picture of the one sleeping. Second, there was a long line to feed the giraffes. If I had more time, I would have loved to do that! It was so neat seeing them walk around:

Finally, shout-out to Sydney’s Grill at the San Diego Zoo, the vegetarian burger really hit my spot! I was rejuvenated, then I relotioned, and now was ready to hit up the USS Midway.

For those who don’t know (and I didn’t before this trip!), the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier, which is now a museum docked in the San Diego Harbor, was commissioned during WWII and was ready toward the end in 1945. It was used until 1992, decommissioned shortly after completion of the Persian Gulf War. As I toured the USS Midway, what kept hitting me as mind-blowing wasn’t just the fact of being aboard an aircraft carrier and its myriad aircraft on display or how wild it is that we not only figured out how to fly jets, but how to propel them from ships and land them on ships, but that, as was continually relayed to me, the Midway was a “city on the sea,” and like a traditional city, it requires a lot of the necessities of one: a Post Office, a barbershop, a dentist, laundry services, medical care, food, mechanics, a fire department, and so on. I couldn’t even begin to wrap my head of all the logistics required to maintain the flow of all of that while also, you know, dealing with that whole propelling and landing aircraft fact, carrying on rescue missions, and dealing with hostilities. It’s impressive to say the very least. I was utterly fascinated by every aspect of the “city on the sea” part of the self-guided tour. Speaking of which, much like the Auschwitz exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum I recently reviewed, in addition to being self-guided, the USS Midway Museum also the auditory element. As I approached each aircraft or exhibit, I could listen in on a telephone-like device to hear more backstory and firsthand accounts of how everything worked. I love this aspect of going through museums now! It’s more immersive, although it did result in one funny moment where I had stepped aside to continue listening to more about an exhibit and a teenage girl came around the corner and quite literally did a jump scare jump thinking I was another one of the ship’s mannequins. 😂

Here is a sampling of what I saw on my tour of the flight deck (the top part of the carrier where the jets and helicopters are actually taking off and landing):

I’m not ever going to be someone so enamored by all this as to join the military (I’m also 35 at this point), but I do quite enjoy military history, because war is important to understand, and anything history resonates with me. Again, trying to be judicious with my time, I moved on from the flight deck to what is known as Admiral’s County, a very spacious place indeed:

I can’t say I know as much about the first Persian Gulf War, or Operation Desert Storm, but I did enjoy taking a gander at the exhibit:

Let’s return to the “city on the sea” aspect. Fittingly enough, they displayed what a typical Thanksgiving meal situation would have been like on the USS Midway:

How do you begin to wrap your head around that?! More than two tons of turkey! More than a ton of corn on the cob! Ah! But that’s just Thanksgiving. They had to keep feeding these sailors every single day. Here is a deeper look at the “city on the sea”:

Finally, with minutes to spare, I ended my time on the USS Midway enjoying a California Honey Beer while looking at another California sunset:

The USS Midway, docked at the San Diego harbor, was only about a mile from my hotel in the Gaslamp Quarter. But before I walked back to my hotel, I had to get a closer look at “Embracing Peace”:

After more than 23,000 steps and seeing a lot, I was ready to crash in my hotel room for the night, buuuut, I had to rally and take advantage of another eatery opportunity. I decided to go with Meze Greek Fusion:

The food and cocktail situation (especially compared to Altitude Sky Lounge) was divine. I started with the Una Faccia, Unna Razza Espresso Martini (another cocktail I’m high on at the moment) and then tried the Greek Freak (whisky, with juniper, blackberry, ginger, and lime). Food-wise, I basically just had the equivalent of appetizers because I couldn’t resist: tzatziki (Greek yogurt, cucumber, garlic, dill, and mint) with pita and vegetables, and then later, this yummy potato slices concoction with feta cheese:

Admittedly, I was quite glad to have an evening to myself without having to socialize. After stuffing myself, then I went back to the hotel and crashed. The next morning, I was ready to ditch my hotel’s free breakfast and try a local breakfast eatery spot, which ended up being right next to Meze Greek Fusion, the Broken Yolk Cafe:

After getting a cafe latte with caramel syrup, I had to try what they seemed to be known for: their crunchy French toast. I’ll let the menu explain: three extra thick slices of bread rolled in crunchy frosted flakes, sprinkled with sliced almonds, raspberries, and powdered sugar. Topped with whipped cream and a raspberry drizzle. The part I left off was that it’s nearly 1,800 calories. I added to that scrambled eggs and vegan sausage links. Oof. Spoiler alert: This wasn’t just my last meal of that day, but for all intents and purposes, the last real food I’d eat for quite a while (more on that soon).

Obviously, I felt a great need to walk off those calories. Or try. I started walking toward Embarcadero Marina Park South, which is kind of in the direction of where the USS Midway is more or less, or at least, the same distance from my hotel and the Broken Yolk Cafe. On my way, I finally found the sign for Gaslamp Quarter!

To get to the park, I had to traverse the behemoth San Diego Convention Center. Seriously, if you visit San Diego, you sort of have to make it a point of seeing the Convention Center because it’s so impressive. And it has a lot of freaking steps, holy moly. I’m not ashamed to say I was huffing and puffing. That said, that step climb, the view, and then the walk around Embarcadero Marina Park South was well-worth it:

Now, because we were in Pacific Standard Time, the WWE Survivor Series: War Games show was starting at 4 p.m. (7 p.m. EST). By the time I ate and did this walk, I didn’t have that much time until I wanted to make sure I was in line to get into the Petco Park when it opened at 1:30 p.m. Since I knew it wouldn’t take up much time, next on my list then was more history, the Gaslamp Museum at the Davis-Horton House, which was celebrating its 175-year anniversary. That’s impressive for the Western United States! Also impressive given how often the house has been moved over the years.

What I love about visiting old homes like this, in addition to the difference in architecture, design, and decor from back then to now, is I like seeing how people lived differently. And it’s also, I think, a reminder of how great our privilege to be living when we do is. We live in unbelievable and unfathomable abundance today that even Americans of a few generations ago would be astounded by, much less the original owner of the house, William Heath Davis Jr., the “Father” of San Diego. Notably, Davis rented out the house to the military and two generals resided in the house that they know for certain: John Bankhead Magruder and Nathaniel Lyon. I actually forgot to get pictures of their portraits that are hanging in the hallway upon entry, but check this out:

Apparently, a game they play at the Museum is seeing who can accurately guess which one fought for the Union and which one fought for the Confederacy. The answer was obvious enough to me: Lyon fought for the Union and Magruder for the Confederacy. It comes down to the facial hair for me! Magruder, what a loser.

Interestingly, owing to the house’s history of treating patients and the nascent science of medicine at the time, I could have taken the haunted tour. I opted for the normal self-guided tour (no auditory aspect for this one!), however. Here is more of what I saw:

After visiting this lovely, historically rich house, that’s when my situation took a turn. I went back to my hotel room and figured I might as well try to get a quick catnap in before the big show. Again, this was the primary reason I came to San Diego. Yes, I booked extra days to take advantage of the holiday and the opportunity to see more of San Diego, but I came for the wrestling show! I wanted to be primed and ready. Also, again, the neat part about where my hotel was, it was within easy walking distance to Petco Park. After I woke up from my catnap, though, I felt terrible. My throat was scratchy and I felt far more fatigued than I did before attempting to nap. Was I catching allergies after going from 30 degree weather (it was snowing back in Cincinnati!) to 70 degree weather? That’s what I figured. I continued on with my day, but I knew how I felt that any thought of taking advantage of not having to drive that night to drink was gone. I did not feel like partaking in alcohol. Boo. Furthermore, I didn’t even feel like eating, and not because I was still stuffed from the French toast (although that did carry me through lunch!), but because I felt nauseous and well, sick.

I arrived at Petco Park around 1:20 p.m. There was already a line that stretched blocks and blocks around to the other side of the park. It took perhaps another 20 or so minutes for the line to pick up speed once they fully opened the gates and figured out how to get all these people in. Given my experience with other wrestling shows at stadiums, Petco Park did exceptionally well ushering everyone through the gates. What a freaking beautiful park!

Despite feeling crummy, I had a great time! It’s wrestling. Wrestling makes me happy no matter what. It’s like cereal in that way. Better yet, for the first few hours, I was virtually the only person in my row, which meant easy access to get out of my row, should I need to go to the bathroom or get a drink of water. Perhaps a few minutes into the show, a couple came and sat in the two seats on the end of the row next to me. Since nobody was near me to the right, I scooted down so we could all spread out. Weirdly, half-way through the show, which itself was only a four-match show, a gentleman arrived and asked to take one of the seats I had scooted down into. I obliged, obviously, and returned to my assigned seat. He told me a.) this wasn’t even his section, but he was confused; and b.) he hadn’t even watched the WWE product in a month. I was a bit perplexed. To be fair on the first point, the seating situation is confusing at Petco Park! It confused me initially how the odd and even seat sections were laid out. But you know, I found my right seat. There was confusion among other fans I saw later, too. On the second point, though, I don’t get not being aware of the product before paying to come to a show to watch the culmination of it all! And coming late at that. Weirder still, while the lady from the couple sitting next to me was perturbed by the latecomer not taking advantage of the empty row to his right to scoot down and let us spread out — I didn’t have a problem because the three of us were in our assigned seats after all — an entire family came to take up the rest of the seats for the final match of the show. They missed the first, I don’t know, two and a half hours of the show! How does that happen?! On the positive side of things, as a viewer at home, fans (and myself even) have been somewhat frustrated by how many ads WWE runs these days during what they call premium live events. However, as a fan in attendance of one of the PLEs? I loved it because it meant I had more than enough time to exit my seat, stand in line for the bathroom, and return with plenty of time to spare before the next match. In other words, I didn’t miss any of the entrances or matches from the show. That’s awesome!

As for the show itself, I enjoyed it. I liked being right behind the entrance stage where they were letting off the pyro:

It’s also difficult for me to convey just how incredible it was to be in that stadium with that many rabid fans during John Cena’s last PLE. He’s retiring in six days, and this was his last match in a stadium and on a platform like this. And I was getting to see and experience it. Phew.

After the show ended, it was not even 7:30 p.m. local time. If I was of full health, it would have been great to check out another eatery on my list, but I just was not having it, folks. I felt awful. I returned to my hotel room and almost immediately got into bed. I may have had a developing fever at that point. I was cold and had chills. I couldn’t get warm. I also knew I had to wake up at least 3 a.m. to be ready in time for my flight to board at 5:15 a.m. (I added even more buffer than usual because I still needed to pack!) It wasn’t going to be great sleep, no matter what, but what especially didn’t help — and who knows, maybe it was a literal fever dream — was an argument going on outside my window somewhere. The person doing most of the arguing was that loud. And it felt like it went on forever. It involved cocaine and not loving someone and not being there for them. I don’t know, but despite my fever and need for sleep, I actually became invested after a time in the outcome. I think it just petered out and everyone went their separate ways.

Speaking of fever dreams, Sunday flying back to Cincinnati felt like that. I just kept my head down and tried to get through it as best I could. Again, I virtually hadn’t eaten anything since my crunchy French toast at the Broken Yolk Cafe the morning before and I certainly hadn’t had coffee. My go-to sign of knowing when I’m sick: not desiring coffee (the morning of this writing, eight days later, I finally had coffee again). The flight from San Diego into Dallas to then board my connecting flight to Cincinnati wasn’t too shabby. I love having an aisle seat these days. The Dallas to Cincinnati situation, though, turned out agonizingly slow, but one has to reckon, for the positive. Initially, we had one gate, then it changed, and then it changed again. Each change required another ride on the sky train doohickie at DFW. Then, it was further delayed because the inbound plane had a sick passenger, I believe, which required clean-up service. Fair enough there! After finally boarding a bit later than expected, and this time I’m in the infamous middle seat, we sat on the tarmac for about 30 minutes before the captain notified us that there was a fuel leak on the ground and we needed to deplane. They didn’t feel safe starting the engines with said fuel leak (I wasn’t sure if the leak came from the plane or nearby). Again, fair enough! I’d rather not blow up! So, then we went to a new gate, another sky train doohickey ride, and more waiting for the new inbound plane to unload its passengers, clean, and allow us on. I do not begrudge any of this. In fact, the American Airlines person at the gate kept us well-informed regularly and was delightful. I was just sick, that’s all. All in all, I think by the time I got home, crossing three time zones again, it was about a 12-hour day of travel between Uber, two planes, a shuttle, and my drive home from the airport. As much as I love traveling and seeing new things and exploring, I’m also someone who delights in that feeling you experience coming back to your own home and your routine.

Overall, San Diego was lovely, even if stymied somewhat by the unexpected illness at the end (and perhaps slightly by alcohol overindulgence at the beginning). The people were friendly, the sights were gorgeous, the happenings were immersive, and the vibes were immaculate. I also have to say, for those who were gracious enough to read my prior traveling blog posts about Universal and Chicago, I finally learned my dang lesson! Two of my big takeaways from those trips that would become necessities for any future traveling were: a.) get a fanny pack to hold all your items instead of hoping you can cram everything into your pockets; no shame in the fanny pack game!; and b.) since I’m not getting a new iPhone yet, ensure you have a portable charger so your phone doesn’t die midway through a day of exploring. I ordered a fanny pack from Amazon, but then realized what I goober I was because I forgot to compare it to the stadium requirements for Petco Park. Then, I ordered another, compliant, see-through fanny pack from Amazon (I’ll just keep the other, better one for other uses). It was super useful for the San Diego Zoo and USS Midway! I needed my sunscreen and it held my portable charger. I didn’t end up bringing the fanny pack to Petco Park (I didn’t need sunscreen and I figured I wouldn’t run out of a charge in a few hours for the show), so, go figure on that one! The portable charger was a freaking game-changer and I’m gobsmacked I didn’t use it for Universal or Chicago. I own it! It was literally in the drawer of my TV stand. I cannot overstate how awesome it was to have my phone charging while I was still walking around the San Diego Zoo, exploring and taking photos and videos. The fanny pack and portable charger: two absolute musts!

That was quite the digression. Back to San Diego: I loved it. The San Diego Zoo is a must-see for anyone going to San Diego, as is the USS Midway. If you’re a history person like me, you’ll enjoy the Gaslamp Museum. I would definitely give La Jolla a chance, and I barely scratched the surface with all you can do there. Even people who aren’t into baseball need to find a reason to go to Petco Park. I haven’t been to that many MLB stadiums (now that I think about it, is that only my second one? 😂), but it’s certainly worth seeing. It’s also just wild how it’s right there in the downtown, even more than Cincinnati’s Reds stadium. I can’t wait to come back to San Diego and explore more of what I didn’t get a chance to see, do, eat, drink, and experience!