Weekly Recap: San Diego/Tijuana (CA)

We took advantage of the campground's later checkout time to get work done before driving down to our next campsite in San Diego. We got there and discovered that our spot was a back-in directly across from the dog park, which has a portion of the fence sticking out almost to the road. This made backing in very difficult as we had no room to swing the truck front around. After several attempts we got in the spot, though quite crooked. As we were starting to set up, we realized that the side-to-side was very uneven. This turned out to be due to a tree root raising one side of the spot and not the other. We gave up and got them to move us to another spot. It was annoying to immediately re-hitch and move, but this one went much smoother and we were set up in our new spot pretty quickly. We never got a neighbor at this spot either, giving us even more room. Our friend's flight was delayed by a couple of hours, so we killed some time by doing errands and using the campground's hot tub before heading to the airport. We picked them up and brought them back in time to have a quick catch-up and snack before bed. It was a very welcome change to have friends to talk to!

Bryn woke up early our first day here to get in another row day, this time with San Diego Rowing Club. Once she returned, the 4 of us all headed to the edge of Gaslamp for brunch. We tried to do a Breakfast Republic location but the wait was so long we pivoted to the nearby Fig Tree Cafe. We ate outdoors and enjoyed the warm weather before walking over to the water and the USS Midway Museum.

Friends!

The USS Midway Museum is the actual USS Midway aircraft carrier, decommissioned and repurposed as a floating museum. The ship is named after the Battle of Midway, though it did not participate (it actually missed World War 2 entirely, commissioning 8 days after the war ended). They have some exhibits detailing the battle that the ship is named after.

USS Midway

The hanger bay is the center of the museum, containing the entrance, exit, cafes, gift shop, Battle of Midway theater, and interactive exhibits (for instance the flight simulator). In addition to this large section, the flight deck atop the ship is loaded with examples of all the different types of aircraft that the Midway carried during its 50 years of service. You can also access tours of the bridge and control tower from the flight deck, though we missed the last tours for these sections by the time we made it up there. The bulk of our time here was spent wandering through the loops that you can do through the ship itself.  These one-way exhibits take you through all parts of the ship's interior, offering chances to see briefing rooms, mess halls, kitchens, lounges, crew quarters, storage rooms, machine shops, the barbershop, the dentist's office, sickbay, the engine room, the laundry, the anchor room, the brig, and so on. Each section has exhibit boards explaining them, and there's also a free audio tour available. We spent about 4 hours wandering through the ship and could have spent even longer if we had more time. It's a great museum that we strongly recommend!

After the Midway we walked over to the nearby Stone Brewing taproom. We sampled most of their beers via flights, and then continued our walk to the Gaslamp district. We hopped around a few places for drinks, dinner at Havana 1920, and then a nightcap. We finished at Prohibition, a speakeasy style bar before catching an Uber back to the campground.

The next morning we split up. The boys went golfing at Pine Glen, a nearby executive course. They got paired with a local duo for the round and had a great time, eventually joining them for a post-round lunch. The course was a fun layout and nestled into a beautiful valley. Meanwhile the girls had a pool/hot tub day. Despite it only being in the mid-60s, the strong sun, heated pool, and fruity Topo Chicos made for a perfect experience. 

Pine Glen at Singing Hills

We met back up to go the Helix Brewery and the subbrewery there named Sourworx. Bryn had found this location on her own, but the golf guys also independently recommended it. After a few rounds of flights and shuffleboard, we moved on to Second Chance. This is a combination coffee shop and brewery. Bryn ended up chatting with the bartender here for half an hour (and later ran into him again at Lost Abbey!). We finished the night by heading to Ballast Point for dinner and more beer sampling.

The next day was a day trip into Mexico. We started by driving a ways south of Tijuana to a coastside restaurant named Encanto. It has a patio with amazing views (but occasional ocean splash) and the food was great as well. We tried to walk along the coast after lunch, but the path has been recently closed off to public access.

Encanto's patio

We headed back north into Tijuana and checked out the ocean beaches and boardwalk. We saw so many dogs while grabbing a drink at a beachside bar. As dusk approached we headed back to the US and got stuck in a 90 minute line for the border crossing. The entire backup was swarmed by random merchants walking up and down the line of cars trying to sell things. The variety was pretty astounding, ranging from foods/drinks to cigarettes to souvenir trinkets to blankets to large crucifixes and even one wooden chair. Once we finally made it through the customs line we headed back to the campground to have takeout and drinks in the hot tub. We lost track of time and eventually got kicked out well past its nighttime closure.

Our final day with our friends was spent at the San Diego Zoo. It is a huge zoo with so many things to see. The enclosures for the animals are also really nicely sized so they have plenty of enrichment for their daily lives. We spent the whole day there, just managing to squeeze in the last section of the zoo as they were closing.

Giraffes!

We brought our friends to the airport to catch their flight, but stopping on the way so they could try In-N-Out. They enjoyed it more than we have! After dropping them off at the airport, we headed north of the city to meet two of Bryn's cousins for dinner. 

After the cousin dinner, Bryn continued north in a rental car for a short work trip back in LA. Shawn spent the remaining time in San Diego just working in the camper.

When Bryn returned from her trip, Shawn met her in Gaslamp for a final night out in San Diego before leaving California. Bryn had spent the afternoon working at Half Door, and then we both walked over to Lost Abbey. It's a converted church building and has excellent beers. Sadly we turned out to be 4 days early for the annual release of Duck Duck Gose. So close! We walked over to Amplified Aleworks for dinner and our last sips of beer in California.

Wings and rings #2

The wings and rings frenzy died off a bit as we got further from upstate New York, but it did not die completely. None of the places in this batch managed to best Pearl Street Brewery from Buffalo.

Buffalo Wild Wings, Missoula, MT

Atmosphere: This is a corporate chain of sports bars, and it feels like it. The décor is very stainless steel. It's great if you want to watch an out of market game since they have so many TVs, but nothing unique or special. The bar seating itself has a ton of outlets/USBs available so it is a solid spot to charge your phone/laptop.

Wings: I got the original buffalo sauce, though they have a huge number of options for sauces (including multiple levels of buffalo). The meat was well cooked, but the outside lacks a bit of crisp. The wings themselves a decent size and the buffalo sauce is a good balance between hot sauce and buttery. The wings were somewhat lightly sauced, but served on a bed of sauce so you could add more if you wanted. They are served with  both ranch and Bleu cheese.

4/5

Rings: These are beer battered. They were well crisped, with soft onion.  Served with both ranch and a southwestern ranch. Overall a really good ring, just needs a little bit more salt.

4.5/5

Total: 8.5/10 This is probably the standard that everyone should be shooting for as a minimum. A good restaurant should be able to beat this and if you can't match them get out of the business.

Green Pig, Salt Lake City, UT

Atmosphere: The Green Pig is a pub-style restaurant. It has wooden finishings plus a good number of TVs for sports. Weirdly they were showing a BU-BC hockey game when we got there, though I couldn't get the Boston NHL game on after it ended.

Wings: The sauce is a the perfect balance of heat, flavor, and butteriness. It was a standout sauce. Wings were  well cooked in terms of meat, but had a very soft outside. Could have used more frying to get a better crunch.

4/5

Rings: They did not have onion rings, so I got their French fries. These were well fried with great favor. It was a big portion and served with a thousand island sauce.

3/5 (not rings!)

Total: 7/10

Brewer's Cabinet, Reno, NV

Atmosphere:  This is a restaurant connected to a taproom/brewery, with a very wooden and pub feel. Every table had outlets, which is a nice bonus. The connection to the brewery gives it some good beer and flights available.

Wings:  The order was quite small for the price. The sauce is pretty dry, and didn't really come across as buffalo. It was a very tasty spicy flavoring on its own, but it's just got a bit more smoke than buttery flavor.  The meat is well cooked, but the skin isn't crispy. 2.5/5

Rings: The order for the rings was very large. They are very crispy and very thick beer battered rings. The onion is perfectly cooked inside. They come with a blue cheese dipping sauce. The breading itself could use a bit more flavor, but overall very good. 4/5

Total: 6.5/10.  I would definitely come back for the atmosphere/beer, but probably wouldn't order the buffalo wings again (maybe a different flavor, though).  The rest of the menu looked quite good, and I might get the onion rings to go with whatever I ordered.

AABar, Eureka, Ca

Atmosphere: This is a very small  single room bar, with a only a narrow U-shaped seating area around the central bar. It's got a wooden dive bar vibe, but also carries quite a few steak cuts.

Wings: These were breaded wings, with a slightly soft exterior but well cooked meat. The sauce had good spice/butter balance.  3.5/5

Rings: These were tasty beer battered rings. They came out with a crispy batter and soft onion. They could use a bit more salt, but very close to perfect. 4.5/5

Total: 8/10

Epic Wings, El Cajon, CA

Atmosphere: Epic Wings is a Southern CA chain with about 30 locations. This location had 8 bar seats, 4 draft lines, and a ton of TVs. It is basically a fast-casual sports bar.

Wings: The buffalo sauce was perfect (I got hot out of medium, hot, very hot), balancing the spicy with  buttery. The meat was tender, but skin was just a bit under crisped. I also tried the garlic parmesan wings, which had great flavor and had that bit of extra crisp that was missing from the buffalo. They come served with 2 bread sticks per 6 wings. The breadsticks were decent, but a very weird side for wings.

4.5/5

Rings: They had none, so I got fries instead. It was moderately thick cut. They cam in a very large portion with good flavor, but were kind of soft. They could have used a little bit longer in the frier.  

2.5/5 (not rings!)

Total: 7/10

Red Tail Bar and Grill, El Cajon, CA

Atmosphere: This is a golf clubhouse bar/grill with a pub style bar area and stone patio seating outdoors. It's in a valley between some very vibrant and rocky hills with gorgeous scenery. It's not strictly part of the restaurant atmosphere, but the 18 hole par 3 course we played here beforehand was really fun.

Wings: The sauce had great flavor with solid balance, but the wings has very little sauce on them. These were well cooked with the crispy outside that is so often lacking. They were served with ranch. 4/5

Rings: The onion rings were panko breaded and thick cut. The portion size was perfect for one person and the breading flavor was good, but you couldn't really taste the onion. 4/5

Total: 8/10

Weekly Recap: San Bernardino/Los Angeles (CA)

We arrived at our campsite near San Bernadino late Friday afternoon. We took it easy that night, setting up camp and doing errands to prepare for our upcoming week. The following morning we headed into LA for a tourist day. We stopped at Planet Fitness on our way in and then grabbed lunch at a small South American fusion grill before heading to the La Brea Tar Pits.

The grounds have several tar pits that are free to the public as well as couple of active excavation sites. We checked these out before heading into the museum. They have a good collection of fossils discovered in the tar, and Bryn loved the design of the building itself.

Mammoth bones again!

From the museum we headed over to the Venice Beach area, and took strolls along the canals, the ocean, and past Muscle Beach and the shops. It was a nice area, but when we peaked at the price of a medium sized condo that had an open house it was $7 million.

The Pacific

Grand Canal, Venice

Next we headed over to Firestone Walker Brewing Company, where we tried several beers and picked up a boxful of more beer to send to our beer aficionado friend. When finished with our flights we went to a nearby restaurant (Michi) for some great sushi/ramen. After dinner we drove to Torrance to try out Monkish Brewing Company, which Bryn loved. 

The Monkish haul

After a few samples there, we tried to visit the nearby speakeasy named Blind Rabbit, but they were closing 2 hours early because "they had been too busy all day". The vibe and name were both great, so it was a bit of a disappointment that we didn't get to really check it out before returning to the campground. We did discover that despite being so car dependent and spread out, LA has pretty terrible parking.

Our own (half) Blind Rabbit

Sunday we headed in the opposite direction to Joshua Tree National Park, which contains two distinct deserts. We started off by doing a hike on the Lost Palms Oasis Trail near the southern end of the park. It was a nice hike through the desert terrain, with views of several different terrain types. However, we were a bit disappointed by the oasis that makes the end of the trail; it was kind of cool for the palm trees to suddenly pop back up along the canyon walls but was underwhelming compared to even the group of palm trees near the trailhead. We ate lunch overlooking the oasis and got back to the truck with plenty of time to explore more of the park.

Lost  Palms Oasis Trail

One of the stops along our long scenic drive through the length of the park was at the Cholla Cactus Garden. This is, unsurprisingly, filled with cholla cacti. Bryn tried to carefully pick up part of one that had broken off and fallen onto the ground. It quickly attached itself to her hand with its barbed needles and took quite a bit of force to tear free. There are still visible pieces of cactus in her thumb and index finger two weeks later.

The Cholla Cactus Garden

The Cholla Cactus in Bryn's Fingers (as she says "Oh wow. That is super painful and very much stuck in there.")

In the northern half of the park we entered the territory of the Joshua trees that give the park its name. The trees are apparently named that because they reminded some early Mormon travelers of Joshua raising his hands to the heavens in prayer. We finished with a near dusk visit to Keys View, a lookout point that was suffering from a bit too much haze during our visit for a good view.

A Joshua tree

Admiring the desert view

The remainder of our stay in the area was weekdays. Shawn had a work deadline and a coworker out sick, so he mostly just worked a ton from the camper. On Tuesday, Bryn had the opportunity to join Newport Aquatics Center for a master's practice. It was the first time back out on the water since Minneapolis and she was put in a quad for the first time ever! How exciting. It was a gorgeous morning row in Newport Bay with a beach launch, which Bryn hadn't done since she last rowed in California in 2011. You could tell she was well adjusted to the cooler morning temp as she was in a uni rather than bundled up. 

After practice, she headed to Breakfast Republic, a local recommendation with a fantastic variety of options for brunch. They had wifi and outlets, too. 

Around lunchtime, Bryn switched to the Anaheim Packing District to try out the food court. It was underwhelming. There are no outlets to be found! But there is wifi so if you plan ahead and are all charged up, it would work for a bit. After lunch, she headed to Monkish once more. A few more hours of work there and it was time to head home. Which took over 2 hours in LA traffic. 

On Friday we left to travel south to El Cajon for our next week's stay near San Diego. However, Bryn did have to come back to LA during that week for a short work trip. It was an uneventful stay in Tustin, with the exception of The Habit discovery. One of Bryn's clients asked if we'd been to In n Out yet, and when she expressed how much we don't like it they pointed her towards The Habit. 

Guys. THE HABIT. It's such a gem. The fries are well cooked and seasoned, the burger bun is nicely toasted, the burger toppings are delicious, and the shake is smooth and rich. 10/10 go there instead of In n Out.

Weekly Recap: Bakersfield (CA)

After we settled in Sunday night, we sat down to plan out our week and discovered the roads into Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks were closed due to flooding and road debris. Only one giant sequoia in Kings Canyon was accessible and the website warned of extremely long lines to get into the park to view it. So, we pivoted. Our week in Bakersfield was one of work and healthy habits. 
Our campground for the week was situated in an old orange grove with active trees. We absolutely loved it! The oranges are fresh and delicious.

ALL of the oranges

We took advantage of being situated for a whole week in nice weather to air out and clean the camper since the never-ending rain dragged in a lot of moisture and mud. We put baking soda on the carpets and thoroughly vacuumed. Our entryway rug got hosed down then a good scrubbing with some dish soap since we could finally leave it outside overnight to dry. 

Our pretty campground in Bakersfield

We went to Planet Fitness twice and Bryn erged twice. We cooked most of our meals and focused on fresh ingredients (and oranges!) all week. The campground facilities were really nice. They even had a small fitness room! We did laundry twice to start our week in LA extra fresh and clean.

Friday morning we picked extra oranges and cleaned out the camper. Percy's space got a total refresh as we threw out his cat scratchers, chewed sticks, etc., and sprinkled baking soda over the carpet. We let it sit during our drive to San Bernadino and vacuumed it up when we set up camp later. Once settled, Shawn ran on the trail near our new campground. Later, we popped out to Target for some groceries and a new cat scratcher for Percy. We returned an Amazon order and decided to go to an asian buffet for dinner since we were both hungry. 

We felt very good about our healthy and productive week, and we were excited to explore LA and Joshua Tree over the weekend.