Category: En route

450 miles to Poke’

Made our road trip from Orange County to San Francisco Tuesday. I was in charge of getting in and out of cities, and P handled driving the long wastelands between the north and south. At about the 100 mile mark, we stopped at Carl’s Jr. – I got the Buffalo Chicken sandwich, she got the $6 Angus Burger. Super bloat – they were huge! Good thing that we stopped – right afterwards was the smoke from the Day forest fire that was smoking since Labor Day. After about 100 more miles, we were able to get out of it. 400 miles later, made it to Costco to refuel (2.55 is a lot cheaper than 2.99 at the one place we passed on I-5). We’re staying at the Sheraton Fishermans Wharf – huge place, comfy king sized bed, wi-fi. Wished that they had a fridge, but otherwise it is a very comfortable place in a fantastic location. But $39 a day for parking – jeezus!

Pacific Catch for dinner – we had Poke bowl and it was so awesome!!! Just think the best chirashi bowl, and multiply by 10. Absolutely recommended. Wandered around North Beach and got pasteries from Maria’s Bakery, then crashed watching a recording of Desparate Housewives.

Blocks

Quick entry today. Sunday went to services at the Mission Basilica of San Juan Capistrano, which is a 20 year old recreation of the original Spanish mission church that was built at a nearby site and collapsed in an earthquake. A basilica is sort of half way between a regular church and a cathedral in size and prominance. Awesome artwork, and the place was packed.

LegoLand! Every childhood playtime fantasy can be relived! It’s the one amusement park where the parents can have just as much fun as the kids. I think I had more fun here than at Disneyworld. P bumped into an old co-worker from when she worked for the City. Visited the Carlsbad Premium Outlets in search of a replacement safety blanket for the baby, but no luck – the discriminating tastes of the baby easily discerned the difference between the real thing and fakes. Dinner at Ruby’s, a 50’s diner recreation that had American Kobe beef on the menu. Go figure.

On the road to San Francisco, hopefully getting there by the end of the day today.

Much about nothing

Saturday turned out to be a lazy day; we didn’t get up until noon, and the baby was under the weather (too much partying at the luau last night) so we hung out, washed the SUV, read a gazillion books to the baby (at least he’s loving reading) and checked out the train station (and figured out that it wasn’t worth taking the train). I was just fine with it – it was a day to decompress; I think there was some disappointment about not going to Legoland today.

Dinner was at the Beach House. P had the halibut, I had the surf and turf. Not bad.

We’ll try to be more adventurous tomorrow.