Pho Hiep Grill Chateau + Rita's

Ah, the glory that is Fall Break...we are so $%#@ lucky in San Diego where it's 75+ degrees and sunny and beautiful almost every day.

This is "Fall" for San Diego and no one is wearing heavy sweaters, coats or scarves...

TC's friend Sherlock was spending the day with us and I took the girls out to lunch...

Cape Town

Last Friday TC and went to check out a fairly new restaurant up in Mira Mesa. It's in this strip mall east of the Pyramid on Miramar Road.

Just look for the flags and remember that's it's across from a golf course. It's a bit of a random place to put a South African restaurant...

but of course we were willing to drive up to give this place a shot..

My mom's 75th

Earlier this evening we celebrated my mom's birthday...

She was so happy that all of us were there, including all seven grandkids...

Taking the L to Taraval: First Stop - Kingdom of Dumpling

Near our hotel was the L-Taraval Streetcar (which I erroneously referred as a 'trolley' in a previous post, please don't hurt me native SF readers). It costs $2 per adult, and .75 for those under 18. This is the very end of the line at 46th and Wawona Street.

Interestingly, the streetcar's money machine wasn't working that day. Correction, it worked for me, so I did pay $2 but Bert, TC and all the other customers wishing to pay cash got to ride for free.

El Indio & Return to Meshuggah Shack

If you've ever driven in Mission Hills, parallel to the 5, you may have seen El Indio's iconic signage with the now-politically incorrect Indian.

After all, that's what "El Indio" is..."The Indian".

El Indio has been around since 1940 and is considered one of San Diego's iconic eateries. I haven't been here in years and my lunch adventure with TC took us here only because I couldn't find parking where I wanted in Little Italy (our original destination) and then, like a doofus, got lost on the one way streets and ended up on the freeway, so...

Nearly there...

Slowly but surely we were making progress...

as we headed up the 101 to our eventual destination of good ole SF...

Return to Classic Rock Sandwich Shoppe & Subterranean Coffee Boutique

Remembering how much we liked this place last year, TC and I went back to North Park at this quirky sandwich shoppe with rock and roll memorabilia...

The same guy who made our sandwiches last year was there along with Cheryl Dagostaro, the very friendly and chattty owner...

Junz Terikyaki & BBQ + a price hike at Hammond's

Near the northeast corner of 30th and University is a place that we'd always walked by and well, kind of ignored.

It was an Islander style eatery and I figured, I could get that kind of stuff down south. My original plan that day was for TC and I to have lunch at Nate's Garden Grill with TC, but after arriving there, didn't realize it was closed on Mondays, so....

TC wanted something Asian and thought it would be cool to try this place out, the place we know as the restaurant with the advertised "completed meal" photo ($4.64 for the record)...

Noodles Noodles

On the corner of 16th and Palm in the nebulous area between San Diego and IB is this nondescript strip mall, B ay City Plaza...

It's not quite IB, but still in an unincorporated part of San Diego that some call Nestor or even Egger Highlands (according to the SD Reader article linked at the end)...

All I knew was that there was a new Thai place to try out...

Panama 66 & the SDMA Sculpture Garden

It was so nice being in Balboa Park once again. We used to love going here  back in college and would often take TC here when she was but a wee toddler...

We wanted to check out the new beer-centric eatery that took over the old Sculpture Garden Cafe ext to the SD Museum of Art...

Return to Bake Sale Cafe & Bakery

[Update - Bake Sale is closed as of Spring 2017]

After picking up TC in the morning, we had to drop her off at a marathon dance practice. We would be alone once again. It seemed so odd not to have her with us that morning.

One of these days, we'll have to visit the new Library. We love the look of it, especially the open dome...

We liked our first visit to Bake Sale so much that we had to return...

Farewell to the Wullenwebber Antenna Array (aka "that circle thing") on the Strand...

Known to many South Bay locals as "the elephant cage" (or in my case, the rather unpoetic "that circle thing"), the metal circular structure seen at the southern end of Silver Strand state beach is set to be torn down...

As a child, I was always fascinated by this structure which we would invariably pass during trips to the beach or to Coronado....

Tartine

Last night Bert and I had another impromptu date night. TC had an overnight function with her youth group, so we went out to dinner (post is forthcoming) nearby. For dessert however, we went up to Coronado Island...

The place was going to close within 45 minutes but there was still enough time to enjoy some coffee and desserts...

Grinds Vines and Automobilia Cafe plus BookSmart

Now we were heading north on the 101...

As mentioned in the previous post, it was pretty $#%@ hot...

so I thought a stop at the next town would be nice so we could get some cold drinks...

Mamy's Fruit Stand, Hollister

Although we hadn't hit Gilroy yet, we saw many trucks filled with Gilroy's biggest export...

The papery garlic skins would sometimes flutter upwards from the truck.

We weren't sure what the debris was until we got closer and we could really see what was in those truck beds...

More pitstops - Gorman & Kettleman City

While driving through the LA where we were met with craptastic traffic, I found amusement with this truck...

Heh heh, he said "nuts"....

We had quite a ways to go and unlike TC who was asleep for the majority of the drive, Bert and I took turns driving...

and listening to our various cd's and tinkering with the radio stations as we headed up our great Golden State...

SF Roadtrip - Day 1 - On the way to a wedding...

Three weeks ago, we made the trip up to San Francisco to attend a former student's wedding. A road trip passing thru the OC meant that we would be making our "regular" stop in Tustin...

But not at the cigar shop above. No, that was the lovely view from our car window while Bert went to get his morning coffee at Starbucks (first corner after the Red Hill exit) before heading over to...yes, Cream Pan.

I must say that we do time our visits to coincide with their morning opening at 6 am....

Brunch @ the expanded Hanna's Gourmet w/MFH + double triple flights @ Hammonds

Last Saturday was spent in the good company of MFH...

to celebrate her belated birthday, I took her to brunch at the newly expanded Hanna's Gourmet...

I actually didn't realize they expanded until I went online. Our choices were either Nate's, Cafe 21 or Hanna's and I'm glad that MFH decided for us to go here...

Bert's Pre-Bday Lunch - Pacific Beach Fish Shop and Return to Pure Cupcakes

Bert's birthday was a few Monday's ago, but we celebrated it a day early by trying out a seafood place over in PB...

Last year it was Korean bbq and this year it was seafood...

D & TORC's bday dessert @ Blush....Awkward City

After our delicious brunch at Nate's Garden Grill, we did a few detours in the Clairmont Mesa area before heading to our final dessert destination...

Incidentally, we saw the signage for 85C (no photo) but alas, it is not open yet...

I was excited to take the Educator GF's here...

KnB Wine Cellars

I feel so behind...This post was from several weeks ago when Bert and I had one of our morning "dates". Earlier that very morning, we met up with Cathy and her Mister at Kaffee Meister and then split up into two cars so the menfolk could converse solo and the women could do the same!

(driving west on Mission Gorge Road from Santee)

It turns out that both of us heard the his/her versions of East County landmarks, neighborhoods, trivia, and such.

(still driving west on Mission Gorge Road)

It was quite cool hearing all this as we drove (in separate cars, I with Cathy) from Santee to nearby Del Cerro...

Nate's Garden Grill

Last weekend, it was an overdue chick's day out with the Educator GF's...

This time for the combined birthday celebration for D (belated) and TORC (early)...As always, and as it should be (heh heh), they let me choose the venues...

KD drives by here almost every day and never even knew this was here until I told her about it. Since none of us had been here before, we were all quite curious about Nate's...

Donut run to Mary's + food gifts!

Last night Bert and I had a few hours to spare while TC was at dance...

what better way to while away the time than to drive to Santee for some good ole donuts...

SF Roadtrip Day 4 Highlights

It was a super long drive back...but first, before we left, we had breakfast by this iconic "head"...

located on Sloat Blvd, right across from the Zoo...

Bert would get the first "shift" for our epic drive back on Labor Day Monday...