Scenes from Hillcrest and Pacific Beach with Astroboi + the new White Elephante thrift store & Better Buzz Coffee Roasters Pacific Beach West

After our breakfast at the newly re-opened Olympic Cafe...

Astroboi (the King of side streets) took the long way over to our next stop...

Return to S3 Coffee Bar, Donut Panic, Olive Baking Co. & Charlie's Best Bread, Pavaraga (PB) & Duet Coffee

I'm too lazy to do separate posts, so this is a combo post to be more efficient, ha ha.

This particular stripmall is in Grantville...

destination of one of my favorite donut joints plus a nice and new coffee bar...

Pavaraga Hawaiian Espresso Bar, Pacific Beach

This morning, TC and I made the drive up to PB to go thrift store shopping...

While on our way to find a space near Goodwill, I noticed a familiar sign in this small strip mall (the same one with PB mainstay, Mr. Frostie, dammit).

I didn't realize that Pavaraga had a new outpost in PB...

I remember one of their workers last year mentioning that they would have another location in Hillcrest but it looks like that didn't happen. I made a mental note to come here after we looked at a few shops...

Return to Kate Sessions Park + a new mural in North Park

After checking out David mural, we headed over to Kate Sessions Park...

which Bert hadn't been to yet. It was a nice sunny day and the views were sure to be much better than my previous visit...

Drinks from Better Buzz plus Charlie's Best Bread

With a new battery in our vehicle, we headed over to the Better Buzz drive through...


and got a couple of drinks. Before heading home, we went back to a strip mall on Garnet...

which turned out to be the wrong stripmall...but led to checking out a bakery I remember seeing last year...

Kate Sessions Park

Another summer day ahead of us...

We were curious about Kate Sessions Park especially after having visited the Mission Hills Nursery...

Return to Papa Luna's & Junz

After getting coffee from Ladies & Gentlemen, TC and I headed over to go thrift store shopping on Garnet...

visiting Goodwill, Thrift Trader and Buffalo Exchange all within walking distance...

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...

Coffee Fix - Return to Cafe Moto, a visit to Donny's Cafe & back to Better Buzz Drive Thru

Ever since I had that iced coffee from Cafe Moto, I've been wanting it again...

Bert and I were out and about very early one weekend after having dropped off TC for a dance related event...

Better Buzz Coffee

After getting our cupcakes at Pure, we walked over to the coffee place...

which turned out to be a drive through. There are actually two locations of Better Buzz Coffee (the other is on Mission Blvd and is a brick and mortar coffee joint). So, back we went to the car so I could experience my first coffee drive through...

Pure Cupcakes

After our craptastic lunch from the pho-kin crappy Pho Time, TC and I went to the next shopping complex down the street.

It's the same complex with Great News Cookware & Cooking School...

There was a cupcake place that I'd been meaning to check out, one that I didn't realize was here until I attended the red velvet taste off a few months ago with Mary and the gang...

Pho-ck This...lunch at Pho Time

Several days ago I was out and about with TC. We'd already gone to Corner Bakery Cafe and several other places in Mission & Fashion Valley for some freebies. Now it was time for lunch.

I thought I was being expedient by coming here since it was in between two other places I wanted to check out.

Of all the places I went during Spring Break, this was probably one of the worst decisions I made...

The Red Velvet Cupcake Taste-Off!

After having carbs with those pizza slices, we had...uh...more carbs and sugar to boot! Yikes!

This past weekend was the Epic Red Velvet Cupcake tasting organized by Mary of This Tasty Life...
We were instructed to buy two cupcakes from assigned bakeries and then bring 'em to our meetup spot...

Bake This...or the Return to the Baked Bear

Despite my normal intense hatred aversion to driving in PB, or any beach area for that matter, I took my chances and headed up north from OB to PB...

The traffic gods were on my side as it was smooth sailing the whole way through, even when stuck behind this rather slow, but vintage Airstream trailer on Mission Blvd.

I'd only been to this place once before but with two young 'uns in tow, was glad for a revisit...

Crystal Pier in PB

I think the painted utility boxes in the different neighborhoods of San Diego are interesting. You see so many different designs that reflect the "culture" of the neighborhood. For example, in IB, you see a lot of ocean scenes like waves and surfing.

This was in PB and it was a pink flamingo...

which I only thought lived in our zoo!  I guess they were going for that "tropical" look...

At the end of Ocean and Garnet is another one of San Diego's beach piers...

It's not as long as the one in OB or in IB, but it does have its charms...

Sweets in small packages - dessert at Sugar & Scribe

Fresh from our "pre-anniversary" lunch at The Fishery, our next stop was one of my favorite bakeries in San Diego...

It was just up the street and what sold Bert on going here instead of The Baked Bear was the promise of
a hassle free parking space...

The Baked Bear

Right around the corner from Kafe Yen was this new'ish dessert joint...

TORC and I would be getting our ice cream sandwices on here...

Pre-Anniversary Lunch - The Fishery

Far from the many tattoo parlors, head shops, cheap clothing stores, and crowded sushi joints on Garnet is this gem of a restaurant...

Every anniversary, Bert usually requests seafood. After checking online and consulting a few friends for recommendations, we decided on The Fishery for our pre-anniversary lunch...

Return to Kafe Yen

Thank goodness it was not a damn weekend! I really hate driving around in PB, but with TORC as good company and her good tunes blasting from the radio, the drive was quite enjoyable...

TORC's iPod choices are always eclectic and it's fun trying to figure out some of the songs I'm not familiar with....

We were going to do double duty today...

Back to the Gelato Bus Stop

It was nice driving here during early afternoon. No traffic and it wasn't really beach season yet...

What am I talking about? Every day is beach season here in San Diego!   As I methodically eke out my older posts, I