85526 Sun Mar 21 11:20:59 -0800 2004 11 3 California 0 473026 Hi everyone! This is my first post here at this board and I have to say I have really enjoyed reading through all the threads on San Diego. My daughters, ages 10 and 12 and I are headed your way for the first time ever for 4 nights in early April. Not having been there, I have researched San Diego rather extensively via the internet and have come away with a few impressions. 1)Already I know I should have rented a car instead of having bought prepaid transportation from the airport and unlimited bus/trolley tix already. I am going to have to live with that decision. 2) Pacific Beach has a ton of restaurants and most of the foodies snub most all of them. 3) One either thinks Casa de Pico and Casa de Bandini are the only places to eat real Mexican food or they think they are the worst tourist traps in the city perhaps only second to the Seaport Village, which I have yet to read any good review of. Here's my reality. We bought the 3-in-1 passes to the Zoo, Wild Animal Park, and SeaWorld. Additionally, we bought separate transportation via Contact Tours to the Wild Animal Park. They will pick us up at our hotel, which is the Catamaran Resort Hotel on Mission Bay near Pacific Beach. We will also go on the photo safari while we are there. We will have breakfast with Shamu one morning. I am not counting on actually liking the food more than my kids will like all the various reincarnations of Shamu. People have told me we just HAVE to see La Jolla. We have a summer place in Camden, Maine and frankly, it looks like coastal Maine including the snoozing seals though we usually see them do that on rocks out in the harbor rather than on the beach. I am reading reviews of restaurants that sound overpriced and snobby, but am told that they are must do events. We could go to La Jolla the first day provided our plane lands on time. We will be getting to the airport here in DC for a 6:30 am (EST) flight on the day that daylight savings time begins no less and will have to arrive at the airport 2 hours early. Our scheduled arrival time is at I think about 11:30 am your time, but we will have been in the air more than 7 hours. Our hotel check in time is a mean 4:00 pm. I am hoping we can ditch the bags in a closet there and take off for the day provided we don't fall asleep in the lobby! I see from the bus schedule that it is a straight shot up to La Jolla and from everything I read about parking, it might take less time to take that bus than to find a parking space there anyway. This is the other conflicting advice I keep seeing, "rent a car and hunt like mad for parking every place you might want to go". Question???: IS LA JOLLA BETTER THAN CORONADO, IF SO WHY AND WHERE DO YOU THINK WE, ARRIVING IN OUR TRAVELING CLOTHES AND PROBABLY DEAD TIRED, SHOULD GO IF WE DECIDE TO HIT A RESTAURANT. I'm having trouble even figuring what time our bodies are going to think it is! Next question: Your impressions of Old Town overall. We don't have architecture like that here. Is there something to see? Are there good places to buy Mexican items there? We will NOT be heading into Mexico on this trip. My daughter was born on "El Dio De Los Meurtos" and I'd love to get one of those silly skeleton dolls for her to take home. Should we eat in Old Town or should we come back to Pacific Beach and try Gringo's as San Diego magazine is recommending this month? Regarding food in Pacific Beach----I read a lot of snide posts on the net regarding the place and have read posts on various boards about Ocean Beach that even sort of scare me. I have seen various places in Pacific Beach however that pique my interest. My kids are going to want to spend as much time as they can at the beach, after all they are kids. After long days touring, I can't say that the Gaslamp District sounds unique enough for me to care to go. We have Georgetown, DC and Old Town Alexandria,VA here which are real places, not artifically created tourist districts, but I digress... Here are a list of places I am interested in for various reasons. Please tell me what you think of them and why. If you have eaten something good or bad at any of these restaurants please tell me what that was. We are interested in Mexican, seafood, and possibly Hawaiian food. Maybe a fish taco. We have oodles of otherwise ethic here and don't need Italian either. Gringo's Da Kine's Hawaiian BBQ Roberto's Rubio's Joe's Crabshack- I think this sounds fun, but I am worried about the quality of the seafood. I'd love some simply steamed Alaskan King crablegs one night though and can't find anywhere else that touts them. Alternate ideas are welcome! World Famous Kono's Eggery Broken Yolk Saska's Fishery Lamont St. Grill Additionally, we need to stop somewhere and get breakfast that will keep in our hotel room, eg, muffins, scones..I think I know better than to say bagel in San Diego from the sounds of things... Most of our lunches will have to be inside SeaWorld, the zoo and the Wild Animal Park. Any insider tip re eating there short of packing our own lunch which would be difficult.. I am really not interested in touring around all day and then spending half the evening on a city bus trying to get to and from "the restaurant". My kids would be miserable and I might be, too. Thank you for even reading such a long post. We are truly excited about this trip and we think that overall, San Diego promises to be a wonderful place to visit. Sun Mar 21 11:20:59 -0800 2004 0 Glory 1 473033 I'm just going to address some of your points. Not all posters here agree with me, so be sure to read what others say. I enjoy Old Town. It may not have the best Mexican food it town, but I suspect there's a lot of Mexican there better than you can get back home. Old Town is not super authentic--alot of it is reconstructed--but still interesting. Some nice little shops. I also vote for Balboa Park with or without the Zoo. For restaurants on your list, I would avoid Rubio's and Roberto's (some hounds like Roberto's, but I don't. Nobody likes Rubio's anymore). I would also avoid Joe's Crabshack. Why do you want Alaskan King Crab in SD anyway? Best west coast crab is Dungenness. World Famous was good when I was there. I've never eaten at Armando's Green Flash, but the plates look decent when I walk by and customers seem satisfied. It has a nice view. Broken Yolk is good for breakfasts, I guess, and Kono's is a local favorite. I think neither is outstanding. The Fishery is very good. I can't recommend it too highly. Not on your list are two that I sometimes recommend. Karinya Thai is a good Thai restaurant. I am fond of their whole fish, and other things can be good there as well. Taco Surf is NOT a superauthentic Mexican place, but they do have decent fish tacos and do prepare CalMex favorites (like a chicken fajita burrito or a grande tostado) fairly well. Enjoy your visit. Sun Mar 21 15:52:44 -0800 2004 473026 0 e.d. 2 473039 You all are WONDERFUL! Thank you soooo much for the time you took to think about my post and to answer so well. I consider myself better crab-leg-educated now, too. We just have those itty-bitty Maryland Crabs around here so they all seem HUGE and delish to me! Actually, I was surfing around today and found a funny, well-written review about Joe's that made me realize it was not the place for me. The reviewer started the story by saying they'd arrived quite hungry because their lunch they'd gotten at Seaworld had been stolen by a seagull. They then went to Joe's for dinner and got a thoroughly mediocre meal (including a boiled quarter ear of corn???) and some hullabaloo sort of wild entertainment from the staff. She said she felt really let down because she'd been wanting to go there for months. When they got home she asked her 3-year-old what part she liked best thinking maybe the entertainment might win out over the food. She responded, "When the seagull stole our hamburger!" LOL! That was enough for me!! After hearing from you all, we might just skip La Jolla altogether and try to get to Balboa Park instead. We will certainly do Old Town. We might even eat there at one of those restaurants! You are right that it has to be better than what we have here and I am interested in the architecture. I'd love to climb that hill and check out the Mission Presidio. May I ask why you say that Bazaar del Mundo will soon cease to exist? I appreciate the advice about the beach neighborhoods and our proximity to which one! I'm not afraid of peacenik brand hippies, strung out ones are another story. Also, the need for a sweater-thank you! We went dogsledding north of Quebec City last month in 30 below zero weather. My 12-year-old who dresses like it's a beach day when it's 35 out keeps saying she hasn't been cold since then! She is counting on "Grand Hawaii" and I have been telling her I think that it can get hot and cold in the same day there. I will show her the sweater post for sure! I greatly appreciate your winnowing down my little list and adding some possibilities I had not heard of. I will try to check out the bread bakery. I like that the emphasis is on bread. If this were MY vacation rather than a kid-centered one, we'd be taking my sourdough starter on a vacation to perk around in San Francisco! Ok, I am at least HALF kidding! I am certainly looking forward to San Diego! I live by Trader Joe's here so it's good to know there is one nearby. Love that place! I'm disappointed about Rubio's. Years and years ago, there was an article in Southern Living Magazine about Rubio and his fish tacos. I followed the recipe and made them at home. They were pretty good, but I have fantacizing that they were better in person. Somewhere I think it was in this board's threads, someone said something about Rubio's being as exciting as Krispy Kreme. Krispy Kreme used to be no big deal until they left NC and VA and started branching out. When we here heard about hour long lines forming for hour waits, we just didn't get it! The immersion tour guide we dealt with in Quebec was a Krispy Kreme fan and we had to bring him an enormous box of them. Go figure! I guess when you can't have something it is all that more exciting! One more off topic comment. Someone on this board mentioned watery lobster at whatever diner was serving whole-belly clams. I was thinking that maybe the diner owner is buying softshell lobsters which are more watery, but some say sweeter than hardshell. We get to a point in Maine in the summer where that's all we can find. Most places don't ship them, but if they are shipping wholebelly clams out they could ship those at the same time. I will check back here again several times before our trip and will then check back in to give you a report on what we did. If you think of anything to add beforehand, please, by all means do. I might even end up with more questions! Thank you again! Sun Mar 21 22:30:10 -0800 2004 473033 0 Glory 3 473092 Try World Curry on Garnet...you will enjoy it. Wed Mar 24 12:23:11 -0800 2004 473039 0 North County 4 473117 Merci, North County! A bientot! Wed Mar 24 21:51:25 -0800 2004 473092 0 Glory 5 473151 http://www.worldcurry.com/ Fri Mar 26 12:09:13 -0800 2004 473117 0 North County 1 473035 First, take a deep breath, and then don't believe everything you read on the internet. San Diego is a great place to visit and you will have fun with or without a car. With kids, having the prepaid transit cards and the bus tours may actually turn out to be a blessing. Like any large city, there is traffic congestion in San Diego, but in the areas in which you'll be (other than Old Town)it's not gridlock, and parking in SD has not yet reached the epic proportions of, say, San Francisco's Financial District. Letting someone else do the driving will let you enjoy your vacation better. The trolley is pretty efficient, moreso than bus service. Lindbergh Field is a small airport, comparatively speaking, so you should have little problem getting to your hotel, and it should not take you very long to get there. Be forewarned, however, that the beach communities can be foggy, overcast and cool in early April, but it won't be cold, and it most likely won't rain. The fog and overcast usually burns off by noon with temperatures hitting the high 60s and low 70s even at the beach. It would be a good idea to bring a light sweater or windbreaker. Second, San Diego is NOT, repeat NOT, a culinary destination. Very few of the local restaurants are snooty or snobby, although some may have aspirations of being that way. Informal dining is way more common than formal. Mostly, the service is competent and friendly. The well known chains in every price bracket are over represented. You shouldn't have any problem finding decent places to eat, chain or independent. Your hotel is actually closer to Mission Beach than Pacific Beach and they should be able to help direct you to local places that would be suitable. Pacific Beach is primarily a residencial district and not particularly a dining mecca in the city, which is probably why you haven't read too much about it, or what you've read has been less than stellar. There are a few places. But mostly, PB has a problem with having issued far too many liquor licenses for the size of the community which has attracted some problems. And being Spring Break time, there will be an abundance of rowdy college kids looking to drink, party and score. Cantina Panaderia just West of the intersection of Cass and Feldspar in PB is better than average and reasonably priced, but gets a bit noisy as the room fills up. It is a kid friendly restaurant thought. You asked about the Broken Yolk, it's a VERY high volume Breakfast/Lunch place on Garnet. Expect to wait, but probably not too long. They turn their tables like mad. Large protions, decent food (but do NOT have anything with Hollandaise, yellow glue would be a better descriptor), inexpensive. There is a Von's shopping center across the street from the Broken Yolk where you could pick up the items for your room. In the same shopping center as Von's is a small bakery called Charlie's Breads, they've got great bread, muffins, scones, etc. Might also be worth a stop for you. There is also a Trader Joe's nearby as well. When I was growing up here, Ocean Beach was considered a fairly rough neighborhood. It has definitely mellowed and is not nearly as rough and tough as it used to be. At this point I think it's safer than either Pacific Beach or Mission Beach. The beach at OB is nice, the pier is a nice walk and there is a little cafe mid-pier that might be a good spot for breakfast or lunch with kids. Newport Ave. is the main street in OB and the last block before the beach has several decent restaurants (Hodad's, South Beach Cafe, a sushi place and a Mexican place), a couple of ice creams shops, multiple coffee places and, of course, the requisite beach bars. In broad daylight during the week you shouldn't have problems. SDPD keeps a high profile in all the beach towns, especially in the areas on the ocean. Old hippies don't die, they just move to OB :-) Old Town is definitely worth the visit. Bazaar del Mundo is an interesting attraction, and will soon cease to exist. Lots of shops, and lots more restaurants than Casa de Pico or Casa de Bandini. Also of interest is the Mission Presidio just up the hill from Old Town, from an educational standpoint this is definitely worth the visit. You should have no problems at the zoo or Balboa Park. You could spend all 4 days here and just scratch the surface. Upscale dining is at The Prado in the House of Hospitality, there is a Japanese Tea Garden next to the Organ Pavillion, and if you're there on a weekend, many of the International Houses offer snacks from their native countries. With no car it's easier to get to La Jolla than to Coronado from your hotel. I'd choose Coronado over La Jolla only because you can visit the Del, the beach is better and they have a MooTime Creamery. Both are "old money" areas of San Diego, but I wouldn't put either of them on a "must see" short list of places to visit on a 4 day trip. Don't bother with Rubio's. Roberto's (and all the other "berto" offshoots) is a fast food taqueria. If you don't have something like it where you coming from, by all means try it, but there are better taquerias in town too. The Fishery is good, forget Joe's CrabShack (and it isn't close to where you're staying and it would take both bus and trolley to get there). For crab you'd do well to seek out Dungeness Crab, not Alaskan King Crab Legs, as the Dungeness is much sweeter. A lot of peopel in the beach area like Saska's for steak, it's been around for a long, long time. Also close to your hotel is a branch of The Mission, which does pretty good breakfasts. Here's the link to the San Diego Reader. You can search their restaurant reviews by location, type of food, price range, etc. The Tin Fork reviews tend to be a little less stuffy than their "big" restaurant reviews. Enjoy your visit, you'll have a great time. Link: http://sdreader.com Sun Mar 21 17:37:19 -0800 2004 473026 0 Gayla 1 473036 One major oversight on your list, and particularly good for breakfast, is The Mission. I've included a link so you can figure out the proximity to your hotel. The Mission closes at 3. Another restaurant in the same genre, is Catina Panaderia. I think the Misison has better food, but the Cantina is open for dinner. Finally, La Torta is a fine choice in PB for cheap but tasty Mexican sandwiches. http://www.themission1.signonsandiego.com/; http://www.cantinacollective.com/ http://latorta.com/ Sun Mar 21 17:39:09 -0800 2004 473026 0 notjustastomach 2 473041 You might already know this, but there is a 20% off coupon for Catina Panaderia at the sandiegorestaurants.com website. Just go to the site and find the restaurant and there is a small hyperlink to the coupon. I would have missed it save for a reviewer pointing it out. Mon Mar 22 07:16:06 -0800 2004 473036 0 Glory 3 473042 Cantina Panaderia, sorry, haven't had my coffee yet! Mon Mar 22 07:17:54 -0800 2004 473041 0 Glory 1 473045 I can't add too much more to what was already recommended, except you did ask about dining at the Zoo. Since you're going to get soaked anywhere you dine there, go to Albert's. It's a bit more upscale, and actually has good food. Also in PB is Ciao Bella, which has decent Italian. Mon Mar 22 12:12:13 -0800 2004 473026 0 phee 2 473048 Phee, Thank you! I will add your comments to my notes. I'd read a review that said Stella's had a surprisingly good bbq beef sandwich, too. Now, perhaps we have two choices depending on whereabouts we are when the kids get hungry. Mon Mar 22 17:34:56 -0800 2004 473045 0 Glory