I arrived in San Diego yesterday evening, so perhaps I should call this Day Two. At any rate, starting out from my house around 12:30 pm, I drove to Bradley Airport, then flew from Hartford to Philadelphia, where our flight west was delayed due to a faulty autopilot. When I heard the announcement, my internal monologue went something like this: “Hey guys, we’re impatient to get in the air, but please, take your time — we, the passengers, would prefer that you fix it.” Thanks to crackerjack mechanics, zealous administrators, and skillful pilots, we hustled across three time zones in plenty of time for me to enjoy Happy Hour with my friends. Here’s the standard photo of “lovely clouds taken in flight at sunset”:
My friends drove me through downtown San Diego straight to the Prado at Balboa Park, where I enjoyed a margarita and some hefty appetizers. Then, my body told me that it was already the following day, so it was on to home and bed.
This morning, I was awakened around 8 am by my phone beeping at me (I forgot to turn it off), and shortly thereafter, I rolled out of bed and got dressed. My friend likes to walk in the morning with their dog, and I was more than happy to join them. Did I mention that my friend lives in Coronado, a small town consistently voted among the top travel destinations in the US and also touted for its residential quality of life? We strolled in a broad loop to the beach then back toward Orange Avenue, where we had breakfast outside at Miguel’s Cocina (my omelette was delicious). Here’s a photo of their impossibly cute shih tzu Ali’i-Kai:
On the agenda for the afternoon was a trip to the wineries at Temecula. Well, of course! This may be SoCal, but it’s still California, and wine-tasting is de rigueur. It took us about an hour in the car, on the way driving by Miramar College, where my friend works, and then all of a sudden, there we were, in the hot and sunny Mediterranean landscape north of San Diego. Our first stop was the Wilson Creek Winery and Vineyard, which is noted for its champagne. It cost $20 each for the tasting, but hey, you only go around once, right. Fortunately, the lady who poured for us was great. We each tasted five wines, and they were quite wonderful. For those who don’t know me, I am partial to champagne (oops, “sparking wine”), and I don’t hold out for special occasions in order to drink it, so I was especially pleased to have these choices. Then it was on to our second stop, the Oak Mountain Winery, where we listened to some music and again tasted some delicious wines.
By then the afternoon was waning, so we drove on to Oceanside for dinner. We ended up at Vigilucci’s Cucina Italiana, where I had the Cappellacci di Zucca, which was actually quite tasty. We weren’t particularly thrilled with the service, which was a trifle slow, but it could have been worse (I try not to be hypercritical in this blog, by the way).
All in all, it was a great day: starting with the beautiful beach at Coronado and filled to the brim with good food, good drink, and good company.