SoCal Make-Up Valentine’s Date
So here in Southern California we’re pretty lucky. We have the honor of enjoying perfect weather on a near-daily basis, and I am one of those people that isn’t afraid to take advantage of it. Sorry, Boston… The Pats lost the Super Bowl and all you have until next season is freezing weather and a few cold months to think about what went wrong a few Sundays ago.
I, however, have perfectly sunny skies and a strip of beach just a little over a mile from my house to enjoy. Life doesn’t suck!
I know, I know… this is all coming off as a little pretentious, but I’m a fourth generation San Diegan and there seems to be floods of people moving to this area of California by the hour. Who can blame them really? I can’t. San Diego is one of the best places I’ve ever been to. I can’t seem to move from the Emerald City for longer than a few months at a time, then I’m back to home sweet home. This stellar city is constantly changing, and I think in life you have to embrace change to appreciate it. But I also think that when you live somewhere, it’s easy to get comfortable and fall into a routine. It’s good to challenge oneself and get out to see what your city is made of.
Since all of us at The Ryde live in different SoCal locations, I thought it’d be cool to show everyone out there what’s possible in a day in my hometown. There’s a lot to do here!
Here’s the deal: My girlfriend is finishing up her degree at UCSB, and we’re doing the long distance thing. That means some days, like Valentine’s day, are missed because we have to find time in our work, school, and social schedules to be with each other. Hallmark holidays like the big V-day get celebrated on our own time more often than not, which is fine with us. We actually both decided that Valentine’s day sucks, it’s a huge excuse to spend money on shit nobody keeps, until the next holiday like that when we all buy more shit for each other. Then all you have is a bunch of shit… Shit!
On a side note, my girlfriend did send me this radical Valentine’s day cookie from Mrs. Field’s, it was freaking delicious! She had it delivered on Wednesday, Feb. 13th and I was stoked. Despite our rants about V-day she couldn’t resist sending me food. She’s a sweetheart. : )
But we didn’t actually get to see each other until Saturday night, so we made plans for Sunday to be the day we spent together in lieu of the bastard holiday de Valentino. (booo!…. hissss! boo!… Baaaad holiday!)
We woke up late, so I decided we should go check the surf while we pondered what we wanted to eat for brunch/lunch. We hopped in the car and it was an all-time day. Blue skies, cool offshore breezes, and a nice overhead swell to boot. Had the woman been engaged in some type of other activity that weekend, I’d be on it. BUT, she was there with me, we made plans to have a killer day together, and I decided that the surf looked fun but my girlfriend’s company sounded epic.
While checking the surf we talked food. My girl and I are eaters. We love the whole process: choosing the food, cooking it, eating it, and cleaning up while we have dessert or a glass of vino. So we went to a new Thai place that just popped up in the Liberty Station area of Point Loma (it’s so new that there aren’t any maps of it yet). It’s called Thai Kitchen. I had never been there before, but my roommates and I had been scoping it out since it opened. We had experienced the sushi joint next door and had great success [insert Borat accent here], so I was hopeful for more of the same from its Asian inspired neighbor.
When we saw on the lunch menu that it was $9 for soup, salad, a crispy wonton & spring roll appetizer, main dish, and dessert, we got a little emotional and excited.
I got the Pad Thai, she got some spicy noodle dish neither of us could pronounce. We were both exceptionally impressed with how everything tasted, and the portion of the main dish sent us home with two more servings each! I think they were trying to impress us since I was taking pictures of all the food.
Take notes. You can use that. Write that down.
We finished up loading our doggy bags and moved on to the afternoon portion of our date, which was a trip to the USS Midway. The Midway is a floating museum that sits permanently parked in the San Diego harbor. This retired aircraft carrier is a monster. The deck is several football fields’ length, and this record-setting ship saw more action than a cheerleader on prom night. I’d seen the ship many times before, you actually can’t miss it while driving to downtown from my house, but I never made the time to check it out. Having several generations of men who served in the Navy and Army in my family, I was curious as to how life on a military vessel is different from mine.
Wow, I thought my bedroom was small.
As if the situation wasn’t awkward enough (with thousands of horny young men trapped on a floating city), the ship has the lowest-rung grunts stacked 3 per bunk. The CLEANED and UNOCCUPIED (for years now) bunk areas still stank with must. God could only guess what it smelled like when it was packed with sailors.
Halfway through the tour my better half considers getting into a flight simulator, thinks she’ll puke on it if she does, and decides otherwise. I say good choice. We make our way to the deck of the ship, which was the highlight of the tour. With several retired planes, jets, and helicopters set for display, we decide to hear one of the tour guides talk about what it was like to be a pilot in a fighter plane.
We sit down with about 30 other people in front of the staging area of the catapult that shoots the planes off the edge of the carrier like a slingshot. Our presenter, Mike, begins the talk.
Mike is a retired Naval pilot, who is self-admittedly missing the glory days. After he logged 500+ flight missions for the Navy, he taught new pilots deck procedures to make sure they don’t kill themselves, and more importantly, anyone else on deck. He has a good sense of humor and loves to point out that everything he’s teaching us is so that nobody kills each other. “We have both hands on our heads so if a missile shoots off while the deck hands are arming it, we can say it wasn’t our fault.” Mike is funny.
After about a 25 minute presentation, Mike gives us a quick quiz, everyone passes with flying colors because he’s such a great teacher, and my girlfriend and I take a walk to the edge of the ship. We snap some touristy photos of us standing next to some retired fighter jets, and eat it up.
I can’t help but have great respect for all of our soldiers after hearing Mike speak. Everyone’s job, even the dirtiest, most grueling of them, acts as an integral part of a team. There may be jobs out there which carry the same level of danger, sure. Except the difference between those jobs and the military is that this team is playing with million dollar toys that go real fast and carry weapons that are the size of small cars. It really makes you grateful for our people in service.
There aren’t too many jobs out there that I can think of where your life could depend on some kid in an orange vest who graduated high school months ago. Being in the Navy is one of them.
The sun was setting, and a stiff wind picked up, so we snapped some photos and headed home for a bit before heading to dinner.
Dinner was at a hand-picked restaurant that is nearly walking distance from my house. The Pearl is a newly renovated upscale restaurant/bar/lodge in Point Loma. Last year the ex-motel quietly morphed into a well-decorated, highly intimate getaway destination in a matter of months. What used to be a by-the-hour hump joint got transformed into a place I could easily drop $100 at and feel like it was worth it.
Surprisingly, the place still honors its roots by offering a discounted room rate after Midnight. The rooms look like they’re nice in the brochure, with modern color schemes and furniture. They sort of have this Real World MTV look going on. The restaurant and bar both have small but well thought out menus, with some great beers on tap and a legit wine menu. My girl and I both decide on a fresh fish entree, and a calamari appetizer. The chef hand delivers our courses and you can tell he takes pride in serving a few really good dinners as opposed to serving your mom’s recipe book to a banquet-sized crowd.
With small sitting areas (much like a Japanese Restaurant), and a bamboo-enclosed patio for larger parties, this place offers several options for patrons. There is also a nice view of the pool area from every seat in the house, which is available for cabana-style dining, and they’re almost always playing some old James Bond movie on the wall above the pool.
You can tell that whoever came up with this idea wanted a Vegas/Downtown San Diego getaway that’s secretly tucked into the heart of the residential seaport of Point Loma. Something outside of the norm that’s a little more down to earth, but still kicks ass.
We wave goodbye to The Pearl’s employees and head home. After a one minute drive, we finish up the night with a DVD, a bottle of wine, and a super comfy couch. Out the window we can see the city lights of Coronado, Downtown San Diego, and even Tijuana, Mexico. Perfect way to end a perfect day.
Go see what your city has to offer. Pick a day and be a tourist.
