America's Finest City - this is why I live here

From time to time, Todd and I will take a day off from work and just have fun together. There's less tourists around town on a weekday, and restaurants and attractions usually have less people. Since people come to San Diego for vacations, we just take a vacation in our own town. I must admit that I get jaded or take San Diego for granted sometimes, since I've lived here for 7 years now. Like all San Diegans, I complain when the weather gets below 60 degrees. When it's not sunny or blue skies, I want to write city council and "get my money back". Sometimes I forget that the beach is just 15 minutes away. That's why we love it when we play "Tour Guide" to our out of town friends/family, because we re-discover our fine city for ourselves and remember why it's so great to live here. People who live here seem to have "San Diego pride". They talk favorably about their city to other people. They complain about cost of housing and traffic, but you can tell they have a deep-seeded fondness for SD. That really wasn't the case when we lived in Ohio.

So, on Monday 4/23, we embarked on our "Aventura de Las Turistas". First stop was lunch. We had heard about a new restaurant in PB (Pacific Beach for those not from San Diego) that's famous for fries. It's called Belgian Frie. Just don't call them "French" fries, because they're Belgian! We were so excited because there were parking spaces everywhere in PB. This NEVER happens on a weekend! We walked in and studied the menu on the chalkboard for over 5 minutes. Just the choices of dipping sauces for the fries was overwhelming. We finally settled on our order. Todd got meatball sandwich with marinara sauce. I got smoked sausage sandwich with peppers & onions. And of course, we got an order of fries to share. I also felt that it was a moral imperative that I order the Belgian hot chocolate. You know, to get the WHOLE Belgian experience. I wouldn't wanna jip myself of that! ;-p

Our food came and we were so excited. Only to be disappointed a few minutes later. Our sandwiches seemed mediocre, and the fries seemed only alright compared to the hype. I guess we expected the fries to be more special because the restaurant does have "Frie" in its name. But the Belgian hot chocolate was the best hot chocolate I've ever had! Todd stole some from me because he was jealous. They topped off the hot chocolate with whipped cream and real Belgian chocolate. Delicious! It's worth going there again just for the hot choco. Don't get me wrong, the fries were pretty good, just not super-special good. While we were there, we noticed a pregnant woman who came in and ordered JUST the Belgian fries. I guess it hit the "weird craving" spot! Then a young college-aged couple came in and also ordered just the LARGE order of fries (you get 2 sauces with the large order). Apparently, people order fries as their main meal. So next time I go, I'll get hot choco and fries as my whole meal.

After lunch we walked around the boardwalk at the beach. I took a picture of the "Ocean Blvd" sign, because we were after all at the ocean. While I was snapping the pic, a homeless dude rolled up on his bicycle and offered to take a picture of the two of us, so we graciously accepted. He said he used to live in Hawaii and has lots of experience taking photos for people. He took a nice pic of us with Crystal Pier in the background. We walked around a little more, enjoying the sunshine and breezes. Then we got back into the car and headed to nearby Sea World.

We paid for a full-priced one day ticket and got the "Fun Card", which allows us to go back as much as we want until Dec 31, 2007. This promotion ends on 4/30. We got the tickets with NO line, and got into the park with NO line. I love Mondays at Sea World! As soon as we entered the park, we ran to the Sea Otter exhibit. Sea otters are my favorite at Sea World! I love watching them play and groom and eat. They put the food on their tummies, swim around, and eat it. Also, everyday at 11:00 am, they have Tube Time. That's when the otter-keepers give the otters long tubes with frozen fish/crabs/shrimps in them. The otters swim around with them, and bang out the food by slamming the tube against rocks. It's so fun to watch. I've stared at the otters for like half an hour before. We were too late for "Tube Time" on Monday, but I watched the otters for a long time anyways. Then we went to see the dolphins play with a basketball. This one playful dolphin actually "dribbles" the basketball under water with his nose! We watched the "Clyde & Seamore" show, the "Pets Rule" show, and saw the Manatee, Polar Bear, and Beluga whale exhibits.

What I love about having the season pass is that you don't feel like you have to go the whole day. You can just go for a couple of hours and leave. We left around 4:15 and drove home. What a great day and what fun we had, despite the fact that I got sunburned on my head.

I made two digital layouts from our fun day. I couldn't decide which was better, so I'm just showing both, since it's MY blog and I can do it if I wanna. :-)