San Diego?

Egads

One, Two, THIRTEEN!
Joined
Oct 19, 2012
Messages
3,465
Location
Boulder, CO
We are in San Diego for a few days and would love to hear some suggestions (guitar stores, food, drinks, coffee, beaches, attractions, etc.). We're staying on Mission Beach. My 4 year old and I will hit the zoo while the wife does something else (she's anti-zoo). We're talking about Coronado Island for part of a day. We're also hoping to find a place to rent a bike trailer (the VRBO came with a couple bikes).

The Taylor factory and store are pretty close. What else?

Bird Rock Coffee was pretty awesome. There is a Better Buzz near us that we'll hit tomorrow. Any others that we gotta hit?

Any favorite restaurants? Coffee shops? Guitar shops? Cool things to do?

Thanks.
 
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There is an aviation museum. There is a navy ship that I think you can get a tour of too.
 
Cool. My wife and I live in Iowa but we went to san Diego to get married. We loved the city and found it pretty easy to get around. The Zoo is awesome. Good luck!
 
You can rent a small motor boat (15-17ft) for a few hours and cruise San Diego bay. You can rent these kinds of boats either on Coronado across from the Hotel Del Coronado or at Seaport Village next to the Marriott Hotel. If you do this, be sure to bring / wear a sweatshirt! The water is chilly this time of year.

As far as guitar stores go, I would have recommended Buffalo Brothers in Carlsbad (45 minute drive north from San Diego - assuming no traffic) but I have heard the store has closed. The last time I went there about 3 years ago, they had a good 20 different PRS models. Maybe others know the latest status.
 
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Check out the Hash House a Go Go, great for breakfast or lunch, Point Loma Seafoods has some great fish tacos and the scallop sandwich is awesome, and you can get the best burritos at Lucha Libre, Manhattan at La Jolla is great for dinner
 
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One other thought came to mind - Drive up to Pt Loma Lighthouse for the best view of the entire area. It is about a 10 minute drive from the airport
 
I've spent a bit of time in San Diego over the years. It's a wonderful city. If it's your first time, I think one MUST get some sea bass and a margarita in Old Town. If you're in a hurry, there are about a million different places to get a killer fish taco. The Air & Space Museum has some very cool artifacts. I found the USS Midway tour fascinating. The Maritime Museum is right there too, and it was fun. Coronado is awesome. Something I've wanted to do many times, but haven't yet is sailing on Stars & Stripes. It's one of the real America's Cup racing yachts that offers rides around the harbor.

If anyone recommends going to Tijuana or Nuevo Laredo for a "donkey show", steer clear! :D
 
Best Mexican food in the US is in San Diego. We drive down from LA just to grab lunch sometimes. Too many great restaurants to mention but if you do a search for places near where you are staying you can find some great ones.

SD is a treasure trove of brewing, if you are into beer. Stone, Alesmith, Ballast Point, Karl Strauss, etc are all in the area and great fun to visit, again, if you are into beer.

As mentioned, the Midway is very cool, and Coronado/Hotel Del are must-sees.
 
Thanks, guys. The beer scene is interesting. There is definitely some competition between here and home (Boulder/Denver are) around who is the craft beer capitol. We'll just have to continue exploring that topic, you know, for the good of humanity.

Thanks for the food recommendations, vr6corrado. We'll check it out.

Renting a boat or catching a ride on the Stars and Stripes sounds awesome.

Do you think the donkey show would be kid friendly? My daughter really likes animals. :wave:
 
Hahaha! please do steer away from the donkey shows!

...and don't get me started on beer, just shipped a big box of Three Floyds to myself last Friday!
 
Just kidding about the donkeys. I grew up not far enough away from another Mexican border to be unaware.
 
The USS Midway is amazing. El Cajon and the Taylor factory are close as well. I really enjoyed that tour when I did it.
 
I'm going to try to convince my daughter that the USS Midway will be fun. We'll see how that goes. I would love to see it, but a 4 year old with no attention span...

We rode cruisers around Mission Bay and Fiesta Bay to a friend's bar just east of I-5. It was a fun ride, and it was good to meet an old friend of my wife's. Claire was a trooper! In total, she spent about 2 hours on the back of the bike today. Lunch was at La Playa Taco Shop, which was decent. Really reminded me of Mexico.

While my daughter napped, I ran down to the Guitar Center Outlet (I didn't even know there was such a thing), and bought my dad a James Tyler Variax JTV-59. It was $499, new with bag, assessories, and warranty. He's been looking at them for a couple years now (I think the main reason is to be able to pull off the sitar sound in Paint It Black). I have to say, it's a nice playing and sounding guitar. I think there is a fair chance it's made in the same factory as the SE line.

My wife is riding a bike up to La Jolla to shop tomorrow, while Claire and I go to the zoo (and maybe the Midway). If anyone has a lunch suggestion in La Jolla for my vegetarian wife, or near Balboa Park for me and Claire, let 'er rip!

Thanks again, guys.
 
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