My folks came to visit over my birthday weekend. This is the first time they've been out since we moved to San Diego, so I was eager to show them our new place and all of the great spots we've discovered in the city. I was on an Orthopedics cast-room rotation, which is a relatively light rotation as far as intern year goes. Unfortunately they still make you work. So my Lovely Wife hung out with and entertained them during most of Thursday and Friday. She's pretty amazing (I don't even know if she reads this blog so this is unsolicited praise).
On Thursday she took them to some of the museums in Balboa Park. Balboa is a big park to the Northeast of downtown. We live right at the edge of it. It has a bunch of running trails, museums, the Naval Hospital, (and a really cool bridge, if you're into that kinda thing, which I am, so for real, it's cool). She took them to the Museum of Man, which is in a building that looks like some old Spanish church (I'm pretty sure it was built during the world expo in the park in the early 1900's). They had some cool exhibits that I got to hear all about when I got out of work that day. Intern year has a pretty good track record for keeping me from doing cool stuff. Anyway, we went to a restaurant right across the street from our place called Chaplos which is new, good, kinda weird, and always worrying me that it's gonna go out of business. We had some vino, good foods, and made our way back over to the Park. There's a theater right by the museums called The Old Globe that was playing Pygmalion. That's the play that the musical My Fair Lady is based on. Maureen and I had bought tickets a month before and had it all planned out to take them there. At the box office they didn't have our tickets, so I took out my iPhone to show them the records. Unfortunately, my records showed that we had tickets for Sunday, not Thursday. My folks didn't mind the mix up, so we took them downtown to a restaurant/bar called Neighborhood that has a speakeasy in the back called Noble Experiment. They didn't have room for us at first and I began to despair that I wouldn't be able to entertain my folks at all. We walked around the block and my Dad bought a bottle of wine (knowing my Dad, not a cheap one) and we were just gonna head back to the place and drink and chat, but I got a text from the speakeasy that they had a spot for us at the bar. So we decided to drink and chat there instead. I was a little worried my folks wouldn't like it, because the place is pretty hipster trendy, but they loved it. The bartender makes drinks based on your general booze and taste preferences. I got some kind of scotch/ginger blend, Maureen got what ended up being a mojito/shave ice/changing bitters flavors as it melted confection, my dad got a Hunters Moon, which blended egg white and whiskey. My Mom told the bartender she liked Brandy straight. The bartender accepted the challenge and made a crazy good brandy with some other liqueur. Half the fun is watching the bartender make up all of the crazy concoctions. If anyone reading this is ever in town, we'll take you there, it's an experience. It made for a good night, it was great seeing the folks in person, and we all went home happy.
Friday I worked again. Maureen took the folks to the Zoo (seriously, stupid intern year keeps fun blocking like a pro). I got home and Amazing Wife had made dark chocolate pistachio cookies and they'd opened the bottle of wine my Dad got from the night before. I joined right in. Then I got to open presents! It was double presents as we'd held off on Christmas till they got out, and I got birthday stuff from them too! I got an awesome wood and glass watch box from them aaaaand my wife (great minds!) They were worried I wouldn't want both of them, but having two made room and an excuse for my rapidly expanding watch collection, so I loved 'em! Then we went out to Coronado to 1500 Ocean, a really nice restaurant in Hotel Del overlooking the water, for my birthday dinner. Great food, a really fun waiter, and a great time with the folks. Once I got over my teenagery angst (around age 26 for me), I realized I have amazing parents, and I love hanging out with them.
Saturday we strolled the Little Italy farmers market and went to Prep Kitchen for brunch. Then we headed out to Point Loma. There's a museum, a monument to Cabrillo the Portugese/Spanish explorer who was the first European to land in San Diego bay, and a light house that has been returned to its early 1900 conditions as a museum. Fun and beautiful afternoon. Went to Lion's Share that evening, one of my favorite SD restaurants and had a great meal.
Since my folks like the Little Italy market so much, we went by the Hillcrest farmers market on Sunday and got even more stuff. Then we headed out to Torrey Pines for a walk. We were not the only ones with that idea though, and the parking lot at the base of the cliffs was closed because it was too full. So we headed back to the sun deck at our place and had a picnic with all of the stuff we'd gotten at the market. A friend of mine had given us a bottle of Pliny the Elder beer too, so we cracked that open to fully enjoy the sunny San Diego January (it was about 70 degrees out). Nice afternoon. As we were resting to get ready for the play in the evening I got a phone call stating that a cast member was sick, and the evening's performance was cancelled. Pygmalion was not to be. So we walked downtown without any time constraints and went to one of Maureen's favorite spots, Cafe 21. We had sangria and great food. My Mom in particular really like the place. We had a blast with the folks and then all too soon they had to head out. We took them to the aeropuerto on Monday morning and they headed home. We're gonna go see them at the end of February and I'm already all excited about it. Fortunately my wife puts up with me wanting to hang out with the folks all the time really well. They absolutely love her too, so it makes it pretty easy on ol' Gorgeous and Humble (little nick name I came up with for misself). Anyway, great times. Hope you've enjoyed the ramblings. It gives you a taste of whats in store for you if you come visit (Tailored ((pun most strongly intended)) to your preferences of course).
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| Brian's birthday dinner at 1500 Ocean |
