We lucked into this one, hit Long Beach at the right time (lunch) and needed a place to stop. Joe Jost’s came up on Yelp and sounded perfect – they serve only a handful of food options and offer 3 sizes of beer. The food list is dominated by the “Special” – a Polish sausage (that looks more like a hotdog) split length-wise and stuffed with a pickle spear served [...]
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Yummy, yummy San Diego, which, if you listen to 91.1 FM long enough, you’ll learn “San Diego” means whale’s vagina in German (thanks, Mr. Ferrell). Great radio stations in this town pair nicely with the great tacos. Here’s where we ate. Rubio’s Rubio’s has dethroned Chipotle as my chain Mexican purveyor of choice. These may spread everywhere because they’re delicious. They’re the self-proclaimed originators of the fish taco. Seems dubious, [...]
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Extended travel is a series of cycles. You don’t just pack, unpack, pack, and fly home. There’s more. We run out of stuff. Things go awry. Here are the cycles I’ve identified so far. We constantly need to monitor these for our mental health. Otherwise we get irritable. Especially due to the last one. The Laundry Cycle We go about two weeks between laundry loads … I think. It’s really tough [...]
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We’re behind on content again after nearly catching up. Here’s a sampling of what I almost wrote about: CA park fees are highway robbery. $35 to $60 for a campsite when San Diego County Parks charge $19 (or $24 and give you a power outlet). Not a terrible deal for beach-side, but it’s the same price far inland too. Lame. I’m tiring of craft IPA. I think everybody is making [...]
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In the Gaslamp Quarter of San Diego, I had a realization: I was in Denver. There’s an Oceanaire, a seafood chain (based in Minneapolis, natch); a Hooter’s, the boobie chain; and a TGI Friday’s, a mediocrity chain. None of this is a dig against SD (but you can suck it, TGI Failday’s) — it just made me think about the goals of travel in a way I’ve never done before. When [...]
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Maybe it’s the warmer weather, I don’t really know, but I haven’t bought a bottle of whiskey in weeks. My last was a bottle of Jim Beam Rye. We finished it back in Death Valley. The last whiskey I’ve had was a peaty and tasty Scotch in Boise, ID. Maybe it’s the wine — we’ve had good luck finding good wine deals in California. Or maybe it’s because I’m having [...]
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After a good run of books, I’ve stalled out. I can’t seem to get through them anymore. I could blame the Salton Sea, or the sand people, or our lack of aluminum cladding, but I’m going to blame the books. Squandering Aimlessly There’s a lot of good stuff in this book, but I had to skim it to get through it. It’s almost comical how upbeat this book is when [...]
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We’re in San Diego and loving the Mexican food. This town is no Vermont, that’s for sure. We’ve been to Rubio’s, Mr. Taco, and a place call La Cocina in Ramona. Where else should we go? We don’t want to miss any gems, but we’re only here for a few more days. Share your favorite places in the comments or on Twitter. Current target for lunch today is a place [...]
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We’re on the coast of California and there are surfers everywhere — on the sidewalks, riding bikes with surfboard racks, driving around in VW vans and dirty old pickup trucks, and, of course, in the ocean. They’re fun to watch, but for every second I spend marveling at somebody actually surfing, I spend probably 1,000 seconds wondering about the surfing sub-culture. I want to learn to surf, but that’ll have [...]
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Julian(a), you almost had me. First you showed me your enticingly curvy roads and rolling, voluptuous countrysides. Then you revealed your small-town main street that’s so compact it’s only a three block walk to the neighboring farm fields and forests. Your trimmed hedges and endless pastures … va-va-va-voom, I said. You dilated my eyes. You were going to be my next Bisbee. A few days later, we met again, but [...]
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