Daytripping: Coronado Island

After our tasty fish taco lunch we walked back to the bay's boardwalk and purchased tickets for the ferry to Coronado Island. We love leisurely ferry rides and the at water-level-views.

We weren't traveling out to Coronado Island to spend some time at the beach, we were actually on the hunt for yes another fish taco. But as we strolled towards the beach we realized we'd rather keep strolling along Coronado's cute neighborhoods and forget about fish tacos for now.

We leisurely walked down a gorgeous street lined with beach cottages, overpriced homes and beautiful blooming trees and flowers.

At the end of the street was the gorgeous Coronado beach and grand Coronado Beach Hotel.

Even though San Diego is a major beach destination, we did not pack any swimwear or even flipflops for that matter. Instead we made our way to the Coronado Beach Club to enjoy an ice cold Stone Brewery beer and a view of the beach and lovely palm trees, people and fighter jet watch.

We could have easily spent the rest of the day getting hammered by the sea, but we had dinner reservations so we walked back through the lovely beach neighborhood and enjoyed a lovely view of the city while waiting for the ferry. Coronado Island should be tops on your list of places to go in San Diego and definetly by ferry.

Midway Morning

We awoke to another sunny San Diego day, which made our plans to head down to walk along the bay that more exciting. We were headed off to see the Midway Battleship Museum.
A little bit of history is that the Midway Aircraft Carrier was the battleship which transported Anne's family out of Vietnam when Saigon fell in 1975. It has a deeply personal history to us, but we decided not the tour the massive ship. We didn't visit the now floating museum, we had other plans for the day and wasn't up for a possibly emotional stroll down memory lane (a memory Anne was too young to recall anyways). We took pictures of the massive ship, strolled along the bay area, checked out the memorial park and had an early lunch at the Fish Market Restaurant situated right next to the battleship.

We read the Fish Market Restaurant had a terrific view of the bay and one of the city's best fish tacos.

Since we were on vacation we started our meal with a terrific bloody mary and signature ginger cocktail. Were the baja-style fish tacos good? Of course! The light ono fish, the batter, the crunchy cabbage and fresh garnishes was a fantastic combo. But these weren't going to be our only fish taco. More. Fish. Tacos. To. Come.

Memorable Meals: National City's Filipino Food

We recently heard an economist's opinion to never eat in busy business centers of a city, due to high rents, competition and trendiness. These establishments have a tendency to be watered down. He stated restaurants that are hard to find, even for locals will be much better. We actually didn't hear about his opinions until after our return from San Diego, but while visiting we did find ourselves on the hunt for a little out-of-the-way Filipino food just two neighborhoods from the Mexican border in National City. Due to a big percentage of Filipinos being Catholic we called ahead to find out if restaurants would be open and what time the first lechon pig would be ready.

After a lovely day touring Balboa Park we decided some suckling pig was exactly what we needed and headed to National City. National City looked more like the Southern California we envisioned with wide boulevards littered with strip mall after strip mall surrounded by brown hills. We arrived at Porky's Lechon and Barbeque at 5:09pm to find the tiny restaurant closed. We even called that morning, but forgot to ask what time they closed. Not to worry National City had Filipino restaurants everywhere and on the way we had noticed what looked like an old Village Inn Restaurant building with a large sign saying "Villa Manilla - famous fried chicken". The strip mall parking lot was full, but the restaurant was fairly empty. We were unsure if we were making a good decision, but the waiter was so nice and we were already there so we sat down and decided we would make the best of the situation. The menu was foreign to us, which made it even more exciting. There was no suckling pig however, so we opted for their famous fried chicken and some sauteed pork belly.

The pork was palatable, dry and smokey, but nothing spectacular. The fried chicken on the other hand was delicious. Villa Manilla boasted their chicken was not battered and came with banana ketchup. The lack of batter actually made the skin the highlight, crispy, crunchy and flavorful. We quickly declared this fried chicken to be one of the best we've ever had. We may not have been successful getting some Filipino suckling lechon, but the fried chicken made us feel as if the evening wasn't a total bust.

We took the quick bus ride back to the hotel and enjoyed a late night chocolate cake and old fashion cocktails, so all in all a nice end to a lovely Easter Sunday.

Balboa Park Easter Part II

We knew we were taking a risk of big crowds in Balboa Park for Easter, but it was the only day we had to go so we braved it and it turned out to be a lovely day. Had we known the Prado Restaurant in the middle of the park was having a Easter Brunch Buffet we may have even joined the crowds for the impressive brunch.

We had a great afternoon wandering through the Spanish inspired buildings and courtyards. We especially enjoyed the unique vegetation in the park, many plants we would never find back home.

The highlight of the park for us was the Botanical Building. The open structure held an impressive collection of palms, succulents and cactus. These colorful plants were exactly what we expected to see in the warm climate of San Diego.

The flora wasn't the only interesting things we saw, this little lizard was calmly sunning himelf, which gave us ideas of our own.