Seeing Southern CA for the Second Time - Day 5

On the last blog, Chris, Mom and I enjoyed a day of sipping tea and wandering around nearby San Pedro, acting out scenes from The Usual Suspects.  The next morning, we all set alarms to wake up at a reasonable time, got ourselves dressed, packed up the truck, and headed south for our eventual location, Little Italy in San Diego.  When Mom booked her trip, the fares were best flying here on a Wednesday and back home on a Tuesday; since we normally can't spend quite that much time together without wanting to murder one another, and I couldn't take that many days off work, Mom rented an AirBnB for two nights in San Diego and flew home from there, taking time to explore the city on her own.  While she initially mentioned taking the Amtrak down, we were happy to drive her ourselves, and it allowed us to explore the coast in between the cities a bit further.

We started out heading for a brunch/lunch date at the Bagby Beer Company, an hour and a half from Long Beach in the city of Oceanside.  There's a big triathlon held each year in Oceanside, and although several of our buddies from Phoenix (hi, Coach, Tara, and Ryan!) often participate, we hadn't yet had the chance to make it to the city.  It's a cute little place, and Bagby was a great stop, with awesome food and beer.

Noms at Bagby

After we finished, we strolled down to the water, taking in the sights and stopping for a caffeine fix.

The beach at Oceanside

Not too shabby, right?

It was time to hop back in the truck and continue moving toward San Diego, but first, we made a stop at Stone Brewing in Escondido.  Chris and I have visited Stone's OG location several times, and it's a cool place - gardens out back, huge gargoyles etched on rock faces inside, and so on.  Although Stone has several taprooms now, including some much closer to where Mom would be in San Diego proper, we wanted to show her their main facility, as well as take a brewery tour in the process (we also thought we might grab another bite to eat here, but the Sour Fest occurring on this day quickly put that idea to rest - waits for tables were multiple hours long - the food's good but it's not THAT good).

Outside at Stone

Inside Stone's restaurant and taproom

Ready to tour!

Salut!

Our time at Stone done, it was back in the truck again for the final push to Little Italy.  On the way, Mom had Chris grab a shot of the insane freeway action that exists in this area of the state:

That's a lotta lanes!

We made it to the AirBnB, and we relaxed for just a bit, changing into slightly nicer clothes and helping Mom get settled in.  Before too long, though, it was back to the truck once more, this time heading for nearby La Jolla.  As many of you know, we're huge Parrotheads (aka Jimmy Buffett fans) in my family, and when Mom learned that Escape to Margaritaville, a brand new play based on Buffett's life and times, was premiering at the La Jolla Playhouse while she would be in the area, she grabbed tickets.  Since Chris and I would have to head home before the play started to get ready for work the next day, she enlisted as her partner in crime my cousin Aren, currently stationed on the southern side of San Diego in the Navy.

Aren parked at the playhouse, and we picked him up to head to dinner at George's Ocean Terrace, a restaurant overlooking the coast.  Although the weather was touch and go, it was still nice to enjoy the open air while we ate, drank, and caught up with one another.

The crew!

The view from the Terrace.

That's the Pacific!

After dinner was over, it was back into the truck once more.  We dropped Aren and Mom at the playhouse entrance, wishing them a great time that evening and fun over the next few days.  

Fins up!

They enjoyed the performance, and Aren was kind enough to drive Mom back to the BnB that night, ensuring she made it home safe and sound.  The next day, she had fun trucking all over San Diego on one of the hop-on, hop-off trolley tours, and Aren was able to join her once again that night, after he made it off work (I received a fantastic picture of their beers at Ballast Point, a notable local brewery that's since expanded quite a bit).  Mom flew back home painfully early the next morning, and she arrived safe and sound.  We loved having her here, and we hope she enjoyed the visit as much as we did!

Later!

Amy