I have been meaning to visit California for a long time now and finally all the stars have aligned - I found cheap tickets, Doug was going to be in town that weekend, and I could use the trip to get out of the Iowa cold and earn my last segment to get the Skyteam Medallion status with Delta for next year.
I spent first night with Andrew in Newport Beach, just south of Los Angeles. We used to play soccer together in high school and have not really been in touch since then so it was nice to finally catch up. We started off the evening by riding a tandem bike to Fuji Yama for some sushi. Afterward we were joined by some of his friends for a glorious night of bar hopping next to the Newport Pier. Needless to say, the bike ride back was quite a challenge!
Next day I met up with my friend Doug and his girlfriend to drive down to San Diego. Since it was Doug’s birthday earlier that week, we decided to celebrate by going sushi bar hopping. We first got some dinner at Hive Sushi Lounge and it was some of the best sushi I have ever had, and cheap too during their happy hour (seaweed salad - $2.99, sushi pieces - $0.99, sushi rolls - $2.99 and so on) - our bill for three people was $34 . That included multiple appetizers, sake, and dessert! 
The only thing I was not impressed with was the white tuna - it tasted somewhat different from what I am used to, but oh well. Next, we made stops at RA Sushi, Sushi Deli, Wonder Sushi Plus, Katsu Sushi, and finally made it to the Gasslamp (party) Quarter. To be honest, we were not very impressed with our choices there. We walked around for a bit, then checked out Jimmy Love’s and rounded the night up at the Shout House piano lounge It was raining pretty hard on the way back to our hotel so we were all soaked and cold by the time we got back to our Days Inn.
Next day the weather finally cleared up and spent most of the day at the famous San Diego zoo (supposedly the best in the country). I did like it and there were a lot of animals. The layout of the park was kind of confusing thou. I still think the themed exhibits at the Omaha zoo were the best when we visited a couple years ago.
Once it got darker, we went to the Harbor Island to watch the Christmas boat parade of lights. It was actually really cool to see how some of the people decked out their powerboats, yachts, sailboats, and even a giant clipper. On top of that, many had music blazing and people dressed up in Christmas outfits causing spectators on shore to break out in cheers.
Afterward Doug had to drive back up to Ventura so I went to get my rental car and was pleasantly surprised to see that I was upgraded to a convertible Mustang, just in time for better weather. I went back to Hive Sushi Lounge to take advantage of their happy hour all day Sunday deal and then crashed at my hotel room for the night.
I spent the last half a day by driving around San Diego with my top down basking in the sunshine. First, I had some breakfast at Mimi’s cafe, which I was lead to believe would be a french pastry cafe, but instead turned out to be more of an IHOP with no pastry for desert. Oh well, I will know better next time. After breakfast, I drove around the harbor, the downtown, and crossed over to the Coronado island. It kind of reminded me of southern Florida - sunshine, palm trees, sky high gas prices… I definitely miss that (minus the gas prices).
Unfortunately, this adventure was coming to an end and it was time to return to reality. Since we barely got any sleep the night before, we woke up pretty late and headed out to old San Juan for breakfast. Afterward we decided to try and make it out to the Bacardi factory for a quick tour. By the time we got there, I did not have enough time to go on a tour, but we still got our drink tickets and had a couple beverages on the house before Candido and Emma took me back to the airport. So long, PR!
