I was putting this off until I had time to write something long, but it seemed like I’d probably never get around to it, so I’m going to write something short. I texted myself an e-mail to remember all the things we did. Here’s what that sort of looked like (I added names of days).
Thursday: Moondoggies, Pacific Beach Bar & Grill, Adalberto’s; 7-11, Friday: Six Flags, El Pollo Loco, Dave and Buster’s, Carl’s Jr.; Saturday: Coronado Beach, Phil’s BBQ, mini-mart, Stingaree, pizza place; Sunday: Curry House, In-N-Out, Cortez Gourmet Mart, Dan’s steps, House of Blues, 7-11, Santana’s; Monday: Rio de Gallo, Yogurtland, San Diego International.
Thursday
Curt scooped me up and we went straight to Moondoggies in Pacific Beach. Beasted on calamari then we decided to go to PB Bar & Grill next door. Which is sort of a weird place, because the restaurant/bar area is connected to a small club that reminds me of a warehouse theme. Reminded me of the Foot Clan’s hideout. Adalberto’s is a Mexican joint open late. It hits the spot.
Friday
Six flags. For my opinions of the ride, check out my post from a couple months ago. I can’t believe it’s been that long. Every time I told someone I was going to Six Flags, they’d say “again?”, but I was the only one of the group that was going again.
Same rides, same all-day sweat, same bad performance at the 3-point shootout, but it was a fun, fun time. We bought Flash Passes to skip the lines. You can only use it four times, which would suck except we only had to use it once. No lines. Except for X2, and surprise, you can’t use the pass there. Dumb.
We pitched in for a souvenir cup to share, because you get free refills throughout the park. Looking back, it sounds a little ghetto to pitch in, but it was a good idea. And we made it count. We were sucking down Diet Coke like our lives depended on it. And mine did once.
See, Wally bought this turkey leg the last time I was at Six Flags. And he let me have a bite. And ever since I found out I was going to Six Flags again, I’d been thinking of the turkey leg I was going to get. So this is at least a month thinking about this stupid thing. So I buy it, and about seven bites into it, it finally tries to kill me.
A piece of tendon went straight into my windpipe. Here’s the thing about choking. You dismiss any thoughts of staying civilized or looking cool. I did probably what 90% of people choking do: not talking, I looked to my left then looked to my right. And I went in. I tried to pull the piece out, but it slides away and it just goes down my throat. That’s when you panic for a little bit and try to breathe a little, hoping it went down the right pipe. And it did.
I guess three paragraphs ago I sort of made it sound like the Diet Coke saved my life, and it actually had nothing to do with helping me get the food out of my throat. Please accept my apology, I’m sorry for lying. After the ordeal, I drank my Diet Coke and finished my turkey leg.
Oh yeah, that night Curt tried to ollie the median with his car to impress a cop. The cop was more impressed that none of us were drunk, so he just said be careful.
Saturday
We went to the beach at Coronado. It was hot. We rode the waves for about an hour, which amounts to us standing chest deep in the water, waiting for a few minutes until a big one is about to break, me saying something like “Look at the time fellas, I gotta catch a wave”, all of us turning around and trying to swim with the wave but mostly just being pulled under and being twisted like you’re inside a washing machine. Then you stand up, make sure you didn’t hurt yourself, look around to see who made it the farthest, laugh, turn around, and you do it again. It’s a good time.
We ate at Phil’s BBQ, which I only have good things to say about. Three weeks ago I had their beef ribs. This time I had their pork ribs. I wrote this down somewhere, it might’ve been on Twitter or something, but some reviewers say its average compared to BBQ from one of the power BBQ regions. But the whole point is that it’s not there, it’s in San Diego. And it’s fantastic.
Stingaree was cool.
Sunday and Monday
Tired, tired, tired. Sunday morning I thought my jaw was injured from the beach adventure. Then I thought it was my orbital bone. Then I thought it was some kind of ocular migraine. Finally, a few hours into the day, Paul said hey hunch over and look at the ground, do you feel it? Ok it’s your sinuses. Curry House serves meat, rice, and curry sauce. It’s good stuff. Me, Dan, and Paul basically swallowed our meals whole. Then me, Curt, and Wally went to Target to get some sinus medication. That’s where we saw this nasal pot. If it doesn’t make you smile at least, well, you’re more mature than I am.
Percy told us House of Blues has the nickname House of Brown. He ain’t never lie. And one room smelled like they had a fish fry competition that day, straight up. Still doesn’t make sense to me. If you have a girlfriend, you should bring her there then mean mug everyone. You’ll fit right in! At one point, the MC on stage called for all the fly females to come forward and he pulled them on stage. So it was just mad dudes and alleged uggos on the dance floor for half an hour. Good times.
Monday we ate at Rio de Gallo. One of my top five favorite places on earth. Check the ‘Sunday’ heading in this post for my previous thoughts about the place. What puts you in a conflict is that they bring the meat rods around, but they also have a buffet-style area. And the food there is pretty good also. But I usually do a good job of sticking to the meat.
We got dessert at Yogurtland. I’ve been to yogurt places, but this was more a yogurt-bar style. I described it to someone as one of those soft serve stations at a buffet, except it’s flavored yogurt instead of ice cream. And there’s more than two choices. And the toppings are like you’re standing on the other side of the counter at Cold Stone. You pay by weight, and it’s real cheap. Hopefully they have one of these in Seattle. Then we tried to figure out how to fill a Zippo. Like it was a cryptex or something.
And we napped and I flew back. I hate flying back.
Pictures
This is the only one that wasn’t blurry, so I’ll just post it here. (Not that I was shooting the entire weekend, I only brought it out once.) Stupid manual focus. After owning it for a couple years, it’s probably my fault for not knowing how to use it.
