I felt like writing something. I realized I had a bunch of pictures from my New Year’s trip to San Diego. Done deal!
Dan dropped me and Jason off at the airport. But before the airport, we dropped by Elliot’s for happy hour. $0.50 per oyster starting at 3PM and going up $0.25 every half hour. “Dropped by” is accurate, because we left when we saw the line. Apparently their happy hour isn’t a secret. So we went to the Met. Fantastic fantastic happy hour. (I’ve been to Elliot’s and actually ate and their happy hour is great too.) We got our oyster fix. I’m sure oysters in the shooters came from a jar, but it hit the spot. The steak sandwiches were good for $3, even though they were allegedly free before. But the burger was the star. I didn’t order one. Huge mistake. I had some of Jason’s and it was the best I’ve had since Lunchbox Laboratory. Great patty.
Here’s me and Jason waiting to board. Google provided free WiFi at a bunch of airports during the holidays. Very thankful for this. Me and Jason were able to play Scrabble on Facebook on our laptops. We were waiting for 90 minutes and barely finished one game. Jason takes forever on each move. It’s painful.
Here’s where I try to take a picture of a cute girl. Then I showed my friends and they said she looks cute as in way too young. That’s when I started justifying it in my head with thoughts like, “Oh, you know, you can’t tell these days.”
My first breakfast! I did in fact visit friends in San Diego and not an elementary school cafeteria. This is what I wanted to eat though. I love oatmeal (sugary instant packets even better) and I love Flaming Hot Cheetos.
I went with Curt’s fiance Dyane to pick some things up at her classroom. She teaches troubled youth—lots of gang members.
Here’s me in front of the whiteboard where I wrote “Mr. Cortez” and thought it’d be hilarious for some reason.
Here’s the In-N-Out picture obligatory for trips to California that feels more and more like an obligation—it’s less exciting every time. Having a Double-Double for the first time in five years tastes a lot better than for the first time in five months. Maybe I was still thinking of the burger from the Met.
I waited for Jason to come home before heading to Medieval Times. Here he is, ready to hide in a pixelated ocean. You can’t shoot what you can’t see.
Medieval Times was really fun. Jason loves the place and has been frustrated on my past visits when we weren’t able to make the trip. I wish I had a bigger appetite. Chicken and the ribs were good. Tomato soup to start, not so much. There are six knights and they’re each assigned to sections of the crowd. You get really attached to your knight and ours made it to the final two. Then he died and the rest of the show died with him.
Disneyland fireworks go off every night as far as I know. It was kind of cool to drive by them outside of the park.
Sometimes Wally just likes to come to the Disneyland McDonald’s and think.
The day of New Year’s Eve we went to a driving range. There were these baskets probably 60-80 yards out. We had a contest to be the first one to get it into one. I thought speed was the key. Hit at a rapid pace and one of them will go in. Makes sense—unless your short game sucks dick. I went 0-for-a lot and ran out of balls . Wally got one in and ruined 2009 for me. Good thing a new year was only a few hours away.
We ate at a Mexican place by Jason, Curt, and Dyane’s apartment. Didn’t end in -berto’s but it hit the spot. Dan would be frustrated that I didn’t hit eat at a Mexican joint multiple times a day. Actually, I kind of regret not going to at least one other Mexican place during the trip.
Me and Wally, looking tight!
Me and Wally, looking tight!
We met up with two other couples that are friends with Curt and Dyane for a pre-function at a hotel. Really nice room. Really nice people. They made a bunch of surprisingly great food. Surprising because when you think hotel before amateur night, things like instant oatmeal and Flaming Hot Cheetos come to mind instead of lumpia and baked salmon.
And I say “really nice” because they really didn’t mind Curt bringing five other dudes who beasted on the food.
We went to Onyx for New Year’s Eve. Cool place. A lotta dudes. For whatever reason, we set up about six feet from the main speakers on the main floor and destroyed our ears. They played “Sandstorm” before the countdown and did what every other Jersey Shore fan did that night—beat that beat. First song I heard in 2010 was “I Got A Feeling”. Probably the first time I really enjoyed the song.
Sometime after that we realized it was really hot in the place and tried to get water. They were charging for water so we left to find some. We stopped by Hooters for water. Seems kind of weird writing it but it was actually one of the only options because we couldn’t find a convenience store and even the small bars we tried to go to were at capacity. On our walk to Hooters we got VIP passes to Deja Vu: “It’s only ten minutes away!” Would anyone really go there on New Year’s Eve?*
We went to Wally’s house the next day for dinner. Pop quiz: Is the following picture A.) Wally’s nightstand or B.) The Dork section at Barnes and Noble?
Me and Wally, looking tight!
We went to the gym the next day to pump up at the gym Wally described as small. If this gym is small, I want to see what he thinks is a big gym. Chargers practice facility? Olympic training campus?
We ate at Lucille’s BBQ. It was good. For a BBQ place attached to a mall, it was great. Biscuits are the table bread and they give some kind of sweet apple cinnamon butter to spread. Not that there’s a lot of competition (Claim Jumper comes to mind), but it’s the best butter for spreading that I’ve had.
Then we went to LA to hang out with a friend and her friend. We ate at Kuishimbo, which has 4.5 stars on Yelp. And I assumed LA was third to New York and San Francisco for food snobs so 4.5 seemed really good. It was good enough but nobody would notice if you dropped it in the middle of Seattle. Maybe I’m hating. Here’s Wally expressing our feelings about hanging out with girls instead of, you know, enough dudes to run small pick up games of various sports.
Here’s a picture I took for Jason to see if he’d remember something. Seeing as how I took this picture and stared at it for a good minute to try and remember what it was, I doubt he’d remember what that something was. Anyway, I was trying to see if he remembered this strip mall, because Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles is around the corner, where we ate the last time we were in LA.
On my last night, we watched Avatar and ate curry. Pork katsu and beef curry. That was really good. I’m sure there’s somewhere in Seattle to get a similar meal, and I’m gonna try and find it. Also, Avatar was really good.
Before bed that night we all watched a chicken wing episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay. So before my flight I wanted to get wings. I asked Wally what he thought of Wings and Things. “It’s pretty generic.” It was one of those times where I shouldn’t have even asked because it was our only option and my mind was already set to go. They only serve three sauces: mild, medium, and hot. If you essentially only do wings, you should have more options than that. Basically, it’s pretty generic.
The trip was pretty fun and writing a few sentences about a few pictures took a lot longer than I expected.
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*YEEEEEUP
