Sunday, January 31, 2016

Carlsbad and Sandy Eggo

Eating at Jimmy's Famous American Tavern on Point Loma,
Friday night shortly after arrival in Sandy Eggo.
The grin is from the Guinness. Had fish and chips, they were AMAZING...
Okay, there are still many tales to relate from the trip out to the West Coast two weeks ago. Lots of museum photos (think aircraft and ships) and stories about food. I'm pretty sure I gained a couple of pounds out there. The food was almost as good as the company I was in.

These photos kind of relate my overall impression of the trip. Upon which I had a great, great time. Sort of a collage of "what I did in Sandy Eggo."

Our hotel in Carlsbad, not too shabby I thought.
That's our room on the third floor with the triple glass door, curtain open in the middle.


Overlooking the pool, that is the Pacific across the road.

The drive from Carlsbad to Sandy Eggo is pretty nice. High surf warning that weekend. Lots of spindrift in the air from the surf.


Lunch on Saturday afternoon was here. A great little place in downtown Carlsbad, great food, great service.
The whole tribe gathered to pig out in honor of L'il Sweetie's christening. (Our waiter Johnny took this and the next photo. A real sweet guy. Did I mention that the food was unbelievable?)
The other end of the table. That's the next to youngest granddaughter, The Owl, in the foreground.

Went to Casa  Guadalajara for dinner on Sunday night. Great Mexican food, great service and I have to say, first time being entertained by a mariachi band at dinner. I loved it. Of course, I kinda liked the carne asada and shrimp. Excellent food, great prices.
This place is on India Street, just down from Shakespeare's. If you like fish, you'll love this place. It's kinda non-standard. You stand in line to place your order (which takes a while, the place is popular) and then sit down. A waitress will then bring your food to the table. Well worth the wait. I had a calamari sandwich with a buffalo twist. The fish was done to perfection, tartar sauce, buffalo sauce, blue cheese, and the bread was perfectly toasted on the grill. I want another one, right now.
Yes, there is one obligatory stop I make every time I go to Sandy Eggo. This time I was there with The Missus Herself and The Nuke. Now all three kids have accompanied the old man to this spot. One of my favorite places out there. For a number of reasons.
I had a Guinness (duh) while the ladies attacked a pot of tea. How very English of them.

View from our hotel in Sandy Eggo. Again we have a pool view.
(Two nights in Carlsbad, one night in Sandy Eggo. Life is tough, neh?)
Right now the hotel has two towers, they're laying the ground work for a third. I really dig the palm trees out there!
We were on the fifteenth floor.
Looking towards downtown.
The nearby marina.
The marina (again, okay, I like marinas). Looking past that you can see North Island and beyond you can see Point Loma.

We could see two carriers from our perch, Theodore Roosevelt (where we spent Saturday morning) to the left, Carl Vinson (Big Time's new ride) to the right.

We had an awesome time but all too soon it was back on a plane to head back east.

To this...

The Saturday after the christening. Welcome back to Little Rhody.
Sunday after the storm. At least the sun came out. Most of that snow is gone now,  scarcely a week later.

Yes, I love my four seasons. Yes, I like seeing the snow on the ground. But...

There are days I'd rather be in Sandy Eggo, quaffing Guinness and eating seafood, or Mexican food. Maybe both at the same time.

Like I said. A great trip.






18 comments:

  1. Wow! That little girl has got some powerful eyes!

    My family in San Diego is demanding I make a return visit after calving (thinking early June just now). Seems they never get to see cool stuff or visit great restaurants/bars unless playing host and city tour guide provides an excuse to get off the treadmill and out of the daily rut.

    Any sacrifice for family, you know...

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    Replies
    1. Her eyes are expressive indeed.

      You really should make that sacrifice ya know, help your family out and all. (Prolly do you good to visit some old haunts as well. Like the Blue Water. Damn, now I'm hungry again...)

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  2. That's got to be tough returning to snow. Bet you're wishing you were back at
    the pool in your speedo!!

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    Replies
    1. Today it's in the 50s. It's New England, each day is different, each day is special, I don't mind the snow. No, really.

      As for wearing a speedo? No, not now, not ever. I would probably get harpooned by an Inuit in an umiak if I did that.

      I'd rather scoozie dance in a public venue. ;-)

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    2. Dids't thou know that Inuit assigns gender to boats, depending upon the sex of the crew? If it is being paddled by a male,it is a kayak, and if paddled by a woman, it is an umiak? Thank you Oxford Dictionary of Ships and the Sea!

      That first picture brings back my anger at realizing that because they were wiped out by the sashimi industry, the children of the future will never have the opportunity to see Antlered Tuna.

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    3. Yes, the fate of the antlered tuna is a sad one.

      While the umiak is known as a "women boat" (see below) the two craft are quite different. A kayak is never an umiak, nor would an umiak ever be a kayak. From my understanding.

      An Inuit kayak is an enclosed one-man boat made of tendon-strapped wood and/or bones covered with seal or walrus skins. Its flexible skeleton is secured by leather straps. The boat has a seat hole and is propelled by using a double paddle. The Inuit hunter, sitting in the kayak, wore an anorak manufactured of hides and furs. The anorak tightly fit the wrists and face so that no water could penetrate. By closing the boat opening with the anorak the boat was fully enclosed and watertight. Man and boat became one unit.

      The umiak is an open boat used for whale-catching and transportation (also called 'women boat' by the Inuits). It consists of a wooden framework covered with sea-dog skins. Frames and keel are tied with tendons and leather strips. Nails were not used because they can rust and cause the skins to rot. The upper ends of the frames were tied to circulating woods, which also held the thwarts (seats) in place. On the boat bottom timbers were placed crosswise. The average length of an umiak reached 22 to 33 feet, width about 5 feet. Sometimes the umiaks had also a small mast on the bow with a square sail made from reindeer skins. The umiaks are called women boats, because it was an indignity for a man to touch a paddle in an umiak. The man sits aft and steers, the women are rowing. The boats could carry 10 to 12 persons, while being ashore it could be carried by six persons.

      http://www.shipsonstamps.org/Topics/html/kajak.htm

      Cool stuff though Scott. How many words for "snow" do they have in Wisconsin? (Just curious...)

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    4. Your source goes to greater depth than mine!
      We tend to go with descriptions. The last three Mondays, we have had snowstorms, Two weeks ago was the heavy wet stuff. that is hard to get through, without four wheel drive, and you better clear fast, or it will set up as a thick layer of ice. Last Monday was the stuff that starts as rain, and when it switches over, you get heavy wet snow, with a wet layer underneath, it is, itself sitting on frozen rain, and Monday night, and yesterday was the damp stuff, that shovels beautifully, leaving bare pavement. I keep a grain scoop in Vlad the Impala. The lot where I live in a cabin that was once part of a small resort is on an incline. Yesterday noon, as there was only about 4" on the ground, I decided to go cross town to Pizza Hut for the $5.00. I would put the blade of the shovel on the near edge of the hood, roof, or trunk, and give about a six inch shove, and the snow would slide off in a sheet.

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    5. 'Tis nothing, my Google-Fu was strong that day.

      I have many descriptive terms for snow. Many of them are based upon whether or not I have to go out and experience the white stuff personally. If said answer be "yes" then those descriptive terms tend to be laced with profanity!

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  3. Great photos. As an old East Coast sailor, I had heard rumors about the Pah Syph Ick Ocean, but I just put them in the same made up vein as mermaids and the check actually being in the mail. It would seem awful odd though, to be on the beach and see the sun come up over the dry parts. Might have to check this out.

    I need a little warning the next time you are going to post a photo of The Owl, as my cuteness meter pegged, and then exploded.

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    Replies
    1. I have beheld it with mine own eyes, the great Pah Syph Ick is real!

      Yeah, she's something isn't she?

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  4. Great city to visit. Several years ago spent two weeks in the area doing ADA surveys of Union 76 stations. Wouldn't mind a return visit.

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    1. I'm not much of a city guy, buy I do enjoy San Diego.

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  5. After the Air Museum post, I've been plotting how to get the wife to agree to a visit. Haven't got it figured out yet though.

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    Replies
    1. You'll think of something.

      Isn't the winter supposed to be nasty in Texas this year? Sandy Eggo is always nice. Just a thought...

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    2. Possibility of an ice storm a week from Tuesday. That's always special. So far hasn't been too bad down here, Panhandle and North Texas can't say the same, though.

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    3. Ice storm? They don't have those in Sandy Eggo...

      Just sayin'

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  6. Great pics though. How many of the family live in the SD vicinity and how many were visitors, looks like a cast of thousands made the pilgrimage.

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    1. Actually no one in the family lives in Sandy Eggo. Closest is about six hours away, that would be The WSO and her tribe. The Naviguessor and his tribe are a couple hours further north of them. Big Time's crew came in from Michigan (one from Vegas) and the rest of us flew in from the East Coast.

      So technically, we were all visitors. Two of the kids actually live in California. The WSO and her family like vacationing in Carlsbad.

      There were quite a few of us present though. Sixteen total for Saturday and much of Sunday.

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Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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