Things to do in San Diego when you're conferencing

[rivkat]

I'm looking for advice. I'll be at the ICA for the next four or so days. Is there anything/anyone in San Diego I should make an effort to see?

In other news, wow are my exams less impressive than I'd hoped. I'm reminded of a story told to me about a now-established law professor who, immediately after reviewing his exams, encountered a student from his class who asked "How were the exams?" The professor replied, "Now I know why I did so well in law school." There are people who can write and think, but I think I had unrealistic expectations.

Comments

OUCH.

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

But it does sound familiar...

& ;-)

[logovo.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, an effort? What are you interested in?

My favorite places here are Hillcrest, Tijuana, Downtown, Balboa Park and La Jolla, but it really does depend on what you would like to do and what part of town you are staying in. Public transportation sucks here so renting a car might be good if you want to get around a lot. On the other hand we have been having a great streak of excellent weather, so it makes up for the "takes forever to get anywhere without a car" thing. Let me know, ok? I would be happy to get you any info you might need.

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm going to be at the Manchester Grand Hyatt. I like to walk, especially if the weather stays good (it's miserable in NYC), and I like to eat (vegetarian; cheese/eggs great). I'm not so big on beaches -- like a vampire, I tend to burst into flames when exposed to direct sunlight -- but I love to windowshop. I was thinking of trying to go to the zoo. Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

[logovo.livejournal.com]

Hey, that is a great place to stay, and very good as a starting point for seeing the sights. You will be right next to Seaport Village, a sort of touristy spot that has little shops and restaurants and makes for a very nice walk along the bay. Look for little The Crow's Nest bookstores for some coffee, tea and snacks. Its a relaxing place.

Right across the way you will see Coronado island, that, erm, is not really an island. You could take the ferry across, but you might want to take the taxi or trolley to the ferry first, its some blocks away but doable if you have on comfy shoes. The island doesn't have a lot to see, except for the Hotel Del Coronado, but its not near the ferry landing, you would need to take the little green bus.

The San Diego Downtown area is just across the trolley tracks, in front of the Haytt and on the weekends it has a lot going on. It can make for a nice walk along 5th and 4th avenue right up to Broadway. Lots of shops, coffee houses, galleries, restaurants and bars. I don't go downtown very often, specially on weekends because it gets very crowded an parking can be a nightmare. It is however a *very* short distance from you hotel, maybe 3 minutes or less in a cab.

3 places downtown I like:

Cafe Lulu's for excellent espresso drinks and desserts. On F between 4th and 5th

Gaslamp Theaters big movie palace kind of place, 4th and G.

Cafe Sevilla Spanish food. Don't sit in the restaurant area, or go downstairs. Go to the bar instead and order some tapas and sangria. More fun and less expensive.

Downtown is not an area for a lot of morning and early afternoon activities, unless you are just looking for a place to have breakfast. I've gone to Cafe 222 a couple of times and I've liked it. It's at 222 Island Ave, downtown of course. You can walk there, but you must get there early since breakfast is what they do and it gets busy.

To the North of your Hotel and about 10 minutes in a cab from your hotel is Balboa Park. You can spend all day there. The San Diego Zoo right next to the museum area. A little bus (looks like a trolley) picks up people for free in the park itself and makes stops at several points. Most museums charge about 7 dollars. On Sunday afternoons at 2pm the Organ Pavillion plays music for the crowd. There is a nice restaurant called The Prado right in the center of the park. Moderate to expensive, entrees 12-25 dlls, but pretty and the food & service is good.

The Zoo is the main attraction, but the restaurants inside the zoo are not very good and the wait for a table can be long.

North of Balboa Park is Hillcrest, my favorite because its relaxing, great to walk around, good places for coffee, drinks, movies, eating and people watching. It's a nice gay neighborhood, very friendly.

Favorite restaurants:
Celadon the best Thai place in town. Good for vegetarian dishes. University, in between 5th and 6th avenue.

Bombay Indian, great vegetarian menu. 5th, between University and Washington.

Bread and Cie bakery. Good for breakfast and lunch. Best bread in San Diego. Inexpensive. Excellent sandwiches. Good coffee. The kind of place you like to go to Sunday mornings. University, between 4th and 3rd.

Hope you have fun here. I would love to meet you if you if you have the time. I just saw some people responding to your post. Could I tag along? Thanks :-)

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Wow -- lots of stuff to do. Thanks for all the details. I'd love to meet -- contact me at RivkaT@aol.com and I'll give you contact info so we can work something out.

[sue-donym.livejournal.com]

Balboa Park is cool. It has museums and resteraunts and pretty paths to stroll along. There's also the usual tourist attractions like the San Diego Zoo and Sea World. The Zoo and Balboa Park are very close so if you want to make a day of it, I'd recommend that. Then, for evening type stuff, you'd be very close to downtown San Diego, which has all the clubs, bars, etc.

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Thanks! The zoo sounds attractive. I don't know how much free time I'll have, but I'm looking forward to exploring.

Things to do in SD

[evenbiggerdog.livejournal.com]

Hm. Depends on the mood you're in.

There's a whole bunch of museums, collectively referred to as "The Prado", right next to Balboa Park if you're a culture vulture.

The SD Zoo is right next to Balboa Park. Early Sunday mornings (maybe Saturday, too, I'm not sure) there are about 15 groups of people doing t'ai ch'i on the west side of Balboa Park.

Movies all over the place.

Sea World, of course. And miles and miles of beach.

About an hour north of there and inland is the Wild Animal Park. It's a totally different type of experience from the zoo. We liked it better than the zoo, actually.

The local entertainment paper (THE READER) can be found online at: http://www.SanDiegoReader.com/ It's got tons of restaurant and club info, too.

If your schedule permits, we'd like to meet you for lunch or dinner. The breadsticks are illegally tastly. If not, hope you have fun while you're here.

Ooo! You HAVE to go to Pat & Oscar's while you're here. The breadsticks are illegally tasty.

Re: Things to do in SD

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Wild animals sound pretty interesting, though part of my wedding vows was a reminder that tigers are not pets.

I would so totally love to meet for lunch or dinner! I have a 10 am panel on Sunday (I think) that I have to go to, and otherwise I'm fairly flexible. So whatever works for you guys, I can schedule. I'll be getting in to the airport about 5:45 on Friday afternoon. I'll check email as soon as humanly possible, but if you see this tonight, email me and I'll give you my cellphone number to make things easier.

[grifyn.livejournal.com]

Rivka! Coming to the other side of the continent!

I second evenbiggerdog. We would definitely love to meet you somewhere. Be forewarned, though: we are the anti-trendy. We wouldn't know Benihana from... a reference to some arcane but fabu bistro to which I can't refer, being the anti-trendy and all. We'll take you to a place that serves good beer and fries too many things. Sound good?

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Let's. (See previous response.) (My husband says that he believes the good beer part. He does not, however, believe that the other part is possible. I think he has a point.)

[grifyn.livejournal.com]

Well, I said "too many" in case you preferred, you know, fresh vegetables or quiche or something. {grin} We're hedonistic heathens ourselves, though I think the Mexican fried ice cream is going too far. Too far like the guy who decided in the early 90s that cocaine wasn't good enough, and cooked up a batch of crack.

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