i took my first trip to san diego a couple of weeks ago. while it’s only a 2 hour drive south of LA, the bf and i decided to make a full weekend out of it. while we were hoping, or rather i was hoping, to pack about 14 activities into the first day, time just wasn’t working in our favor. we left about 2 hours later than expected. instead of hitting up the birch aquarium on our way in, we headed straight to lunch. hodad’s burgers to be exact. this hot little joint was featured on the food network. as many of you know, i don’t eat red meat, but i can definitely get down on a bird or veggie burger. i got the chicken burger. i was thinking it would be ground chicken, but it was actually a chicken patty with burger fixin’s. think back to the chicken patties they served in elementary school. yeah, those. i wasn’t impressed. luckily there was really no time to write a rave review, as we were running late for our whale watch tour. we ate our burgers in the car as we raced over to the marina.
a few months ago i was dreaming about going to an aquarium and noticed that birch aquarium in san diego was hosting whale watching tours through april. the gray whales were migrating from alaska to the baja through the early spring months. done! we went 10 miles out into the ocean. we floated into international waters and we even caught a glimpse of mexico! wild. we had been heading west for about 2 hours and still hadn’t seen anything. luckily the boat ride was incredibly fun. well, we had fun. the other two-thirds of the passengers had either passed out or thrown up. maybe both? it definitely wasn’t as crazy as my first whale watching tour from cape cod. no regurgitated clam chowder. i call that a success.
after our 10 mile journey we came to a stop and just floated. then, whale! there were 3 whales. two adults and a baby. they would come up for a couple of breaths and then dive back down for a few minutes. we ended up watching 2 different groups of whales for a while. they were pretty far from the boat, but we did get some great fluking views (when they dive down and flip their tail into the air).
on the way back in we passed a huge pod of 30 dolphins racing towards the boat. i felt like a little kid. i couldn’t stop laughing, i was so excited. then we rolled up on a massive group of sea lions just chilling on some floating docks. we were so close we could smell them. i hollered down and they hollered back. i LOVE sea lions. i saw ‘fools with tools’ at sea world once and i was hooked. if you go to the one in san antonio, say hi to clyde and seymour for me. they’re presh.
after our 5 hour journey, we were pretty wiped. not sure how sitting on a boat for 5 hours can make someone sleepy, but it did. we pulled up to our hotel and took a nap. the only bad thing about early evening naps is that they result in late night dinners. late. by the time we found a restaurant that was still open as well as a parking spot in the gaslamp district, it was after 11pm. maybe it was the sharp hunger pains or the excitement of an open restaurant, but i swear, this place was yumz! i highly recommend toast in the east village. delish. we wrapped dinner around 1am and then headed back to the hotel. we weren’t looking forward to ‘springing forward’ in the morning.
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