San Diego, CA

On Friday evening, we cooked a late dinner and caught up with Jan Michael and his roommate Mike, who is also a Hokie. Their apartment sits right on the Pacific Ocean, with beautiful sunset views and the constant sound of crashing waves just outside.

Looking down the shore from the balcony

On Saturday morning, we went out to watch the VT football game with a group of Jan Michael and Mike’s coworkers – all Hokies as well. We went to Bub’s, the area’s Virginia Tech bar (I didn’t even know VT had dedicated bars outside of Blacksburg…) Since we were on the West Coast for a noon game, we were there bright and early at 9 AM – at least they had good breakfast.

Bub's, San Diego's VT bar

As the game went on, the place slowly filled up with Hokies. The place is such a fixture that the San Diego VT Alumni Chapter even did announcements and raffles during commercial breaks. It was quite an interesting and neat experience.

Afterwards, we walked down to the Pacific Beach pier, which overlooked the busy beach and a surfing competition.

We drove around to see several landmarks that afternoon; these included Mt. Soledad looking over the city, the seals and boulders of La Jolla Cove, and a beautiful, long beach on the island of Coronado. Here, we walked through the very elegant and old-style Hotel del Coronado.

The hills and big houses of La Jolla

The rocks at La Jolla cove

The Hotel del Coronado

Coronado beach

On Sunday, we visited the US Olympic training center outside San Diego, which was only mildly interesting. We did, though, have tacos for both lunch and dinner – Authentic Mexican at Tacos el Gordo for lunch and fish tacos at a local bar and grill for dinner. Two different styles, two different places, and two of the best tacos I have ever had! In addition, Jan Michael took us to a downtown joint named Extraordinary Desserts. The name says it all: they focus on desserts, and they were definitely extraordinary! I knew that Jan Michael was a foodie, and we consequently got some great food in San Diego.

The shared spread at Extraordinary Desserts!

That evening, we prepared to leave on Monday but found time to walk a few blocks down the oceanfront to Sunset Cliffs. Here, we watched our last sunset over the Pacific Ocean – a spectacular end to our time on the coast and sendoff for the journey back east.