Bruce goes to... San Diego
Lisa and I took a weekend trip to San Diego in June (2002).
Bruce across the street from the hotel entrance.
We stayed at the U.S. Grant Hotel. The U.S. Grant is nearly a century old, and was recently renovated.
The hotel was actually started by Ulysses S. Grant's son. That is Lisa standing in the beautiful lobby.
Our room was great (we were upgraded to a luxurious suite)
This is our view of Horton Plaza, a downtown mall.
The same view at night. Note the lights on Coronado bridge.
The U.S.Grant hotel is located near the 'Gaslamp Quarter' of downtown San Diego. The Quarter is where the original town was started. It is currently undergoing a revival, with many new restaurants and clubs starting up in renovated buildings. There we took a tour of the 'oldest' wooden building in California.
San Diego has a large harbor, with a tourist area on the waterfront. They had a tall ship, the Star of India, which was built in 1863. The ship still sails, and they claim it is haunted. See the following link for ghost stories:
We also saw a large cruise ship. There were many shops in the 'fisherman's village' tourist trap area. There I got suckered into buying some souvenir spoons.
Our first task in San Diego was to find the local coffee roaster (as it is when we arrive in any city). In this case a store called "Hessian Inc Pannikin" was our destination. We were not disappointed. Not only did we get a great espresso, but we also bought several pounds of green beans.
Two English ladies from Newcastle are the proprieters of the Hessian Company. They were nice enough to allow me look through every bag of green beans in the store. I found several varieties that were up to my high quality standards.
They had a unique hot air roaster powered by propane. For some reason the roastmaster did not want to be photographed. Click on the picture and note that I removed all but her arm from the photo .
I had know idea there was a 'Little Italy' section of San Diego. Lisa and I went there for breakfast on Sunday morning. Note the construction crane over the sign. Apparently Little Italy is in the process of gentrification. A community of small cottages is being replaced by massive condo projects.
In Little Italy we found a cafe called Cafe Zucchero that actually served a decent espresso. So decent we had three of them. They claim 'the best espresso in town' on their website. I would rate them #2 behind Pannikin.
