Way back in February, me and the boys started planning for our 2nd annual Bears road trip (last year was to Minneapolis). Nearly 7 months and 200 planning emails later, our trip to San Diego finally materialized when we hopped on a plane and flew out west last Saturday. It was my first "real" vacation in a long time, and despite all the hype and buildup, the trip did not disappoint. Of course, a summary/recap of our vacation is mandatory:
*Manchester Grand Hyatt*
We stayed at a pretty nice hotel, located right on the coast of the Pacific Ocean. Rooms were good, not super luxurious, but the views and facilities were great. They had a beautiful pool deck, and one of the better workout rooms I've seen.
Probably the best thing about the hotel was the location. Besides being basically right by the ocean, it was also across the street from a trolley stop, and walking distance to downtown and the "Gaslamp Quarter".
*Gaslamp Quarter*
This was a really nice area full of restaurants, bars, shops, etc. Very pedestrian friendly and a unique atmosphere (someone in our group said it felt a lot like South Beach). Bottom line is, I don't know if there's any place in Chicago I could compare it to.
So we spent a few of our nights going out in the Gaslamp district, and definitely had a good time there. Most of the restaurants had outdoor seating, and we took good advantage of this for dinner at a Mexican place called La Fiesta. Not only was it one of the best meals I've had in a while, but it was fun to people-watch as we ate, just taking in the San Diego lifestyle.
As far as the bars and clubs go, they weren't bad, although I don't think it's what SD is really known for. It was nice that all of them were non-smoking, though.
*Bears vs. Chargers*
Of course, the main focus of the trip was the actual game between the Bears and Chargers. We spent the morning tailgating with some of Chras's local buddies, which was a phenomenal time. I was really surprised by how full the parking lot was of fans, starting early in the morning. Even more impressive is that maybe almost a quarter of the fans were in Bears jerseys. Maybe it was because of NFL opening week, but still.
The pre-game atmosphere was awesome, with a lot of friendly trash-talking between the locals and the invading Chicagoans. Even though we were loud, the Chargers fans were all pretty cool and everyone was having a good time about it - regardless of whether you were wearing a navy #54, or a powder blue #21 (they do have sweet looking jerseys, I'll give them that). But I mean after all, when you have beer, grilled food, perfect weather, and a football game between 2 top teams, how can you not have a good time?
Probably the only downside to the day was the game itself, which the Bears ended up losing in a familiar way. Pretty disturbing that the offense still looks crappy. For all the talk of his offseason improvement, I still can't put much trust in Grossman to lead this team. The defense was great, although losing Mike Brown for the season yet again, is absolutely terrible.
As far as the stadium goes, Qualcomm was pretty average. Nothing too spectacular about it, except maybe that it's kind of built in a little valley, so when you look outside the stadium, you see mountain peaks surrounding the upper deck. Kind of cool. But this was negated by the fact that the vendors were charging $8 per beer, which I found to be ridiculous.
*Beaches*
We went to 2 of the main beaches during the week, Pacific Beach (PB) and Mission Beach. I think I liked Mission Beach better, but both were amazing and obviously a huge step above anything in Chicago. Besides being absolutely gorgeous, they were easy to get to, easy to park, and not that crowded either, even on a Saturday.
In the week we were there, I managed to get sunburnt not once, but twice. The second time, I even caved and put on some sunblock (which is very unlike me). I also developed quite a dependency on this bottle of Aloe Vera gel that we bought.
Still, I think the beaches were my favorite part of San Diego. Something about the view of the ocean, the sound of the waves, the coldness of the water, walking on the sand, just gets to me. To borrow a quote from one of my least favorite books, Moby Dick, "there is magic in it". Or to borrow another quote from one of my least favorite friends, Anuj, "there's frickin sand everywhere".
*Zoo*
Apparently, the San Diego Zoo is one of, if not the best zoo in the world. So we had to hit that up for a day.
As it turns out, there definitely was a lot to see there, and the zoo did not disappoint. Most memorable for me were the Pandas, the tropical birds being released, and the arctic wolf being walked right in front of us. Also the zebras too (quote - "I was watching it the whole time!").
*La Jolla*
If there was an "upscale" district to San Diego that we saw, it would be the La Jolla area. Smaller beaches, fancy restaurants, and some of the most beautiful scenic views I've seen, even by SD standards (quote - "bluffs"). Besides the awesome scenery, the highlight for me was dinner at a nice sushi place. Very satisfying.
*Vegas*
A 5 hour drive from San Diego, the 5 of us boys met up 2 more buddies for a few days at Vegas. This leg of our vacation could probably be its own separate entry, but to sum it up in a few words, it was a solid Vegas trip. Stayed off-Strip at the Palms, which was a pretty nice hotel. I still think the Vegas experience is much better if you stay on the Strip, but we had a car, so it wasn't as bad.
Anyways, there was the usual Vegas stuff - blackjack at a number of places, walk around the Strip, hit up the LAX club at Luxor, checked out the hotel pool at Mandalay Bay and the Palms. In addition, lunch at Lotus of Siam was one of the best meals of Thai food I've ever had (thanks P). And the Shark Reef Aquarium is pretty cool place too, I recommend it for those who need a break from gambling and drinking.
We also saw a couple shows this time. One was Cirque du Soleil "O" at Bellagio, which was really good. Some impressive acrobatic stuff, but I liked it more for the overall production. Just felt really unique and classy to me. I thought it was especially cool that all of the music was being performed live - the instrumentals, vocals, everything.
The other show was the Smashing Pumpkins concert at the Palms. I hadn't seen the Pumpkins perform live, since their supposed "2nd to last concert" at the United Center a few years ago, so I was pretty excited about this. The crowd at this show ended up being pretty bad, but I still enjoyed the concert a lot. In my opinion, you haven't truly experienced "1979" or "Cherub Rock" until you see and hear it performed live. As I was there that night, the realization started to hit me that it could be the last time I'd get to experience those songs live, ever. I guess it made me cherish the moment that much more.
One other highlight to note was that a couple of the guys in our group shared an elevator with OJ Simpson (and some of his hoes), the night he supposedly committed this armed robbery thing. Apparently, Anuj and Piya got to see his nipple, and it was not appetizing. Of course, none of us knew at the time that he was staying in the same hotel as us, or that he was about to get arrested, until we saw it on the news the next couple days.
The rest of the stories from Vegas will have to stay within the group (quote - "MISTAKE!!"). Sorry folks.
*Padres Game*
Our last night in San Diego, we checked out a Padres game at the relatively new Petco Park. I really liked this stadium, especially in comparison to Comiskey - which isn't a bad place itself, with the improvements they've made in the past few years.
Anyways, I've never been in a baseball stadium that was so fan friendly - a mini little-league field behind left field, a sandlot where kids were playing in right field, and lots of sprawling open areas for people to just walk around and enjoy the weather - before, during, and after the game. The location of the ballpark was really great too, being walking distance to all the Gaslamp stuff I talked about before. But what topped it all off was the fish tacos they serve there - very tasty.
It was also cool that they were playing against the Giants, so we got to see Barry Bonds for an at-bat (before he hurt himself in the outfield and got pulled for the game). Personally, I'm not as much of a Barry hater as most people, so as a baseball lover, I thought it was very exciting to see him play in person for the first (and maybe only) time in my life.
*Final thoughts*
As far as San Diego goes, I fell in love with the city pretty fast. Besides all the stuff I just described (weather, beaches, etc), there's a certain overall feel to the SD culture that is so appealing. Although I hate talking about "diversity" because it's become such a cliche topic, I have to say that the diversity I saw in San Diego was definitely something that set it apart in my mind.
I think some places in this country are diverse in a bad way - you can see clear divisions between different groups of people, as well as some inevitable tension that hangs over how everyone interacts.
In San Diego, I felt like it was truly diverse in a good way. Being near the border, there's obviously a lot of Mexican influence. There were a decent amount of Asians, though not nearly as much as the rest of California. And of course, the white people and black people are present too. The thing is, I never got the sense that there were social boundaries between any race. It's not like Asians only hang out with other Asians and do "Asian" things, i.e. run dry cleaners, Chinese restaurants, and soup up Hondas. Nor were there black or Latino dominated areas of the city, as far as I could tell.
Maybe it's just the places that we happened to hang out in, which admittedly are more "touristy". But it seemed like everywhere we went, there were people of every social group mixed together - not just in terms of race, but gender, age, wealth, everything. To me, that is the kind of diversity that is actually a good thing.
Ironically, the other part of our trip probably highlighted the polar opposite of everything I described about San Diego. While SD really shines during the daytime hours, Vegas doesn't come out to play until the sun goes down. SD is surrounded by beautiful beaches and scenic bluffs, Vegas is in the middle of the desert, and all the attractions are completely man-made.
And while you see every kind of person in Vegas, it's far from a "melting pot". Everyone pretty much knows where they stand on the hierarchy, and it all pretty much comes down to how much money you have (or are willing to spend). The low man stays at the cheaper hotels, plays small limit games at the casino, and waits in line for hours to get into the clubs. They can only watch as the high rollers strut around with their comped meals, VIP access to every hot spot, and beautiful girls escorting them everywhere.
While I'm on the topic of hot chicks, I thought it was interesting how both San Diego and Vegas were packed with smoking hot girls. But in one place, they all still seem approachable, genuine, down to earth, non-materialistic. While in the other, you could never tell if the girl you were looking at was a stripper, an escort, a gold-digger, etc. No matter how attractive they were on the outside, I would never even bother trying to talk any girl in Vegas, period.
But with all things said, even though I just listed all these negatives about Vegas, it's still one of my favorite places to vacation. A few days there is just about right - any more, and you're pushing it. SD on the other hand, I could honestly see myself living there someday. Not that I have plans to move, so don't start worrying yet, but I'm just saying it's definitely my kind of place.
My thoughts on the trip overall - as I said in the beginning, it was a really memorable and awesome vacation all-around. I think all of the guys realize that as we get older, its gonna be harder and harder to plan these long excursions with "just the boys". Just looking at our current situation - one of us is getting married next year, another has already moved away from Chicago, and the rest of us are simply getting more and more involved with our careers and everything else. The sentimental side of me definitely treasured this opportunity a lot, and I'm hopeful for at least a few more of these annual Bears road trips with everyone involved.
Sappiness aside, though, it was simply a lot of fun. Even as long as this entry has gotten, I still didn't even cover a fraction of everything of the last week. The nice thing that stands out to me is that while the good times during the trip were obviously good, so were the not-so-good times, in their own way (quote - "that's Terrible's"). That's how you know it's a great trip.
