san diego part four: here comes the sun

After our shenanigans at Waterfront, it took us a little while to get going on Friday morning, but we made it out of the house for brunch around 11. And when I say "us," I of course mean just Noah, and when I say "we made it out of the house," I mean that I poked him and pestered him and talked endlessly about how I was absolutely starving and maybe probably definitely going to die until he was so annoyed that he probably got out of bed and went to the bathroom just to have a moment of peace from the sound of my voice.

We headed for Pacific Beach, mostly because I'd requested that we eat somewhere with a view of the water. In a sort of showdown with the universe, I'd also brought my bathing suit. Though it had been sunny and gorgeous away from the water since I'd arrived, it had yet to be sunny on the beach and I basically decided that morning to take matters into my own hands and goad Mother Nature into cooperating. The people of Pacific Beach needed to see my pasty inland-er skin!

And y'all, it worked.

When we sat down for brunch at The Green Flash -- where we both ordered mimosas that were mostly champagne and I had a seafood omelette -- I took this picture of our view.

And as we were enjoying our deliciousness and I was feeling thankful for the heat lamps they had going on the patio, all of the sudden I felt something else warming me. And I looked up. And the clouds were clearing!

Before we'd even finished brunch, I went into the ladies' room at the restaurant and changed into my swimsuit and cover-up, and as soon as we walked out onto the boardwalk I took this picture.

We ended up walking several miles down to Mission Beach (where I was able to purchase my souvenir-not-souvenir tee shirt from a board shop called Sun Diego), and then we walked back up along the bayside. This allowed for incredible views on both sides, of course, and also for me to dip my toes in both ocean water and bay water. And also for Noah and I to gawk at houses and peek in people's windows and plan about 27 hypothetical vacations. And also for me to get a weird sunburn only on the back of my left leg. You figure it out.







It's possible that we actually got a little too much sun that day, because when we headed back downtown to meet Noah's friend Jen for sushi that night we were both pretty beat. But we powered through and stuffed ourselves thoroughly with some seriously fantastic sushi and then headed for Shout House.

This had all the potential to be a seriously good time, because Shout House happens to be one of my favorite types of bars of all time: a piano bar. And had it not been packed to what I assume was the absolute legal limit, it might have been different. But there were people in every square inch of that place and no one was showing any signs of vacating their seats. I mean, the dude was playing "Smack That" by Akon on a GD baby grand. Can you blame them?

So we found the only tiny piece of standing room real estate that was left in the place and stationed ourselves there with our beers. But the more we stood and the more no one moved, the more I realized how much walking three or four miles on a beach in the sun can kind of make you want to JUST DIE a few hours later and also how very necessary it is, in a bar like this, to be communing with your fellow patrons and singing like idiots together. It's kind of difficult to really get into the zone when you're leaning on a railing in a parallel line with your compatriots while simultaneously death staring at every person in a 20-foot radius in hopes that they might decide it's time to check on the babysitter and get the eff out.

After a beer and a little while, we decided it might be time to figure out a Plan B. We'd heard some Journey and some Sublime and they'd sung at least three songs with crude references about the female anatomy while inviting women to come and dance on the stage, including a birthday homage to three particular ladies ranging in age from 21 to 50 that included a stirring rendition of "My Humps."

So we headed out, and after driving back toward Jen's apartment with the thought that we might gather up her and her fiance to come back to Noah's for beers, I realized that the intention was lovely but as soon as my body was in a comfy chair I was going to go straight narcoleptic in a matter of seconds. So we called it a night, and saved up our energy for my last full day in California.


cheers,
elizabeth

P.S.: If you'd like to see more photos from San Diego or any of my future travels, I'll be posting them all in albums on the Just A Girl Facebook fan page. Become a fan and click here to see more!