Since the “Little Italy” section of San Diego was so close to our hotel (only a few blocks), we thought we should check out the most famous restaurant there, Filippis Pizza Grotto. The area around the place is very quaint with lots of little Italian places. But this clearly has been there for much longer than the other establishments. It is a cool looking place and I must say it’s almost worth a trip just for the atmosphere.

Having said that, I wasn’t terribly impressed with the pizza. We got a pizza with cheese and pepperoni. Nothing fancy. The sauce was what I would call “too sweet” and there was too much of it for my taste. It’s a bit different from what I’m used to. Maybe some people would like it because of that, though. The place was VERY busy — long line to get in. However, I think that is all part of the charm. It’s like an old Italian grocery store where you wait to go in. And the place itself is very cute. Prices are rather reasonable as I think the pizza was maybe $15 or so. Service was good, although I think our waiter was serving the whole place!

Overall, I think it’s worth a trip to Little Italy just to check the place out, as long as you don’t have too high expectations for the food.

Saturday – May 26
Well, we actually arrived in San Diego late Friday night. It only took about 2 hours from the west side of LA. I think the key was that we didn’t leave until almost 9pm. If we had left earlier, I can only imagine what the traffic might have been like. We checked into our hotel, the Radisson Harbor View which was really great. The view was especially spectacular and it included a balcony. I will be writing a more detailed review of that experience as well. We did have breakfast at the cafe here (buffet-style) which was satisfying if not a bit expensive for what we got.

The one thing we always knew we wanted to see in San Diego was the world famous San Diego Zoo, so I thought we would start there. It was a very quick drive from our hotel out to the zoo. Amazing how different the weather could be in such a short distance! It was cloudy and overcast at the hotel but was sunny and already starting to get hot at the zoo. The zoo is simply amazing! I have never seen so many active animal — they clearly are very well taken care of. They had just about every animal you can think of, with the highlights being the gorillas, panda bears, and the elephants. Usually elephants just sit around but these ones were really moving and playful. We did the ‘best value’ ticket for $33 each, which included the skyride and tourbus. I’d recommend it as the zoo is really huge. It was busy but because of the size, also manageable. I think you could spend two days there and not see everything!! I think my pictures will say it all about this place.

The zoo is located within Balboa Park. This is the one area of San Diego I would really like to return to and check out in more detail. The buildings and architecture are really interesting. They have many, many museums. Unfortunately, we were pretty beat by the time we got done at the zoo and the park was absolutely bustling with people anyway so we decided to save it for another trip.

Originally, we were going to have dinner this night in the gaslamp district which is located downtown. But this was Saturday night of Memorial Day weekend. There was a Padres game *and* some sort of Jazz festival going on. We ended up driving out to Point Loma instead. It was really beautiful out there! And since it was cool and overcast, it wasn’t busy at all. So it was nice to just take in the scenery on our own.

Then we returned to our hotel for a bit of a rest before walking over to Little Italy. The Radisson is fairly well located to get to this cute little area. The most famous place there is Filippi’s Pizza Grotto and we arrived to find a fairly long line. Figuring this was actually a good sign, we added ourselves to the queue! I actually think the line was the most interesting part of the experience although I will say the place was really cute inside. The pizza wasn’t great in my opinion but I think there are people who would like it. I’m glad we went there and hung out in Little Italy. I’d like to return there someday as well.

Sunday – May 27
Gosh, this trip sure is going by fast! The one thing I know is that you really need more time than we had in both of these wonderful cities. People who say there isn’t anything to do in Southern California are crazy! Anyway, on this lazy Sunday morning, we headed downtown to a place called Cafe 222. Again, we found a long line!! Figuring we might as well stick it out, we decided to just wait. It was the cutest little spot and the place was tiny! This could have explained the wait. I think food-wise it was the best breakfast of the trip. And the hostess girl reminded me of Evangeline Lilly, which didn’t hurt either.

After breakfast, we headed for Old Town, which is just north of the city. It turns out this would have been a great place to eat as well, especially if you like mexican! There are little cafes everywhere here. We had a pay a bit to park but it was not nearly as expensive as LA. There are also shops galore here so I think mom really enjoyed it more than me. I did take lots of pictures though and enjoyed the slight bit of culture and history that was to be found. It was really very colorful as can be seen from the pictures. And, as everywhere in southern Cal, the flowers were absolutely amazing!

Our next stop was Coronado so we headed across the Coronado Bay bridge. This is a cute little town with more little shops. Since our time was relatively limited we didn’t spend much time there, however. The Hotel Del Coronado is located here as well, so we drove by. I wasn’t too impressed but maybe you have to go inside to really get the full benefit of it? We drove past the hotel where the peninsula gets very narrow. There are many beaches along the way so we decided to stop for a bit. You can’t go to CA and not go to the beach! It was crowded but nice and warm. A great day to hang out on the beach (for an hour in our case).

Next we headed inland to one of the Casinos. I guess we thought it would be a lot warmer there but it really cools off quickly as you approach the evening. This particular place was rather nice anyway and included an outlet mall. I believe it was called the Viejas Casino. Mom did really well there so she got to pay for dinner later!!

Speaking of dinner, it was time to head back to the city and get cleaned up before dinner. We had decided we wanted to get some seafood so we headed for the Fish Market right on the waterfront, next to the USS Midway. This is great place and it was clear by the (yep) long line inside just to put your name on the list! We figured the other places would be busy too and we were just too excited about getting a free parking spot to complain. But when we got up there, the lady said they had a table for two OUTSIDE that we could have right away!! Since people were being quoted 2+ hours for a table inside, we took it!! The food and atmosphere were great and we only mildly froze our butts off! We are from Michigan, right?? (I apologize for the bad picture but I didn’t take many)

From there, we didn’t want to end the night so early so we headed for the Gaslamp quarter to check it out. I found some relatively cheap ($3) parking right near there so that seemed to be a good omen. The place was absolutely jam packed! If you are into nightlife, this was definitely the place to be!! It was wall-to-wall beautiful people! I *had* to make a stop at the Ghiradelli place even though both me and mom were still stuffed from the great food we had just had. Then we went to see Shrek at this cool old theater there. So, all in all, a pretty full day!
Did I mention the view from our room?

Monday – May 28
I think we saved the best for last!!
After checking out of the hotel, we headed out towards the beach. I do think that morning is probably the time to do this as it was very quiet and not many people out and about. My guess is that they were out having a good time the night before! Anyway, we stopped at this Pub in Pacific Beach that served breakfast. It was surprisingly good. We were able to park right next to the ocean, where there was yet another lovely beach. I love the beach!

From there, we continued along the coast to La Jolla. Wow! What more can I say about it? Wow! The coastline is really amazing there. And the water was soooo clear! I don’t know how they keep the water looking like that but they were doing something right, I’ll tell you that. And the rocky coast is really spectacular as well. There was a tiny little beach we went down to just to dip our feet near the cold water. Just up from that spot, was the Children’s Pool, where the seals seem to like to hang out. They all were having a grand time, I believe! Just resting and enjoying yet another sunny day in California. We spent quite a while there just watching the seals, surf, and coast. Then we went up and sampled the town of La Jolla which is very nice as well. There were lots of upscale shops. I stopped at the Hard Rock for a t-shirt and mom went in a few stores. But it was getting late and we still had more to see!

Although I’m not sure this goes in the San Diego section, our last major stop of the trip was at the Mission at San Juan Capistrano, about midway between San Diego and LA. I didn’t think there would be much to this but the grounds were rather extensive. We could have spent much, much longer here. Very beautiful gardens once again. I think flowers must like all the sunshine or something. Anyway, this was one of the first missions in California and really does deserve a visit. There was a small admission fee.

We capped off our trip by driving from here up along the coast to LAX. This is a really nice drive if you have more time than we did but we couldn’t really stop and enjoy it, especially since we lost a lot of time in Laguna Beach. That was the one place I most wished I had another hour. It would have been nice to check out some of the shops and maybe go to the beach. But it was still cool just driving through there with the top down. Traffic was terrible but it was nice and warm and I was on my last few hours of vacation so I was gonna enjoy it!!

We ate at a little mall in Manhattan Beach just south of the airport just before boarding our plane for the nasty redeye and returning home.

It was a great trip and we saw just about everything we could see in the time we had. I like to take small trips like this so I know what places I’d like to return to later. And both LA and San Diego certainly fit the bill there. Next time, I think we will try going to Mexico.

Reviews:
Radisson Harbor View

More pictures:

[View with PicLens]

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Filippis Pizza Grotto

Cafe 222

The Fish Market