Surprise Weekend in San Diego

As I had a full week off, Lindsey really wanted to go away for a weekend. As we happened to have a concert to attend just north of San Diego, we identified San Diego as the target. When we started looking at costs, it became clear that a downtown hotel would not be cheap. In response I began to ween Lindsey off of the idea of going by giving her my trademark "We'll see, but it doesn't look good" look every time she brought up the topic. By mid-week she stopped asking about the trip. What she did not know is that I was regularly checking for a good deal. I found it on Thursday; a four star hotel for $150/night on the edge of the swank Gaslamp District.

The 4-star hotel was the Hotel Solamar; a very posh hotel with a modern design and feel that catered to a younger crowd. It is located in the southern edge of the Gaslamp district with a great view of Petco Park, home of the MLB's San Diego Padres. The rooms were nicely decorated, but the bed, while comfortable, does not compare to pillow top beds used by the Marriot. The highlight of the hotel is their 4th floor pool bar patio. It offers great sun and a fun pool atmosphere, although the drinks were rather expensive. At night it turns into a bar with a DJ spinning into the night.

After booking the hotel I went to work planning the weekend. I wanted to leave most of the time open to what Lindsey would want to do (or "shopping" and "lounging by the pool"), but I booked two fun dinner events that she would enjoy. On the first night, we headed to the Cafe Sevilla for a three course meal and a Flamenco show. The meal was a salad, a pretty good paella (a bit heavy on the salt), and a creme brule for desert. While I admit that the flamenco show was quite entertaining, anyone who knows my deep love of flamenco dancing will understand if I got a bit bored near the end of the show. Most importantly, Lindsey enjoyed the evening.

For the second night I wanted some upbeat fun, so we headed to the Shout House; a dueling piano bar known for its dirty serenades to birthday persons and bachelorettes. The large place was completely packed by 7:30! The performers did a great job at entertaining the crowd and getting the crowd to participate in the show. Even better was their $7 ($5 refills) for 32oz of beer (best deal in the Gaslamp district!). One of the highlight songs had to be Justin Timberlake's "Sexy Back".

San Diego's Gaslamp District is quite a nice example of downtown revitalization. I was shocked at the density of the number of restaurants. It felt like there was 1 restaurant for every 2 storefronts. Whatever type of food you could want is found in this district. The area offers some good shopping. Lindsey bought three dresses which I think is a record for her since we arrived in So.Cal.

Sunday morning we packed up and headed north to Solana Beach where the famous Belly Up Tavern is found and the site of TV On the Radio's concert. Solana is a small beach town quickly becoming a suburb of San Diego and is located just off Hwy 5. When we arrived in Solana by 1pm, toured the entire extended area by about 3:30 and realized the concert was at 8pm, it occurred to me that I should have planned an activity. We spent alot of time watching the beach (the surfers were out in full force that day) and trying to stay awake (we can't go all weekend like we used to). A meal at Tony Roma's and a Monster Energy Drink later we headed to the Belly Up.

The belly up reminds me of a large barn. The outside looks small, but the inside opens up to a vast space that holds about 500 people. The stage is rather low, so the site lines for smaller people can be poor except in a few areas. I think the club would be a great dance bar.

For those out of the know, TV On the Radio is one of the more interesting current Indie Rock bands; second only to Canada's The Arcade Fire. The best description of their show is "Sonic". They have an ability to make the sounds from their instruments just soar akin to how U2 does it. I am not comparing them to U2 (they are completely different), just the sonic component of their individual sounds. The lead singer had a fantastic voice and great energy. He moved around and sang like he was singing gospel; lots of hopping, arms swaying with his eyes closed. TVotR is just a great live band. I was not sure how they would replicate some of their sounds on their albums, but they pulled it off. I think many of the songs that I thought were average became memorable when they performed them live. This is a band that is really developing an identity and a great sound. In an album or two they could be taking the mainstream by storm.

Lindsey enjoyed the show as well. She only remembered hearing a few songs of theirs, but was impressed with how they sounded. She also really enjoyed the weekend. It was a complete surprise to her. I think it was nice to have a weekend dedicated to her given most of the year focuses on me.