I don’t get to travel nearly as much as I’d like, but when I do I spend hours and hours researching my destination and figuring out the best places to explore and EAT!! My sister, Shannon, has been asking me to add a travel section to the blog to capture those foodie adventures so it’s only fitting I start with a trip my sis and I took together.

In May of 2015 (wow, that’s a long time ago!), I attended a conference for work in San Diego. I was excited for the opportunity to travel but wasn’t super jazzed about going alone. It just so happened that Shannon was out of school at that time and my dad some points/vouchers that were going to expire so Shannon tagged along for a $9 airline ticket! Thanks Dad!!

Neither Shannon nor I had ever been to the west coast and we were excited to be visiting California for the first time. I had done a lot of research before the trip about things to do in my spare time in the evenings as well as the day we arrived early and the days we stuck around after the conference. Shannon and I picked a few must-do things, places to see, and food we just had to try and planned out a rough itinerary.

I do my travel planning by laying out all my options, then based on the list of must-dos I plan a rough sketch of areas I’ll be in and what is most convenient in terms of other activities and places to eat. I don’t like to plan every minute but I like to have an idea of what to do and where to go to maximize our time. Shannon and I knew the zoo was top of our list as was whale watching, and dipping our toes into the Pacific Ocean. We planned those activities for days where we had the most free time. We had a list of a few other activities to do if we had a few spare hours or if some of our other plans didn’t work out. I started looking into restaurants with good reviews/recommendations in the areas we were going to be in so when we got hungry we’d know where to go. Finally, the last thing we had to plan was our trip hashtag. Shannon came up with the name Sunny San Diego (since the weather would be gorgeously sunny the entire trip) so we used the hashtag #sistersinSSD to memorialize our trip on Instagram.

First on our list once we landed in SSD and checked into the hotel was fish tacos! We opted for finding a place close to the hotel since we needed to get checked in and were HUNGRY after being up early for a long morning of travel. We decided on a place a few minutes away with good reviews and off we went. Downtown Fish Joint is a no-frills counter service place that services fish tacos and fried seafood plates. It’s in downtown SD but not exactly in a very lively part of the city. For as big as SD is, I was expecting the city to be more busy but oddly it felt like most of the city was on vacation while we were there, which we didn’t mind because we never had to deal with long waits or bad traffic. I digress… back to the fish joint. Shannon and I both decided to order the fish tacos since they are supposed to be great in SD with the city being so close to Mexico. The food was good at Downtown Fish Joint but neither of us were really wowed. Maybe we built it up in our head but the fish tacos were a little lack luster. I personally was thrown off by the cheddar cheese on the tacos and the flour tortillas seemed a little unauthentic but to be expected. We loved the fries and the fish was fried crisp and fresh. We even got to sit outside, which we loved. All in all it was a good and inexpensive lunch but if I ever return to SSD, I don’t think I’d stop here again. If you’re in the area and are hungry, I’d say go but if you have the means to go somewhere else we found better places later in our trip that’d I’d recommend more.

After an early lunch, Shannon and headed over to the harbor to get on a boat for our afternoon of whale and dolphin watching. We only saw one whale from the distance (too far away to photograph well). The whale didn’t breach out of the water but we did see spray from the blowhole. On the way back to the harbor we were flanked by a giant pod of hundreds of dolphins, including several babies!

Since my conference didn’t start until the next day, we had a few late afternoon hours to burn and decided to head to the beach. We love the ocean and really wanted to stroll along a CA beach and see the Pacific Ocean. I had heard/read that both Mission and Pacific Beach were good spots and had a boardwalks that we could stroll down and a few piers to walk out on. We drove the rental car up the coast from the bay to check it out. True to the California stereotypes, we saw lots of roller bladers and surfers, to Shannon’s delight.  We were particularly interested in the little houses built on a pier that allowed cars to drive along it – not something you see on the Atlantic coast given the propensity for hurricanes I suppose. We walked and walked and walked until it was time for dinner. I had a place nearby in mind that was known for their fish plates, which we learned were a SD thing, and their ceviche so off we went.

The Pacific Beach Fish Shop did not disappoint. The Fish Shop is both a market and a restaurant. You order at the counter but the rest of the restaurant is really nice but casual. All of their fish is seasonal, super fresh, and grilled to order. We decided to share a fish plate, where we got to choose our fish, marinade, and two sides. We also decided to share a shrimp ceviche as well. We sat outside on their patio, which was dog friendly) and scarfed down our food. It was here we fell in love with ceviche and this restaurant became our favorite in SSD. Absolutely go if you have the chance and get the ceviche!!

The next day marked the start of my conference so most of the day was spent indoors, but Shannon met me on the lunch break and we headed down the street to another fish joint (surprise, surprise) for a bite before the afternoon sessions started. Spike Africa’s Grilled Fresh Fish Grill & Bar did not disappoint. It was a little more pricey than anticipated for a lunch but worth it. I got the fish tacos and Shannon ordered a mango bbq mahi dish and we shared them both. Again, we were able to sit outside on the patio and enjoyed some palm trees and sunshine before heading back to the conference. Pretty tasty meal if you are in the downtown area but we decided to continue our quest to find the best seafood in SSD.

Once the conference got out in the middle of the afternoon, Shannon and I booked it up to La Jolla to check out the cliff views and hang with the seals that have taken over an old beach. We strolled the area for hours and took way too many pictures and videos of the seals.

On our way back towards the hotel, we stopped for dinner at a restaurant called World Famous. The restaurant sits on Pacific Beach and we were able to sit on the patio to have a seaside dinner, watching the sun set over the beach. Unfortunately we only got pictures of the sunset and not what we ate. I got the crabcakes and Shannon got some sort of seafood pasta. The food was good and the views were great – Highly recommended!

The clouds started rolling in, which made the downtown city lights look cool so I snapped a pic of Shannon in the hotel parking lot before crashing for the night.

More of our trip recap to be posted soon…