March 22, 2013 - San Diego, California

AUTHOR'S NOTE: 2013 found us back in San Diego for the American Academy of Neurology Meeting.  As always, it gave us the opportunity to catch up with some residency friends - Dean, Dan, and John.  Unfortunately, it was the first Academy Meeting since residency that our friends Billy and Amy were unable to attend.

Dinner at Roy's with Dean Tuesday night (3/19) was nice (AUTHOR'S NOTE: Roy's is a high end chain founded by Hawaiian chef Roy Yamaguchi.  With locations in San Francisco, San Diego, and downtown Los Angelos, it was a pretty common dinner spot for West Coast conferences - although they now have one right here in Baltimore).  I had the usual Ahi tuna.  Lisa had the halibut.  I don't remember what Dean had.  Very nice to see him again, he is an interesting guy

On the deck of a Soviet Foxtrot class sub

Wednesday (3/20), I had a class in the afternoon (that Dean was in!) on the history of neurology, about lessons we have learned about neurology from war injuries.  In the morning, Lisa and I went to the San Diego maritime museum.  The museum isn't a building, but rather a flotilla of historic ships that you can tour.  We went on the three main ones - HMS Surprise, a replica of an 18th century British warship that was used in the film Master and Commander; The Star of India, which is the oldest merchant ship that still goes to sea; and the B-39, a Foxtrot class diesel-electric Soviet submarine.  The Star of India was built in 1863 and began life in the tea trade.  It was converted to a passenger ship to take emigrants to New Zealand.  Later, it was used in the lumber trade between California and Australia.  Finally, it was sold to an American company who renamed it Star of India (original name was Euterpe) and used it in the salmon trade between Alaska and San Francisco.  By far, the most interesting of ships was the Soviet submarine.  I was 18 when the Berlin wall came down, signalling the beginning of the end of the Cold War.  Never in my wildest dreams as kid could I have imagined standing on the deck of a Soviet submarine and touring the inside.  Although bigger than the USS Torsk, the WWII era sub in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, it is still cramped.  The enlisted hot bunk and an area where the officers can meet, play cards, or eat also doubles as the ship's surgery!  We got some great pics of the torpedo room and on the deck.  Amazing.

Torpedo Room

The tour was self-guided.  In the Russian sub and on the Star of India there were lots of placards explaining things.  There were also guides on the Star of India that were available for questions.  We chatted with them for a while as they were quite pleasant full of old stories of ships and local celebs.  They seemed impressed that we were at their museum, all the way from Baltimore!

After the museum, we had a lovely lunch at Anthony's Seafood Grotto, which was right next door and written up in one of the guide books as a nice place.  The dining room was stunning, with a wall of windows that looked out over San Diego Bay.  Even though we weren't seated right by the window, we could still appreciate the view well from our table.  Our server, named M and M, was one of the most delightfully pleasant people I have ever met and the service was wonderful.  The food was excellent.  Hot rolls came with a dried tomato and garlic flavoured butter.  They had some smaller plates that were perfect for lunch.  Lisa and the grilled fish taco with cole slaw as her side.  The cole slaw was very good and had a mango dressing on top.  I had the tortilla-crusted tilapia with a side of steamed vegetables, which was lovely.  Washed it down with a draught of the local Karl Strauss Red Trolley Ale.

For dinner that night (after my class), we went to an Indian restaurant in the Gaslamp District called Royal India.  Quite good.  Excellent vegetable samosa (with fantastic mint chutney) and good naan.  I had the chicken tikka white wine curry (which turned out to be similar to chicken tikka masala) and Lisa had a coconut pineapple curry, which she was able to order mild.

Yesterday (3/21) I took the the day off from the conference and we rented a car and drove to La Jolla for the day.  The weather was gorgeous and it was an easy drive, although the rental car set us back $100.  After parking the car, we walked down to the water at La Jolla cove, also called the Children's Cove.  It is an inlet protected by a man made sea wall that serves as a refuge for what were either seals or sea lions (not entirely sure, but think seals).  There must have been 50-60 sunning themselves on the beach or on the rocks as we looked down from a park bench by the side of the road above the cove.  We hung out there for a bit before moving on and, frankly, the weather was so nice and view so relaxing, I could have sat there all day...

Seal sunning himself at La Jolla Cove

After the seals, we walked a half-mile up Girard Avenue and back, which seemed to be the main drag in La Jolla.  It is filled with shops and cafes.  The shops are as eclectic as Boston's Newburg Street - from high end to antiques to souvenir shops.  We browsed two book stores, one before lunch and one after.  The first bookstore was called Warwick's.  It sells new books but had an interesting selection.  Lisa nearly bought a book by a local author, but decided not to.  She couldn't find any San Diego set mysteries.

For lunch, we went to Rubio's!!!!  Rubio's is a west coast chain, but it originated in San Diego.  They serve fast, fresh Mexican food (same concept as Baja Fresh, a west coast chain that has spread east) and their fish taco is amazing.  It is the standard by which I measure all fish tacos (at least all fried fish ones).  We first had them at the baseball game in San Diego the last time we came (and a couple of other times on that trip) and I had one the last time I was in San Francisco as well.  Battered and fried Alaskan cod, cabbage, white sauce, and a squeeze of lime juice...  Wonderful!  I had the two fish taco platter (with chips and black beans) and washed it down with a Stone IPA, brewed in North San Diego County.  Lisa had one fish taco and a side of chips.

After lunch, we went to the second bookstore, D.G. Wills.  Mr. Wills (D.G.) was there and was quite a character.  Although he didn't talk to us much, he chatted up a storm with a couple from Chicago.  The bookshelves extend all the way up to a high ceiling and, although I missed it, there was even a secret room.  He had a mixture of new and used books with an emphasis on antiques or collectible editions (vintage, first edition, and/or leather bound editions).  I did manage to find a bargain copy of Fulton Sheen's Life of Christ.  He had a lot of the Gryphon Editions classics of Medicine series (leather bound), but no good neurology titles in that series.

After D.G. Wills, we had a cup of tea next door at a place called Pannikin Coffee and Tea, which I gathered was one of the few remaining locations of what used to be a local chain.  The tea was quite nice.  Lisa had an English breakfast tea, I had a Ceylon tea, and we sat in glorious California sunshine on a large outdoor patio while listening to 80's music they had playing overhead.

After tea, we walked the half-mile back to the car, browsed a t-shirt shop and stopped for gelato (Lisa had strawberry and I had tiramasu - good, but we've had better), before driving back to downtown San Diego and returning the rental. All in all, a delightful day.

Last night we went to a microbrew pub called Karl Strauss Brewery in Little Italy with Dean, Dan, and John.  The food was average, but the beer was good and the camaraderie excellent - really great to see those guys!

Today I had a class in the afternoon, but we booked a whale watching tour for this morning.  Again we had beautiful weather.  A local aquarium provided guides and our guide, Stephanie, was very knowledgeable.  Apparently grey whales migrate from the Arctic to lagoons in Mexico to spawn- a 10,000+ mile migration!  The San Diego whale tours take advantage of this migration (tours run from 12/26 to 4/14) to see whales and they issue you a voucher for a return trip if there are no sightings.  The grey whale is a baleen whale but actually a bottom feeder, filtering mouthfuls of arctic sea mud with its baleen for shrimp-like arthropods.  They spend six months feeding and growing and six months in the migration, mating, and birthing, during which they fast.  They are also covered with parastic barnacles and symbiotic whale lice.  The whale lice eat dead skin and reduce the itching caused by the barnacles.

While a few passengers experienced some moton sickness once we got out of San Diego Bay and onto the open ocean, Lisa and I found it quite pleasant.  We saw sea lions in the bay as well as the Coronado Navy Base.  Lisa got some shots of the USS Midway (a retired aircraft carrier we toured on our previous trip to San Diego) and the San Diego skyline from the water.  We saw a juvenile grey whale early in the tour, but a couple of hours later we were rewarded with getting a very close look at about 5-6 grey whales together (grey whales are about 40-50 ft long and weigh about 60,000 pounds).  We also saw several pods of dolpins and a kelp forest off Point Loma.  All in all, we had a very enjoyable cruise.

USS Midway

After the cruise and before my 3 PM class, we had lunch at the Fish Market (we ahd eaten there with Dan after touring the Midway on our last trip).  We sat outside on a narrow deck overlooking the bay, which was nice, but I think Lisa thought it was too much sun.  Lisa had a lobster roll and I had very tasty teriyaki mahi mahi sliders (2) with a side of excellent homemade cole slaw.  I washed mine down with a draught of Ballast Point Pale Ale (we learned on the cruise that Ballast Point was once the center of the whaling industry).  It was quite good, but I'd give a slight edge to Anthony's Fish Grotto.