If you’ve never been to San Diego before, GO TO SAN DIEGO. This was my third time there and it just gets better every time. Ewan and I (mainly I) fantasized about buying a holiday home here… which is another level of laughable seeing as we are currently both technically homeless and very much unemployed. However, if you’re reading this and want to get us a nice Christmas gift, we will take a place near Mission Beach. Thanks in advance.
Back to reality, once we’d checked in to our hotel we walked to the nearby Trolley Station to buy a 3 day pass for $12. San Diego has a very accessible trolley/bus system that covers the whole city, so it’s a very cost effective and simple way to get around. We headed first to Old Town for a wander amongst the cute, historically decorated shops and museums, most of which are free to visit. There’s a really cool candle shop where you can dip and decorate your own candle for as little as $2, which I have done before and loved, and a donkey farm!
We hopped back on the Trolley to Sante Fe Depot and walked along the Harbour, coming across a public pier. We walked to the end of it and there were seats set out for people to sit and plane watch on – Ewan’s dream! They also had free wifi – my dream!
Evening started to close in and it got a little chilly, so I dragged Ewan, screaming and crying, towards our next destination. We were headed to Seaport Village for dinner, but on the way we saw lots of gorgeous memorials scattered along the Harbourfront. My two favourites were Homecoming and the Bob Hope Memorial.
Seaport Village has lots of gluten free restaurant options, including a couple fancy places along the water and a Cheesecake Factory. We opted for Mexican at Puesto and we were not disappointed. It happened to be Taco Tuesday, which meant that all their tacos were half price at only $2.50 each! Bargain. They mark their gluten free options on the menu and if you tell your server about your allergies, they will do everything they can to prevent cross contamination. I went for 3 tacos and a wine flight to wash it down. YUM.
The waitress asked if we would like to see the dessert menu and I obliged, but only so I could take a look at it ‘for the blog’. This was a rookie mistake; I saw the words Dark Chocolate Torte and couldn’t resist.
After dinner we headed up to the Top of the Hyatt for a drink and to take in the view before getting the Trolley back to the hotel. Side note: I’d put zero effort into my appearance on this day and before we walked into the restaurant, I’d asked Ewan if I looked decent enough as it was quite a nice place. He did the standard man response of ‘you look lovely darling’ without really looking at me. The second we had finished dinner and were walking out the restaurant, he turned to me, laughed, and said, “your hair looks like Mick Hucknall’s”. Great.
The next morning, we got the bus to Balboa park. There’s so much to do in Balboa park depending on what interests you – beautiful gardens, art galleries, museums and a big outdoor theatre. We did a bit of it all! The area around the botanical gardens is definitely worth a visit.
Next, we headed to Coronado Island for lunch and an afternoon at the beach. We ate in Claytons Diner, an adorable little cafe with red booths and duke boxes – very ‘Grease’! They know their stuff about gluten allergies, and although they do make their own gluten free cakes, they are made in the same area as normal cakes so they aren’t suitable for ceoliacs.
With full bellies, we walked down to the Coronado Hotel and chilled out on the beach for a bit. Ewan isn’t a lover of just sitting on the beach doing nothing, so thankfully we found some games to play to keep him entertained! (Unnecessary info but I would like to get it in writing – I beat him at both games).
Once we were done with the beach, we sat in the sun on the Coronado Hotel outdoor deck, drinking very overpriced but delicious Mai Tai’s.
We spent the evening in the Gaslamp Quarter, shopping in the Westfield Mall and having an early dinner in Thai Mint. They were great with my gluten free requirements and I had a delicious Green Thai Curry, but Ewan’s Massaman was waaaay better and I had serious food envy!
We had planned a beach day for our last full day in San Diego but it was cloudy until about 11am, which was actually great because we had a lazy morning and a lie in for the first time in what feels like forever! When the sun was finally shining, we drove to La Jolla (free 2-3 hour parking if you can find a space) to visit the sea lions and seals! They are very smelly and noisy but fun to watch. People get in the water and swim beside them but we were too wimpy to join in. The whole area is very pretty but gets very busy with tourists, so it’s a good place to explore but not such a great place to sunbathe.
We stopped for lunch on the gorgeous ocean view deck at George’s. Weirdly, they clearly mark their gluten/dairy/nut free items on their online menu, but not on the menus in the restaurant. Not to worry though, because the staff know their stuff and will let you know what you can eat. I had some insanely good yellowtail tacos, and loved eating them with a view of La Jolla Cove below us.
The weather was amazing so we jumped back in the car and drove to Mission Beach, my favourite part of San Diego with its soft, sandy beach and buzzing cocktail bars. Parking is free and can be a bit of a nightmare, but we were very lucky and grabbed a 4-hour space right on the beach! We sunbathed for ages, walked along the pier and people watched at a beach bar. I wish we were in San Diego longer as I could have spent a couple weeks like that!
That evening we had another quick sunbathe, this time by the hotel pool, and went shopping at Fashion Valley Mall. We grabbed dinner at the always-amazing P.F.Chang’s and I greedily popped into the Cheesecake Factory afterwards to take a slice of gluten free coffee cheesecake to go! It was yummy but I saved half of it for breakfast the next day, and insanely it turns out that cheesecake isn’t a great breakfast food (who knew?!) because I felt gross for hours afterwards! In hindsight, it was still worth it.
We are in LA now which we are both loving and hating. I’ll fill you all in tomorrow! Only 3 weeks until we land back in the UK, arghhhhh!
Gluten Free Piggy 