It's Always Cloudy in San Diego

After Los Angeles, I took my second trip to San Diego.  I took the train.  I wanted to sit on the side facing the ocean.  Unfortunately, I didn't know which way was which when I got on the train and picked the wrong side.  For a decent part of the trip, the train goes right along the ocean.  The train was pretty full.  San Diego was the last stop and it did thin out before that.  So I did switch seats to sit on the ocean side, but I missed most of the part of the trip along the ocean.  I did get to see some mountains on my side though.  And I was able to watch about five innings of Dodgers-Giants (another Dodger win) on a probably illegal YouTube live stream.  It was bright and sunny the entire way down.  And then I got to San Diego and it was cloudy.  It was cloudy when I was in San Diego five years ago also.

My view of the ocean from the train

Anyway, I got to my hotel, which was in the Gaslamp District and close to Petco Park.  I had googled best fish tacos in San Diego and one of the places I found had a location right by Petco Park.  So I stopped in there before the game.  I got a taco with fish, shrimp, and octopus.  It was really good.  Then I headed in for the game.

I really like Petco Park.  As I walked around the lower concourse, I was surprisingly reminded of Fenway Park in a weird way.  There are some random ramps and stairs that you'll find at Fenway Park also.  Of course, it's a much more modern ballpark.  And of the ballparks built during my lifetime, I have it behind only PNC Park (another one I'd really like to get back to, maybe next year).  One of the things that I didn't like when I was there five years ago was that the dimensions were too big and they had the visitors' bullpen on the field.  So I suggested bringing in the fences and moving the bullpen behind the fences.  They did that two years ago.  It's still been a pitcher's park in two of the three seasons since they moved in the fences, but not as extreme of a pitcher's park as it used to be.  So they've improved Petco Park.  After the Dodgers, I mainly root for teams with good ballparks because I want to see good ballparks in the playoffs.  So my ideal playoffs would be:

NL West:  Dodgers
NL Central:  Cubs
NL East:  Nationals
NL Wild Cards:  Padres and Giants Reds Cardinals Phillies (the Giants and Cardinals get crossed out for obvious reasons, the Reds get crossed out because I think their ballpark is a much better in person ballpark than TV ballpark)

AL West:  Mariners
AL Central:  Royals
AL East:  Red Sox
AL Wild Cards:  Twins and Yankees (I have Oriole Park at Camden Yards ranked one spot higher than Yankee Stadium, but it's fun to be in New York when the Yankees are in the playoffs and it gives us the possibility of Yankees-Red Sox)

I should note that I haven't been to Sun Trust Park yet (maybe next year) so the Braves might take that second Wild Card spot in the NL.

Anyway, back to San Diego.  I was able to get to all three Man vs. Food spots, sort of.  The first was the Petco Park version of Lucha Libre.  It's a Mexican place where Adam had the Surfin' California burrito.  It has shrimp, steak, fries, pico de gallo, jack cheese, avocado, and chipotle sauce.  They also gave me little cups of two different salsas.  I had the Surfin' California burrito at Petco.  It was pretty good.  I think I'd prefer either just shrimp or just steak.  I don't love both at the same time, but maybe that's just me.  I've done two Man vs. Food spots where they have fries on the sandwich (Primanti Brothers in Pittsburgh and Lucky's Sandwich Company in Chicago).  I thought the fries in the burrito got overwhelmed a little bit more than they did on the sandwiches.  I'll get to the other two Man vs. Food spots it a bit, but Lucha Libre is probably tied for first of the three (don't worry, it's not a three-way tie, there was a clear number 3).

As for the game, it was Dinelson Lamet for the Padres against Ivan Nova for the Pirates.  The Padres went up 2-0 in the first and 4-0 by the end of the fifth.  The Pirates managed to score two runs in the seventh, but it was a comfortable win for the Fathers.  Jose Pirela had two triples and Manny Margot hit a home run.  To drink, I had a Pale Ale .394 from the AleSmith Brewing Company (a San Diego brewery) in honor of Tony Gwynn's 1994 season.  It was a solid beer.  Tony Gwynn is my favorite non-Dodger who played for an NL West team.  Nolan Arenado is second on that list.

My view for the game

My flight home was an overnight flight the next night.  I started the day by going to the Broken Yolk Cafe.  Adam did a challenge there that required eating a 12-egg omelette.  I had an omelette that was allegedly a four-egg omelette.  I got one with lots of vegetables.  I was definitely eating some unhealthy foods on the trip, so I wanted something healthier.  I had a few issues with the omelette.  First, they went way too heavy on the vegetables.  Second, it was like an egg version of a crepe.  It was very thin and didn't seem like four eggs.  And going along with that, the egg made like a little sleeping bag for the vegetables, they weren't mixed in with the egg at all.  So you might say that I didn't really like it because I made a bad decision with my order, but I don't think I would have liked one of their omelettes with more delicious ingredients.  So the Broken Yolk finishes third of the three San Diego Man vs. Food spots.

Then I walked to mass at St. Joseph's Cathedral.  It was kind of on the way to the San Diego Zoo, which was my last stop.  The San Diego Zoo has to be one of the two most famous zoos in the country, right?  The Bronx Zoo is the other one.  And I think the San Diego Zoo is the more famous of the two.  Tickets for the San Diego Zoo are about 1.4 times the price of the Bronx Zoo (at least for adults).  I saw some cool animals, but I didn't really see how it was any better than the Bronx Zoo (I was last there on a field trip in 2013).  It's probably bigger than the Bronx Zoo, but I wouldn't say that's worth being 1.4 times the price.

St. Teresa of Calcutta and St. John Paul II

Leigh Ellis is right, the giraffe is a very graceful animal.

I went to the airport very early for my flight.  I was hoping to watch the Dodgers on Sunday Night Baseball on my iPad.  The Dodgers were down 1-0 in the ninth.  Chase Utley had an infield single and a stolen base.  He scored on a Yasiel Puig single.  The Giants took the lead in the 11th.  Chris Taylor led off the bottom 11th with a groundout, which put the Baseball-Reference win probability for the Dodgers at 11%.  Then Corey Seager doubled.  The Giants put Justin Turner on first base with an intentional walk.  Cody Bellinger had come out of the game in a double switch so Kyle Farmer came up to pinch hit for his first career at bat.  Of course, he doubled to win the game.  It was another awesome win and the Dodgers swept the Giants.

I was able to get to the airport version of the third Man vs. Food spot, Phil's BBQ.  I had the same thing Adam had, the El Toro sandwich, which has tri-tip and barbecue sauce.  When I watched the episode, I suspected that the sauce was a little too thin for my tastes.  I usually like a thicker barbecue sauce.  I have a co-worker who makes his own barbecue sauce.  His is thin (but probably thicker than this one) and it's really good.  But in this case, my suspicion was correct.  I didn't love the sauce, but the sandwich was still pretty good.  I had that at the beginning of the Dodger game as I watched on a TV at Phil's.  Around the eighth inning, I went to Red Mango for some desert.  I had their mango frozen yogurt and it was really good.  It had me googling Red Mango to see where they were on Long Island.  None of them are all that close to me, but they are around.

The El Toro at Phil's BBQ

Before I wrap this up, I have one note to make on the new Man vs. Food, which just started with episodes in New York and Milwaukee.  I've been to a ton of Man vs. Food spots, but surprisingly, I don't think I've been to any of the nearby spots from the original run.  Adam did New York, Brooklyn, and Long Island episodes.  I've never been to any of those places.  He did a Philadelphia episode.  I've never been to any of those places.  The only Boston spot I've been to is the Barking Crab, but that was just to drink Summer Ale.  And the only Washington spot I've been to is the Nationals Park version of Ben's Chili Bowl.  I don't think I'll be going to any of the New York spots from the new version.  One was on Staten Island, which is pretty much a foreign country.  One was a pizza place.  What Casey (the new host) had there was ridiculous (a pizza topped with pizza in a box made out of pizza).  It did seem like there were some good pizza options there, but I can find good pizza options in a whole bunch of other places around here too.  And the other spot was Clinton Hall, where he had a fondue burger.  The fondue burger seemed absolutely ridiculous, but it might have other interesting burger options (it's also a beer hall) so we'll put Clinton Hall down as a maybe.  I'll keep watching the new Man vs. Food, but I'm a little worried because Casey already looks like Adam did in his last season.

So that was my last big trip of the summer (there was another quick baseball trip that I'll get to later).  It looks like I'm not going to any Notre Dame football games this year.  After last year, I didn't want to go to any home games.  I applied for the Boston College game in the lottery, but I lost.  This looks like it will be the first year since I graduated that I don't get to a football game.  So I don't know when I'll be on a plane again.  My guess is I'll do something next year for my February and/or Easter vacation.  Hopefully I can spend the fall enjoying Notre Dame football (I'm not optimistic) and the Dodgers making a World Series run (I'm more optimistic).  Go Irish!  Go Dodgers!