San Diego is always filled with activity.
Literally. There’s a festival very weekend!
Even though I’ve lived in San Diego for less than two years, I don’t often spend time in some of the most “famous” areas. This weekend my baby sister and I decided to do a little adventuring on foot around Downtown, Sea Port Village, Waterfront, and Little Italy.
We started out with a little jog to the Convention Center… only to run these stairs.
You have to be bat shit crazy to run 3 miles and then run 100 stairs… 10 TIMES. That’s 1000 stairs. Did I mention this was at 1 PM?
My calves hate me today, but it was fun to do something different!
We are crazy, but we know how to refuel properly. The backside of those stairs leads you over to Seaport Village. It’s one of the most touristy things you can visit in San Diego, but I have to admit it’s fun.
It’s also home to San Pasqual Wine Tasting Room, where you can have a habanero wine slushie. My sister went for the slushie and I got a glass of rosé. We made a picnic with watermelon, waters, and hummus with pretzels from the deli across the way. It was a fun way to cool down while listening to a live band play.
We meandered through some shops and headed north to the waterfront. It’s a fun walk because you’re walking right along the boats, including the USS Midway (famous air craft carrier-turned-museum) and the Star of India (the world’s oldest active sailing ship – its from 1863!).
From there, we headed east to Little Italy. It’s my favorite neighborhood for drinks and food… I should have known better than to walk toward it. One look at the sign below and we stopped in our tracks for our second wine tasting of the day. Juice diets are all the rage.
Vino Carta was having a really cool Sunday special tasting. 5 wines, all from the Ottoman Empire (translation: really freaking old vines and/or methods). The man that was working was knowledgeable about the wines and a lot of fun to talk to. Y’all know I geek out on wine, so this was a ton of fun for me.
See the second glass from the left? That’s what happens when you ferment a white wine on its skins. Also knows as “skin contact wine” (insert childish joke here). It was common to make whites like this way back in the day. This particular wine is from Slovenia, which is Italy’s neighbor and also makes some pretty tasty juice.
At this point, we’d run and walked about 8 miles. It was 5 PM. Why not just stay in Little Italy for dinner? Vegas thought that was a lovely idea and met us at a new Sicilian spot, Barbusa.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BJtvNcFAc80/
I didn’t get pictures of everything, but it included Aperol spritzes, grilled peaches and prosciutto, crab arancini, artichoke-mushroom pizza, and cannoli chips.
Oh, right… I totally got a pic of those cannoli chips. The server (who was from Sicily) brought it to us as a surprise after dinner. You know how cannoli is hard to eat because it crumbles? The chips completely remedy this. It was perfection.
And then we went home, showered, and promptly passed out went to sleep.
[Tweet “Being a tourist in Downtown San Diego #wanderlust #travel”]
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Hey Meghan… does a Day in Review count for your glorious link up?
Have you ever spent a day as a tourist in your own city?
Are you a fan of cannoli? I can’t believe we’ll be eating it in Italy in less than a month!
Oh wow those grilled peaches… I drooled on Instagram and I’m drooling again now!
I love wine tastings and fitting in two in one day sounds ideal to me!
You must be so excited about heading to Italy! Cant wait to read about all your adventures there! I have never ever tried a cannoli… I don’t think I even came across them in Italy!
It was amazing… but I can’t wait to do it all again in the REAL Italy!!!
Oh.my.God to that cannoli bowl. I need that in my life on a daily basis.
I wish I could be a tourist in my town but that would start and end with um, let’s see….a tour of a farm? Super exciting.
Enjoy real life on the left coast and I will continue to live vicariously though you.
Great job on those stairs woman!!!
I’m waiting for you to decided to do a tri out here! It’s a west coast addiction… or so I’m told.
Since moving back to our small town and now with young kids I’m ALWAYS looking for sources of entertainment so we have definitely become ‘touristy’ visiting our local small museum, an old ice cream parlor, etc. LOVE hometown living!
1000 stairs in the dead of the afternoon = CRAZY!!!
I seriously want to be you a) because you kick ass b) because you kick ass and take names and c) OMG BARBUSA WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE
Don’t forget the bodies! I also hide the bodies! 😉
Wow I have not run stairs in forever! Look at you “stepping it up” 🙂
Hahahaha! I see what you did there. 😉
You can link up whatever you want, whenever you want.
I’ve had cannoli dips before and they’re amazing. Granted I was pregnant and not supposed to eat the ricotta…oops.
I think if – god forbid – Vegas ever knocked me up, I say screw it to the cheese rule. I’d just chase it with vodka so all the potentially bad things would be sterilized. Seems legit…
I should just LIST THIS BLOG POST on my wedding website so people know what they could possibly get up to when they’re in SD! 😉
I’ll write the city guide for you! 😉
ahhh good SD. so fun and FESTIVE, always. Haha. I would geek out with wine with you. Still working on moving. Gah..
Work harder brother! There’s so much wine and I can’t drink it all alone… 😉
I would have passed out too after such an amazing, full day with my sister. 🙂 You were pretty crazy and amazing to have run that much and walked that much. 🙂 Isn’t moving so fun?
It was so much fun! I’m lucky to have a sister who loves to run around as much as I do!
Oh my – Cannoli chips?! I’ve never seen those here in the ATL! I visited SD in 2010 and LOVED it – reading your post makes me wanna move there too! There’s so much to see and do in that city!
You should go suggest that to the guys at Antico for Fritti! Hahah!
10 times?!! I was in SD last year for a conference and ran those steps 2 or 3 times before and after my run and I was SPENT. They are no joke.
It was KILLER! I needed oxygen by the end. But settled for wine. 😉
This post makes me miss San Diego. Luckily I can travel for free now so I can go there anytime there’s space on a plane. I plan to make it down to SD when the weather gets too cold in Idaho. You better do some touristy things with me!!
That IS lucky! If I could travel for free, I don’t think I’d ever stay home.
I love cannoli! But I’m a bit of a snob since I grew up getting treated to Ferraras in NYC. Arguably the nation’s best.
Looks like an awesome local tourist day! Damn, my calves would definitely be killing me too!
When are you leaving for Italy? Around Sept 15 rings a bell to me. We are always on opposite travel/home schedules I feel like!
We leave on the 28th, arriving on the 29th. We have a trip to Kansas before that on the 13th though. One of these days we need to get together… we are on opposite schedules!
San Diego looks like such a fun city! Well, minus the whole running part…. haha
HA! There’s plenty of lifting to be done too. If you ever come here, I’ll take you to the big kid gym.
This is my dream day – running, walking, touristing, food, and wine…heaven!