SoCal on AC and AA
 

Here we are. My second trip report in short order. It’s Thanksgiving long weekend here in Canada and I’m off to San Diego and LA for a quick family visit.

I’m going to attempt this one live or as live as possible. I’m down to SAN on AC and back from LAX on AA.

I don’t often fly AC and generally avoid it as much as possible especially when not flying with Canada but this flight was booked specifically based on schedule.

I’m currently sat in the Transborder Maple Leaf Lounge at YVR thanks to a guest pass from a friend and now I’ve got a few hours to burn.

Couple hours of work this morning a fairly quick packing job and a 40 min Uber ride later.

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Must be YVR

I’ve perused the offerings in the lounge and there ain’t much to say. No photos as it’s fairly busy. Only beer offering is some IPA and the food is “donair meat and sauce”. Really unappealing and not very tasty. I’ll revisit the booze soon.
there is salad fixing and a soup that I didn’t look at.

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Meat and sauce??

Just notified of a 20 min delay. Let’s see how this plays out.

I’ve gone back to the well and filled up a glass of red with some sort of swill. Looks like it retails for around $10 CAD. So in USD I think that means they pay you to take it.

I’ve also gone for a small ladle of the soup. Three Sisters. Hadn’t heard of it and a quick google search reveals great looking soups that look nothing like this. It’s not horrible, but if they were my sisters, I wouldn’t be proud. Was hoping they’d have the cream of mushroom that was out last time I visited.

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some chips and pico de gallo (because you can’t find good salsa in San Diego! Lol) and some sweets. Nanaimo bar because Canada.

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it’s also boiling hot in the lounge. Going to have move around and see if I can find a cooler spot.

I’m not feeling the love for the lounge :) On the bright side, at least you didn’t pay for it.

I’d never heard of three sisters before either, and not sure I ever want to cross paths with them in the future!

Now sitting as far away from the tarmac facing window as possible and the temps are a bit cooler. I have a direct view of the soup pot so I get to see people’s reactions when they lift the lid. This is the entertainment I didn’t know I needed. A lounge attendant seems to be tasked to come around every once in a while to stir it vigorously other wise I suspect an unpleasant film would form.

a very wise family has also appeared near me. They brought their own food from one of the stalls. Clearly not their first rodeo.

no real love for this lounge but I am appreciative to be gifted the entry. It’s been ages since I’ve been in this lounge. It’s not a very nice place to hang out for an extended period. I was in the domestic one a few months ago and it’s worse.

Being that AC flies the nation’s flag and YVR being a major airport, you’d expect more. I’ve not been in the international MLL so can’t comment.

12D is my choice on the CR900. Endless leg room for me. On board now and still boarding. We’ll be departing later than the scheduled departure.

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Keep up the good work. Love the dry sense of humour :)

We were wheels up shortly after 5pm. The captain got on the horn and announced the temp in San Diego as 23 degrees Canadian. I guess Celsius would confuse most AC passengers! I kid of course.
my seatmate must have been a dentist. After settling in he proceeded to floss his teeth. I kid you not.
i had forgotten that AC rolled out free beer and wine in cattle class this summer. I went for a creemore lager which was luke warm and served with a packet of twigz pretzel like things. Perfect combo to go with a rewatch of The Godfather.

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second drink service began before I finished my first. This time it was the Paul Mas vin rouge. It wasn’t good but it was better than most vin rouge I’ve had in the back of the bus but I didn’t bother to finish it.

uneventful rest of the flight and it was touch down at 7:35.

I’m a big golf nut and being in SD and not playing is eating at me but I’ve been able to play most of the courses around here over the years. Nice to see a PGA store in the airport though.

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it was off to the rental car shuttle as quick as possible for the lengthy stop and go ride. Then to the Avis counter where I picked up my Kia of some sort and the 20 min drive north to the Hyatt Regency in La Jolla.

An executive assistant from the hotel emailed me a couple days ago to welcome me and ask about my eta and if I had any special requests. I responded with my estimated arrival time and inquired about the possibility of an upgrade to a preferred room. She responded promptly that I had been upgraded!!….to a room away from the elevator. My room is indeed away from the elevator (my preference) and the standard king that I had booked. Funny as the response was, I do appreciate the reach out to a lowly discoverist.

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After snapping some room pics it was down to the restaurant. My only real meal of the day was breakfast at home this morning.

keeping with my pizza theme from my SF trip or in this case, it was the chorizo flat bread which I am really enjoying.

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it will be back to the room after this to settle in and try to make a plan for tomorrow.
first and foremost I need to find a place nearby for a good mexican breakfast.

I think they just call it breakfast there

My big idea to plan last night was for nothing. It was lights out soon after getting back to the room. No stress, I was up early and found a breakfast joint for my coveted chilaquiles verde. Rigoberto’s was the stop. And it hit the spot!

after some lounging around and a cup of hotel room coffee i packed a little day bag and headed for the restaurant.

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Chilaquiles verde

the plate was huge. Hot in temp and spicy in flavour. The extra sauces i grabbed from the salsa station were unnecessary as were the beans and rice which went largely uneaten. Not sure why you’d need them with all the carbs from the tortillas. The lettuce and sour cream went nice to help cool the chilaquiles. My trainer will not be happy, or maybe a little happy that I didn’t eat the rice and beans?

next stop is the Torrey Pines State Reserve for some beaching and hiking.

I couldn’t get so close to Torrey Pines golf course and not pop in. Almost glad I wasn’t playing today as the marine layer was persistent most of my time near the water.

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1st tee on the South Course

I didn’t have much of a plan for the nature reserve. Just wander and see what happens. I drove over to the north beach parking lot and found some street parking. From the north beach I started walking toward the south beach. The sun was trying to burn the fog away but it wasn’t having much luck.

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Spotted this cat lover’s motorhome.

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once at the south beach I saw you could walk up the hill so that’s what I did.

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the sun was trying!

Eventually I back tracked but walking along the beach this time and got my shoes dirty and filled with sand. Once back at the north beach i shed one of my layers and laid it out so I could sit on the sand where I sat and read some of the book i brought with me.

as golf nuts go, we are known to spend money on useless things. This is especially true for fans of Scotty Cameron. Thankfully I’m not one of those. Scotty has a special store about 20 min north of where I was and at the request of a friend, I went there to do a bit of shopping for him. It was cool to see all the stuff but it’s not for me. While I was there, lots of texts and photos were exchanged and I walked out spending a small fortune for him.

I’m back at the hotel now where it’s chill out and shoe cleaning time until dinner with my cousin tonight.

No photos from dinner but it was a great catch up with my cousin. We met at Cafe Coyote in old town. I went with the al pastor tacos which more than made up for the poor tacos I had in SF a couple weeks back. These were great!

now back at the hotel for a beer and a bit of tv before shut eye.

Not much to report on today. Going to enjoy the SoCal sun by the pool for a while then make my way north where I’ll drop my car off and check in to the next hotel.

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first time I’ve seen this towel dispenser. I appreciate the effort, but I’m very curious to know where the chips are buried in these paper thin towels.

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