Little Italy, Balboa Park, and the Rady Shell
October 12 and 13
We bought tickets to see the San Diego band, Nickel Creek (Google them!) at the highly acclaimed Rady Shell musical venue on the waterfront in beautiful downtown San Diego.
Naturally, we had to make it a two-day event by booking a view room at Le Pensione (upper right in this photo) in Little Italy
This is our room.
Le Pensione is not what one would describe a luxurious.
Or perhaps not even "really nice", but it's clean, has underground parking, and is in a great location in the middle of Little Italy.
This is the view from our view room, the Piazza di Familia, home to Morning Glory, Sam the Cooking Guy's restaurant empire, the Princess Pub, and a few other dining/drinking establishments.
The view looking down India Street
Ground level view of the Piazza
We checked in, got organized and headed out for some refreshments, such as Guinness here at the Farmer's Table where we sat at the sidewalk bar with the sun at our back and our drinks at our front.
...and oysters. Again, I need to take the food photo before we eat most of it. The oysters were icy cold and delicious!
Next stop, a few blocks up India Street was Nolita Hall.
It was a beautiful late after noon and we were lucky enough (early enough?) to get the king and queen chairs. Here is the queen.
and guess who?
This place is almost directly under the approach to the airport and every few minutes you see something like these videos:
Turn your volume up for full effect!
Before heading back to our room to change for the evening we swung by Juniper and Ivy for a cocktail. This is the bartenders choice Manhattan. It was excellent!
We got there shortly after 5:00 which is when they open, so the place was mostly empty. The entire kitchen and prep area is visible from the dining area and there are even some bar-type seats at counters facing the kitchen.
We ordered what was essentially steak tartar topped with a half-dozen quail eggs, We had this dish here a few months ago and thought it was great, so we wanted to have it again. This time, our quail egg yolks all gathered stage right, but we were not disappointed - still a great app!
The almost empty dining room. A nice thing about this place is that the tables are spread out nicely, allowing for a little peace and quiet and conversation without have to get to know your neighbors.
Caught a sunset over the Bay and Point Loma on the way back to Le Pensione
Here Lorri is "regrouping" in anticipation of our evening out.
The daylight is fading on the Piazza. That bar in the lower left is where we started earlier with Guinness and Oysters!
OK, it's dark now, time to head out.
We decided to get bar seats at Davanti Enoteca, watch the Phillies playoff game, and order a pizza.
They use these empty tomato cans as stands for pizza when they bring it to your table
I didn't remember to get a photo of our pizza, but I did remember the wine
This is our hotel and our room was on the 3rd floor corner. It's the one with the lights on just above the little balcony with the string lights on top. It was still a little early to head back, so...
...we just happened to spot a two-top in front of the Princess Pub, so we stopped for a nightcap!
Cheers! A fitting way to end the evening!
Friday the 13th!
We decided, after consulting Google Maps, to walk up the hill to Balboa Park. It was yet another beautiful San Diego day. So we went from Cedar to 1st St to Fir to the Park itself and soon came upon? Kate Sessions? Helen B Scripps? Mrs., Green Jeans? IDK.
We crossed the 1915 Cabrillo Bridge as we headed toward the Prado
A view of downtown and Rte. 163
Built for the 1915 Pan Am Exhibition
Anyway, we walked around the park for a while and then walked back to Little Italy, taking Laurel St this time, directly to India St.
Stopping only for a safely packaged beer by Samburgers at the Piazza.
Friday Night
We walked from Little Italy to the Embarcadero via Kettner and Seaport Village. This is looking across the Marriott Marina toward the Shell.
The entry
...as the sun slowly sets...
This was our first visit so we arrived early to get a lay of the land and also have some time to order some food and drinks!
It's called The Shell but it also looks to me like some giant sea monster about to swallow up the audience!
Looking back from in front of the stage area
The crowd is filing in!
And here we go! Chris Thiel!
Sara Watkins
Turn your sound up for these videos!
This is a view from much further back than our seats but it gives an idea of the scale of the Shell
View from the lawn area. The sound was great no matter how far away we got.
I guess that's not really true, because once we got in our Uber and headed back to our hotel, we couldn't hear them anymore.
It was a great two-day adventure and we had no bad luck at all on Friday the 13th!