We had breakfast at Chick Fil-A in National City which is not too far from the US-Mexico Border. I was surprised it was an outdoor restaurant. We prefer indoor dining! The seats were cold! LOL.
We were met on the US side of the border by one of the guides from the tour company in Mexico to help us get over the border.
This was our way to the Mexican immigration building.
That is the entrance to Mexico. It looks like a prison entrance. LOL. I guess the illegals who have been coming here via Mexico are mostly criminals so it makes sense.
We stopped at Oxxo to get some snacks before we headed out on our tour.
I love Mexican snacks!
This is a cool lighthouse by the US-Mexico Border Wall where it meets the ocean in Tijuana.
Our private guide tok us to where the US-Mexico Border Wall goes all the way out to the Pacific Ocean in Tijuana. It was really cool to see where the US-Mexico border starts on the west coast.
Joy and I are by the TJ sign near the US-Mexico Border Wall here. The weather was beautiful that day!
This is the malecon area of TJ. In the distance are some islands that part of Mexico and not open to the public.
Kamala was hated on the Mexican side too! LOL. I was so glad that President Trump won the election earlier that week!
We drove to Rosarito next. Trump's Border Wall is really cool! We have to deport the illegals once we takes office in 2025!
Once we got into Rosarito, our guide took us to this great taco shop called Tacos El Yaqui!
The outdoor restaurant just had one thing on the menu, carne asada tacos!
The carne asada is cooked over wood! It was delicious!
These are Rosarito style street tacos which feature a bigger tortilla like those in TJ too.
After we parked at the Rosarito Beach Hotel, we walked down an alley to the beach.
Our tour included horseback riding on the beach too!
The horses were really gentle. It was fun and relaxing to ride them on the beach!
Joy was a little scared at first of her horse. LOL. However, she enjoyed the ride too.
We didnt get the names of the horses. I guess we can call them "Pancho" and "Villa." LOL.
After riding horses, we went to Papas & Beer, the famous club and bar down there, for margaritas! I got a Cadillac Margarita!
They had multiple bars at Papas & Beer, but the one on the beach was only open when we were there.
Here is another bar at Papas & Beer which has bikini bottoms hanging form the ceiling. LOL.
Here is the original entrance to the famous Rosarito Beach Hotel. Since then, they have expanded a lot and built that modern tower to.
There was a small museum inside the old hotel which showed what a room looked like in the early 1900s.
These classic cars at the museum were really cool.
I guess license plates back then said "Horseless Carriage."
The Rosarito Beach Hotel also added on that other tower. The grounds were beautiful.
There was a damaged pier at the hotel too. We were able to go out onto part of it.
Here is another Rosarito sign that was on the pier.
We asked our guide to take us to a local "panaderia," or bakery so we could get some Mexixcan conchas.
This is the Cathedral of Tijuana. We saw it as we drove back to the border.
After we checked into our hotel in Del Mar, we headed to Duke's in La Jolla for dinner.
We had an amazing view from our table at Duke's!
I got surf and turf when I paired the sirloin with Tristan Island Lobster. However, I had Tristan Island Lobster in Maui, and I doubt this was it! LOL.
Since we were outdoors, I asked the waitress to refill the propane on the heater! It was kind of chilly! LOL.
Joy was a little cold too out there. Overall, I prefer indoor dining.
We went to a comedy club called the Comedy Store in La Jolla with some friends after dinner.
We went to Din Tai Fung in La Jolla the next day for lunch.
They are hand rolling the dumplings at Din Tai Fung here.
I tried a Taiwanese whiskey called Kavalan. Overall, it tasted similiar to Japanese whiskey with peety notes.
I love the dumplings and fried rice at Din Tai Fung!
Joy wanted to check out Tokyo Central, which is a large cluster of Japanese themed stores including a beauty and retail shop as well as a grocery store.
Afterwards, we headed to downtown San Diego and checked out Fleet Week!
Fleet Week was super cool!
We booked a two hour harbor cruise for that afternoon. The cruise starts off with the one hour north harbor tour and continues for the one hour south harbor tour after coming back to the dock for people who only booked the first hour.
That is the USS Midway as we departed from the dock.
My friend, Chad, went on the cruise with us too.
That is a US Coast Guard ship patrolling the harbor.
They had some seals resting on these floating platforms on the north side of the harbor.
There is an aircraft carrier. I was able to tour the USS Ronald Reagan a long time ago when my friend who was an officer in Navy gave me a tour in San Diego. Aircraft carriers are amazing!
The sunset view underneath the Coronado Bridge was amazing!
We cruised past Naval Base San Diego which had lots of cool ships including one of two hospital ships. The smaller aircraft carriers are mostly for helicopters.
There is a ship building company next to the naval base too that works on the naval ships.
This is an amphitheater near downtown.
I saw Crack Shack, a chicken themed restaurant, featured on Andrew Zimmer's show so we had to try it for dinner.
We got drinks at the Waterfront Bar afer dinner. The place was pretty busy!
We went to the San Diego Zoo the next morning since they had two new pandas who came in from China.
This animal is a cross between a zebra and giraffe. It is called an Okapi.
Here is a tiger just chilling.
My wife is doing the "Threes Company Flamingo pose" from the opening credits here.
They had a few elephants also at the zoo.
I realized I needed two more one way flight segments for 2024 to keep my A List with Southwest Airlines so Joy and I planned a quick getaway to San Diego in November. A List gives me a lot of cool benefits like being checked in early to get a good seat as well as access to the VIP check in counter. Joy and I flew down to San Diego on the Thursday evening before Veteran's Day Weekend. Joy had Monday off for Veteran's Day, but I did not. Also, I had an important meeting that day so we decided to both take the Friday off to do the three day mini getaway.
Since we had both not been to Rosarito, I looked for a private tour that started on the US side of the border to Rosarito. Our private tour began at a McDonald's just over the border in San Ysidro, California. I could see a lot of possibly illegal scum around that area. We found a safe paid lot where I was able to leave our rental car before we went off in search of our guide. Our guide took us across the border and through Mexican immigration. Afterwards, he introduced us to our private tour guide. He stayed with us until our guide brought the car around to get our tour started. I was impressed overall with this tour company since they made sure to keep tabs on us the whole time since Tijuana can be rough with cartel violence. After we set off, we found an Oxxo where we got snacks. Oxxo is like a Seven Eleven in Mexico.
Our tour started at the border where the US Border Wall meets the Pacific Ocean. It was super cool to see where the US-Mexico Border starts. Joy and I saw the border where it ends in Brownsville, Texas so this was neat for us to see the start also. The border fence actually goes into the ocean. The Mexicans painted murals on their side of the wall, and we even saw one mural that made fun of Kamala Harris. LOL. However, they had lots of liberal propaganda also including murals against Israel.
The malecon or beachfront of Tijuana was pretty nice. Off in the distance were some islands which are off limits to the general public. We got some local pottery from a vendor before we took off.
Our next stop was a great taco place in Rosarito. Tacos El Yaqui specializes in the Baja style street tacos which are larger flour tortillas with just meat, cheese, guacamole, and salsa. There was a guy grilling carne asada over wood outside. I got my tacos without cheese, and they were delicious!
We went to the famous Rosarito Beach Hotel after lunch to park. Then, our guide took us to the beach where we got to ride horses! That was fun and relaxing! Afterwards, we enjoyed some margaritas on the beach at the famous Papas & Beer. This club and bar on the beach is happening at night apparently. One of the many bars on site even had bikinis hanging from the ceiling. LOL.
After the beach, we explored the historic Rosarito Beach Hotel and pier. Our guide took us to a local bakery for some conchas too before he took us back to TJ where he walked us to the line to get back into the US.
Once we got back to San Diego, we checked into our hotel in Del Mar, which is a beautiful part of San Diego. I think it is one of the pricest zip codes in the country. We had dinner at Duke's in La Jolla that night. The restaurant is built on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Joy and I had been to Duke's in Honolulu and Maui, but this was our first mainland location. The waitresses wear short shorts so there was eye candy too. LOL. After dinner, we went to a comedy show with two of our friends down there.
The next day, we enjoyed dim sum at Din Tai Fung in La Jolla before checking out Tokyo Central, a Japanese themed cluster of stores in Kearney Mesa. Then, we met a buddy of mine in downtown to enjoy a two hour harbor cruise. To our great surprise, it was Fleet Week in San Diego so the navy had a large ship on display too. Perfect timing! What a great way to celebrate Veteran's Day Weekend! We ended up getting two hour San Diego Harbor Cruise tickets on Groupon ahead of time to check out San Diego by boat with my buddy, Chad. After we boarded, we found out it was actually two one hour cruises. The first hour is cruising the northern part of the Bay. Then, the boat returns to the dock so people who only purchased the one hour cruise can get off and new passengers can board. Then, we continue for the second hour which is the south part of the harbor. The northern part of the Bay took us past some seals and also the Coronado Island Naval Base where we saw aircraft carriers. On the southern part of the cruise, we went under the Coronado Island Bridge around sunset, and then we went by Naval Base San Diego where we saw other naval ships including one of the two hospital ships the Navy has. The naval ships have no offensive weapons. There were some larger ships that looked like aircraft carriers there, but those were either for helicopters or transporting Marines into battle. The back of those ships opened up like a large garage door to allow the amphibious vehicles off. Real aircraft carriers can not go underneath the Coronado Bridge since they are too large.
Once we got back to shore, we went to Crack Shack for dinner with Chad and his wife as well as a fellow Republican who chairs one of the county central committees in California. I was able to talk politics with her and celebrate our big election win a few days prior when President Trump not only won in a landslide, but we retook the Senate also! The House looks like it will stay under Speaker Johnson's leadership! Yay! Crack Shack was featured on Andrew Zimmer's show so I wanted to check it out. The fried chicken was delicious! Afterwards, we went to the Waterfront Bar for drinks.
The next day, we went to the San Diego Zoo to see the new pandas they got from China. We also took the bus tour around the zoo and took in some of the other animals. I have been to the zoo many times, but we wanted to check out the latest panda bears. Afterwards, we enjoyed dinner with another buddy of mine from college.