It was a date! It was a gathering! It was an excuse to eat Corned Beef and drink Irish car bombs.
Our son, Alexander was in town, and we arranged to go sightseeing with Francine and France and included some time with Alex.
There had been an Irish festival in Balboa Park, but it was the previous weekend. Still, the couple from Colorado hadn't been there, so we met them there outside the famous Air & Space museum. We took a tram to the plaza and walked around a little. From there, we called a Uber for a ride downtown. Our driver, Michelle, was stunning. Tall, in a great dress, and very polite as well as having a french accent and quite obviously a male.
GEOCACHING ; While waiting for the UBER, we picked up a quick find right there in the parking lot. "Balboa Park and Cache",
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Once downtown, we walked down the street to The Field. A local Irish Pub. One of he oldest in San Diego with furnishings and such brought over from Ireland itself.
The Field
There was a 40 minute wait, so we walked a couple of doors down to The Blarney Stone Pub for a quick pint of Guinness. By then the table was ready and we were seated. Yes, the place was very crowded as you can imagine any place connected with Ireland on St. Patrick's Day would be. We immediately ordered Irish Car Bombs from our nice Dubliner, Garrett. For a meal, Laurie and I decided to split the mixed plate. It was plenty of food for two. It featured Shepard's pie, Guinness beef stew, corned beef and cabbage, and rasher and cheese. For appetizers we had sausage rolls and Irish potato skins.
When we were done, we walked down the street to a place called The Neighborhood. There, we had great service from Jealous who had more tattoos than I did. We sampled some craft beers as our awesome dinner settled. Then we caught another Uber back to our cars.
We drove up to Mira Mesa and visited the Green Flash brewery for a very informative tour. We had samples and enjoyed the company of friends and family.
Green Flash Brewery
Finally, we said goodbye and left for home. Just about the best St. Patrick's Day ever.
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| San Diego Air& Space Museum |
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| Friends and Family |
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| There was no way I could get to an area for a better shot, but I loved how the Coronado Bridge just runs off into the fog |
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| Plaza Del Mundo |
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| Canyon area with walking trails. Laurel street bridge in distance. |
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| Balboa Park, at 1.875 sq. miles is larger than NYC's Central Park of 1.137 sq. miles. The San Diego zoo uses 99 acres within the park. |
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| Gaslamp District of Downtown San Diego |
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| The Barney Stone Pub |
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Down the street, the back of Petco Park, home of the SD Padres, showing the historic Western Metal Supply Company building which was the foundational corner of the ballpark.
http://www.si.com/mlb/2014/07/21/ballpark-quirks-san-diego-petco-park-western-metal-supply-company |
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| The moon says hello |
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| The Neighborhood |
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| Jealous |
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| Green Flash main brewery Check out the old Chevy panel truck |
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| Our Tour guide, Mike |
