It’s been a wonderful, relaxing 10 days with out two daughters here in San Diego. We did our annual pilgrimages to Julian (twice) and Stone Brewery in Escondido (just once), and a side trip to the Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. The rest of the time was spent just R&R’ing, watching movies and enjoying our time with the kids.
The first day, my youngest daughter Amy and I spent a father/daughter day on a trip to Julian. Unfortunately, we got off to a late start and got lost along the way. Instead of making the turn to stay on CA 79, as we should have, we went straight on to county road S1 (I’ll say more about that later.) and didn’t discover our error until about 15 miles later. Fortunately, S1 circles around and reconnects with CA 79 at Lake Cuyamaca, near Julian. We arrived just as the town was closing up, but fortunately we were just in time to get dinner and an ice cream soda at the Miners Diner (which has the original soda fountain from 1928).
On Tuesday, Amy, Peggy and I did our annual pilgrimage to Stone Brewery. Sadly, this will be our last visit to Stone Brewery as it was sold to Sapporo USA, a Japanese brewing company, which is closing down the entire operation in Escondido1. We have been coming to Stone since it’s early days when it first expanded from a small operation in a garage to the wonderful bistro and beer garden facility in Escondido. In the early days, tours included the entire brewing/bottling process. It was clear that everyone enjoyed working there. The closure of Stone is a tragic loss for Escondido and southern California. It was truly an iconic landmark that was once voted by the readers of Beer Advocate as the #1 “All Time Top Brewery on Planet Earth.” It’s restaurant and beer garden were among the finest in the country and the food and the beer were fabulous. I will miss it dearly, and I know I am not alone.
Beer Garden at Stone Brewery
On Wednesday, we celebrated Amy’s birthday with a trip to Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institute of Oceanography. The many exhibits are so relaxing and informative. The seahorses and sea dragons are fascinating. The Blue Penguins were fun to watch and learn about. They are the smallest penguin species and are only 10 to 12 inches tall and weigh between 2 to 4 pounds. There are many fascinating exhibits showing how oceanographers are helping endangered species and the coral reefs survive.
Scripps Pier, La Jolla, CA
The following Tuesday, Peggy and I went up to Julian where we visited our old haunts, the Julian Cider Mill, the Warm Hearth, Mom’s Pies and, of course, the Miners Diner for another ice cream soda. The Julian Cider Mill is truly unique. In addition to several different flavors of cider (my favorite is cherry), they have an incredible collection of jams, jellies and marmalades. They must have at least a dozen different marmalades, my very favorite being lemon marmalade. They also have an incredible collection of candies. This trip, we didn’t purchase a pie from Mom’s. I think this is the only trip to Julian that we didn’t bring back a pie, but sadly this was our last day in San Diego and we wouldn’t have time to enjoy it. Returning to San Diego, we deliberately took S1, also called the Sunrise Highway, as the views from atop the Laguna Mountains down into the Borego Desert are absolutely magnificent.
The days in between were spent chilling out with our daughters, enjoying the fine wines we picked up in Paso Robles and the great food in San Diego, and simply enjoying life. Alas, all good things must come to an end, and so it was time to get back in the saddle and begin the journey home.
1 The label Stone Brewing was sold to Duvel Moortgat USA (A Flemish controlled brewery in Antwerp Belgium) and managed alongside Firestone Walker Brewing Company in Paso Robles, CA.