West Coast USA Road Trip - Oct/Nov

[cliffo]

 

[cliffo]

Had a 9 hour day on the road from Morro Bay to San With stops at Santa Monica, Oceanside and La Jolla.

There were numerous delays on the I5 due to crashes which allowed me down but was glad to make it to SD. I already love this place.

Went to the Hopping Pig for dinner. 21 beers and pork-based meals. I had that most traditional of Southern Californian dish, Bangers and Mash

Had 3 beers there, Garage Golden Munich Lager, Alpine Duet IPA and Ironfire Six Killer Stout. The 1st 2 were good the stout only okay but I'm not really a coffee kinda guy and this was brewed with hazelnut coffee.

Then a quick stop by the liquor store and a bottle of Pliny the Elder.

As the guy there said to me "It was amazing 10 years ago but now everyone brews something like it".

I'd have to agree. Feels like I've had it many times before. Good but nothing out of this world.

Also got a six pack of Coronado Brewing Co Seacoast Pilsner which I'm yet to try.

All in all a good day.

 

[Mardoo]

What’d you think of American pizza?

 

[cliffo]

What’d you think of American pizza?

The two I've had over here have both been great.

The crusts have been just rights and fresh toppings on both.

 

[Randai]

Thanks for the awesome pictures cliffo, envious of the road trip you took.

 

[cliffo]

A top day in SD.

Headed out at 8am to walk around and then went to the USS Midway Museum which was well worth the time.

Grabbed lunch at La Puerta (amazing!) and a few beers afterwards then caught the bus out to Coronado and spent a couple of hours wandering around before heading back downtown on t

o the Stone Brewing Tap Room near Petco Park.

Tried their collab brew with Pirate Life (Baltic Porter) which was well tasty.

A quick breather in the hotel before heading back out to experience a Saturday night in SD.

Such a great city.

 

[stewy]

Agree with you on the Pliny. I’ve had it fresh at Russian River & it is a great beer but doesn’t live up to the hype. I’ve had other IPAs that are as good/better.
I actually preferred the Blind Pig IPA by Russian River.

Enjoy the rest of your trip!

 

[cliffo]

Off to Torrey Pines Golf Club later this morning for San Diego Beer Week's final event, The Beer Garden.

28 SD breweries paired with 14 local chefs.

Should be a good few hours

 

[cliffo]

A cheeky pint of Sculpin at Ballast Point in Little Italy before I order an uber to Torrey Pines.

 

[cliffo]

An hour in.

Awesome setup here. Great beer. Amazing food.

 

[cliffo]

My last night in SD and I fly home tomorrow night out of LAX.

Had a cruisy day today. Walked up to Balboa Park, went back to La Puerta for one of their 1 pound burritos and a few beers, some more random city walking and another few beers at Resident Brewing and now back in the hotel.

Heading up to Escondido tomorrow morning to do the Stone Brewery tour then back to LA for the flight home.

Three weeks has flown by and I've enjoyed the experience but looking forward to getting back home for a "rest" lol

No doubt the 15 hour flight home will feel longer than the time I've spent over here

 

[cliffo]

The Stone tour was pretty basic but fun.

Only half samples for most of the beers for me as I had to drive back to LA for the flight home.

It has been a great 3 weeks but I'm ready to be heading back home.

San Diego was the stand out city for me and Yosemite for the scenery.

Sitting in the United club bar now having an Angel City Lager before the 15 hour flight home. Most refreshing.

 

[Dave70]

Dunno about you, but after spending three and a half weeks there doing basically the same sit - eat, sit - drive, sit - drink, repeat activitys daily, I left Sydney airport as a generous 34 and returned as a 'snug' 36.

 

[cliffo]

Back home now.

I actually lost about 1.5kg over the 3 weeks.

According to Google, I did walk 203km over the time I was away though so I guess that helped to offset the beer and food intake.

 

[cliffo]

Here's the final driving stats after just over 3 weeks

 

[Mardoo]

Nice! Thanks for the desktop vacation cliffo! I’ve been wanting to get back there for a beer tour, but can’t because of reasons. I did enjoy 6 years of life in Portland, so it’s not like I missed out Thanks for posting mate.

 

[mstrelan]

View attachment 109777

Her t-shirt says "support your local" and then also says "Ballast Point" which was bought for $1B by a company from New York. But I guess it is still local geographically...

 

[evoo4u]

Hey cliffo, I really enjoyed this thread. Many thanks.

 

[cliffo]

It was a great trip but it is good to be back home.

Can start to catch up on all the threads I didn't have time to read whilst I was away.

 

[cliffo]

If anyone is interested, I've put up a time lapse-ish video on YouTube of photos I took from my phone (mounted to windscreen holder) at random intervals as I drove around -



Of course I had to use "Holiday Road" as the background music.