San Diego
Quick dinner at Zhangliang Malatang with Petula before heading off to San Diego. Not a huge fan of their mushroom broth, but was good to try something different. Downtown San Diego wasn't too bad a drive after dinner, gas prices are even higher downtown (as expected), and the TownePlace Suites by Marriott San Diego Downtown are a little annoying to navigate to right by the freeway due to the one-way streets, but in reality, once you start walking around, the location is actually quite good. Parking garage is tight but actually has some good-sized spaces inside, just go slow and take turns very carefully. And the hotel is pure vanilla for a TownePlace, although it's very well-kept.
Rock n Roll San Diego race expo the next day, sized for the 30,000+ runners they expected at the San Diego Convention Center. As one of the biggest national race series they are very formulaic, with spaces for lines and whatnot setup everywhere for whatever they expect people to want to line up for, massive bib pickup areas, and a very specific flow through the expo. From bib pick-up to shirt pick-up to the official merch, to the premier sponsor food/gel vendor ("The Feed"?), to speeches/introductions from the pacers, to other permitted running groups/races, to finally the handful of vendors in the expo itself (including a second food/gel vendor).
Not quite sure how I feel about it, but was definitely a big deal for a lot of people.
Back through the Gaslamp Quarter, passed Tacos El Gordo, and then headed off to meet up with Mike at Liberty Station for lunch. Liberty Station is a massive artist/park/food area, with probably a dozen restaurants, a food hall, and plenty more in there. The line at Cocina 35 was a bit long, as was at Breakfast Republic, so we ended up at Stone Brewing. They clearly used to be a lot more popular, with multiple outdoor areas, but the beers are still okay and the food is actually pretty good. Fish tacos are large, pork taco is large, and the burrata is particularly generous with the bread. Ordered fries but totally did not need them.
Did some brief working on cars (gotta keep Dr. Wu's GR Corolla in tip-top shape) before heading over to Cabrillo National Monument to hang out, since it's right there and I'd never been.
Ended up back downtown for dinner, randomly caught up with the Lee family for dinner at Noodle and Bun. Luckily they were able to squeeze me in (11 people!) and the food, while as good as Din Tai Fung or 1919 Lanzhou Beef Noodle or their better known competitors, did the job.