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When we left off last time we were in search of refreshments after a long day of walking around the San Diego Wild Animal Park. That’s one of the nice things about having friends who live in the area, they know where all the cool stuff is. Brendan led us to Stone Brewery in Escondido for a tour and a tasting of their marvelous beer.

I was already a huge fan of Stone (most especially their potent IPA) having worked at a place in Tucson many years ago that had it on tap. I was a bit less enthusiastic about the tour part because let’s face it most beer is made in roughly the same way and once you’ve seen one brewery you’ve pretty much seen them all. Well, Stone proved me wrong. They must be doing really well because their brewery is huge. The beer crafting part was clean and full of monstrous shiny vats while the rest of the property was divided between an indoor and outdoor eating and drinking establishment.

The outdoor area was really a garden. We grabbed a beer from the bar, wandered out to the garden, found a comfortable bench overlooking the pond, and relaxed. The tour was just the right length and rather fun. We learned about the current hops shortage—which is of great concern for all of us who like yummy beer. Hop growers of the world, please plant more hops! After the tour came the best part, the free tasting. I tried a sip of all the beers from Lance’s glass but kept refilling mine with the IPA. Hey, when you know what you like why mess with it? And thus ended a perfect day.

A couple days later Karen, Rich, Lance and I awoke at the crack of stupid, drove to the trolley station, and rode the trolley (really a light rail) to the shipyards. General Dynamics NASSCO (a huge shipbuilding company, the largest on the West Coast) was launching the USNS Amelia Earhart, a dry cargo ship. Unfortunately, our morning hustle was for naught, launch time wasn’t 9 am as we’d been told, but 9 pm. We later learned that since the ship is so large the company had to wait for San Diego’s highest tide, which would occur around 9 pm that night. It would have been neat to witness the massive 689’ ship slipping into the water—plus Amelia Earhart’s niece was scheduled to christen the ship—but it was not to be. We were able to glimpse the ship still in her drydock.

We did not lose heart, intrepid explorers that we are, and we headed to Balboa Park instead. The park was originally set aside for recreation by the Mexican government in 1835. The area remained as mostly open space until preparations began for the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. Part of the park was transformed into a cultural complex with grand buildings in the Spanish Colonial style lining El Prado, a long boulevard. Many of the buildings were designed to be temporary but the citizens liked them so much that some are still standing while others are exact replicas built for permanence. The park still has some open space with hiking trails while encompassing a huge golf course and the world famous San Diego Zoo.

We spent our day wandering El Prado, admiring the gardens, and enjoying the wonderful weather. The Botanical Building was a treat, we were dwarfed by the huge ferns and we were engulfed in the heady scent of the thousands of spring blooms. After lunch at a Japanese tea house we grabbed our seats at the Spreckels Outdoor Organ Pavilion for the afternoon pipe organ performance. Billed as the world’s largest outdoor pipe organ, it has 4,518 pipes ranging from the size of a pencil to over 32’ long. The pipe organ was donated to celebrate the Exposition’s second year by San Diego’s richest man, John Spreckels and his brother Adolph. John’s father had made his fortune in the sugar business by running a monopoly in both Hawaii and California; John made his money by shipping the white crystals.

John had settled in San Francisco but after the Great Earthquake of 1906 he moved his family to San Diego. The city greatly benefited from John’s move as he was generous with his money. He not only donated the pipe organ but he helped fund the Panama-California Exposition, built the Spreckels Theater, and gave generously to the struggling, young San Diego Zoo. The city was fortunate to have John and his money.

So, I’m not a big fan of the pipe organ. It was loud and impressive but all I could really think of were old movies where the menacing action was accompanied by the crescendo of the organ. (Lance quite enjoyed it, however.)

Our last weekend in the area found us driving the winding road from Ramona to Julian with Rich and Karen. Last fall huge fires roared through the area; thankfully Julian was spared but many of the outlying homes in Ramona were destroyed. The blackened trees were an eerie backdrop for the bright fields of wildflowers. Julian has become famous for its apples and apple pies. The small, old gold mining town now mines the pockets of tourists (the work is less dangerous though still backbreaking). The road was lined with blooming apple trees, no leaves yet, just blossoms. The air was cooler up there in the mountains and we chased away the chills with a slice of pie and coffee. Perfect.

Oh, speaking of mining, Rich and I finished sorting out treasures from our tourmaline mining expedition. The San Diego area is well known for gorgeous watermelon tourmalines and earlier in our stay we had purchased some ore. It promised to be loaded with crystals; after all a sizable one fell out of Rich’s bag the first day. Well, after hours of washing, sorting and resorting through our bags, we found basically nothing: nada, zip, zilch, zero. I don’t think I’m that great of a miner. Sigh. But we had fun. Lance and Karen were not as enthusiastic; they just rolled their eyes at us and found other things to do.

Our last day was a warm, sunny one spent near the water’s edge with our good friend Danny. We started at La Jolla Cove. The tide was out so we explored some of the tidepools. We watched teeny, tiny crabs skittle across the rocks, sea urchins open and close, garibaldis (the California state fish) flit by, dolphins mosey along, and harbor seals frolic with their babies in the shallows. The harbor seal population at La Jolla has grown over the years and has taken over a man-made beach. The seals and the beach are at the center of a huge controversy between the city, state, local residents and environmentalists. I won’t bore you with the details but Danny and I disagreed on the topic. That’s the thing about great friends, you can agree to disagree.

The ocean breeze made us hungry so we headed downtown to Pokez, a favorite restaurant that Danny had introduced us to a couple years ago. It’s not exactly the kind of place you’d take your parents since the walls are covered in graffiti and the staff are covered in tattoos but the food is fresh, tasty and inexpensive. After lunch it was back out to the coast. It was a great way to say goodbye to San Diego.

Photos: View our photographs from San Diego Finale.

Notes: We stayed in San Diego from 03/23/08 to 04/12/08.