squeezing in all the san diego fun

whenever we stay in any hotel, it's always fun to check out their fitness center.  that sounds really lame, i know.  so yeah, the next morning i got up and put on workout gear and found the hotel gym on the same level as the pool.  

it was pretty well-equipped - weights, treadmills, elliptical machines, stationary bikes - and there were just a few people in there, which was good.  i hopped on a treadmill and chose the beach run program.  

it wasn't nearly as interesting as the program built into my treadmill at home, but it was better than staring at a blank screen.  and i didn't have headphones to plug in, so picking the live tv option wasn't going to work.  i got through my half hour though, and i stuck to my 1 minute jog/1 minute walk even though the manual adjustment was kind of a pain in the ass.  whatever, i got my workout in.

after i got back to the room and showered and cleaned up, i peeked out the window to check out the pool scene.

we decided to go downstairs for breakfast in the hotel's restaurant, which was pretty empty.  i ordered a very boring, totally not picturesque bowl of oatmeal while the hub opted for avocado toast.

AND - they had the best vending machine ever in there.

we decided to go out for a drive and these were the only pictures i took, heh.

when we got back to our room, freshly made up by housekeeping, we found a little treat on the desk.

we thought we'd go down to the pool for some relaxation time, but it was super crowded and the pool attendants were super rude to the hub when he asked about reserving a cabana.  just another instance of the pendry san diego hotel staff being assholes, i guess.  so we decided to just walk around the gaslamp district and ended up at the werewolf bar.

our next stop was just down the street and around the corner, at the gran havana cigar lounge.  it was relatively empty, so i was totally fine with sitting in one of the cushy chairs drinking an iced latte while the hub enjoyed a cigar.

we'd been browsing yelp for ideas on where to go next, and because i love all things silly and kitschy, we made our way over to the trailer park after dark.  and yes, it's exactly what it sounds like.  

when you order, they place a fishing box on the counter to signal the servers that you're waiting for food.  and if you've placed a drink order that isn't fulfilled immediately (instead of like a beer that they can serve you on demand), you get a shoe.

the seats at the bar are shopping carts.

i'd ordered a tv dinner - chicken tenders served with mashed potatoes and gravy, mixed veggies, a brownie and a jello shot.  it wasn't super delicious (actually, it really tasted just like it came from a cafeteria), but you know i had to try it.

oh, and the fishing box contained all of the condiments and plastic flatware.

i stopped in the restroom before we left.

we went back to the hotel to relax a little and freshen up before going back out for real dinner, sushi and cocktails at the bar at cloak & petal.

we tried our best to cap off our evening at noble experiment, a speakeasy that had a ton of great reviews located inside a restaurant called neighborhood.  reservations were fully booked, but we thought we might get lucky if we walked in late enough, but the guy at the front refused to take the tip the hub tried to hand him and instead placed us on the hourlong waitlist.  we lasted through maybe half of that before we decided we were tired and over it, and headed outside to grab an uber back to the hotel.  this was the last picture i took that night:

all in all, it was a pretty great day that we packed as full as we possibly could.  i still want to check out a "hidden" speakeasy, so maybe we'll head down again sometime - and this time we'll try to plan it ahead of time so that we can get a reservation.

but knowing our tendency to do things at the last minute...probably not.  heh.