A Few Days in Oceanside
My cousin Carey and her wife live in Oceanside, half way between San Diego and Orange County. When she invited me to go with her on the cruise to Mexico, she also invited me to come down a few days early to see Oceanside and San Diego. The last time I was in San Diego was 1988, and I had never been to Oceanside, so I jumped at the chance.
While Carey has lived in Southern California for 11 years, she has never been to the Hotel Del Coronado, and has always wanted to see it from the inside. The Coronado is a beautiful beach resort in San Diego with several restaurants, so we decided to have lunch at their beach restaurant.
We had delicious salads, and then walked around and explored the hotel. I’m sorry to say I didn’t take any pictures inside, but it’s full of beautiful woodwork, with shops, restaurants, an ice cream shop, and a coffee cart. The smell of the coffee next to the ice cream shop reminded me of the delicious coffee ice cream I had in Burlingame when Birchie was here, so I did some quick research and found that Salt and Straw has a couple of San Diego locations. YAY! Off we went to Little Italy for an ice cream cone.
I had a taste of their berry pie ice cream, which tasted like Marionberry pie, and was absolutely delicious, but I decided to have the coffee and love nuts again. SO good. Carey found out that you could get one scoop with two flavors, so she had the coffee and love nuts and the sea salt with caramel ribbons. Delicious.
After that, we went to Balboa Park, which is a huge (1,200 acres) park, which includes several museums, some artisan shops, and the famous San Diego Zoo. We walked around the area with the museums and shops, making plans to return the following day. Because we got there late, the museums and shops were getting ready to close, so we just nosed around a bit. These charming gnomes made me think of Nicole, of course.
I flew down on Sunday, and our plan was to spend Monday in San Diego, then go dolphin watching on Tuesday, before leaving for the cruise on Wednesday. When Carey called the dolphin watching company, it turned out that they weren’t going to have any cruises on Tuesday, so we switched our plans to do that on Monday instead. The cruises leave from the charming Oceanside harbor. We had lunch at a restaurant right near the lighthouse restaurant (my first tacos of the trip), and then set out.
This was officially a whale watching tour, and we did see a couple of minke whales, but what we really wanted was to see dolphins, and we certainly did see that. We came upon a large pod that was sharing their feast with a flock of pelicans. I love pelicans, and loved seeing them all fishing together.
Most of the pod was a bit of distance from the boat, but we did have several that came and swam right under and next to our boat. It was a lot of fun to see them.
Tuesday we walked Carey’s dog, Lily, around the neighborhood (we had walked her on Monday as well), and decided that instead of going back to Balboa Park, we would spend the day in Oceanside. Carey hadn’t started packing yet, and was starting to stress a bit. We still had some fun. Pic is Lily in the house. I love her floppy ear, which never comes up. She is a rescue, we have no idea why her ear flops like that, if she was born that way or is from an injury.
I saw these beautiful purple (indigo?) blossoms everywhere in San Diego and Oceanside. I love them, they are so lovely.
We have them here too (this pic is still from Oceanside), but they are not nearly so common on our side of the tunnel (as we say). There is one in our condo complex, and I saw one while driving around the other day, but mostly they are in the cooler parts of the Bay Area, and are everywhere down south near the coast, where the weather is milder than here.
After our walk, we went to the beach area and explored, and eventually Carey came home to pack and I went for an overdue pedicure. In the middle of the day we had a nice lunch, and I left the hat that I had purchased for the trip at the restaurant. Rats.
I had brought some good english muffins with me as a treat for Carey and Diane, and their neighbor had given them some mulberries. I had never seen a mulberry before. The little green stem that you see is woodsy and tough, so we stripped the fruit off of the stem and ate it on english muffins with peanut butter. Delicious. The mulberries were a lot of work, so I doubt I would seek them out, but they were good.
Carey’s dog, Lily, was such a sweet girl, I really enjoyed her company. I had a lovely time in Oceanside, and our dolphin watching trip was definitely a highlight of our vacation. Have you been to Oceanside? Have you ever had a mulberry? Was I right to strip them off of the stem, or do you just eat them?
28 Comments
Karen Meg
What a lovely post Julie! Photos are beautiful, looks like a place I would love to visit. California is really such a lovely state. Lily is so adorable :).
And funny you should mention mulberry – I tried one for the first time yesterday at the gym! One of my gym pals has a mulberry tree and they fall off so much she actually has a net to catch them all this time of year. She brought a bunch in and will continue to do so, she can only use and freeze so much.
So I would say you strip them off the stem if still on. I really liked the flavour, not too sweet, just a berry type of taste, if that means anything! Great for smoothies (although I was thinking pies, although I dont bake much anymore, leave that to G!)
J
What a coincidence that you tried mulberries for the first time so recently! Were they on the stem like mine were? Berry flavored is a great description, they had that perfect berry flavor.
AC
Seems like an almost perfect environment. I love the photo of the purpe tree in fornmt of the house. It is most defintiely photo-worthy.
J
It’s a lovely temperate climate there, almost tropical. And I’m realizing that I forgot to mention a few things, so I guess I will need to discuss in a future post.
Ally Bean
So fun to go along on your travels. Your photos show a wonderful place to live or visit. I do enjoy knowing you have access to Good English Muffins! Mediocre ones would never do.
J
Mediocre English muffins are the worst!
nance
It’s always a bonus if you can visit someone with a nice dog (or cat). Especially if you can have her/him on your lap for cuddling.
Our neighbours behind us that have the shitful black walnut tree also have two mulberry trees. They are messy trees, and I always know when the berries are ripe because there are purple birdshit stains on my pond rocks and patio and patio furniture. I’ve never had a mulberry, but when the nice lesbian couple used to own that house, they collected the fruit and made wine with it. Unfortunately, they moved out before I ever got to sample any.
I’ve never been to Oceanside, but it looks gorgeous. That hotel!
J
Lily was SUCH a bonus on this trip, she’s a sweet, shy girl. I’m pretty sure I am glad we do not have a mulberry tree nearby, if it causes purple bird shit!
NGS
I would commit a felony for Lily. That is all.
J
Lily is pretty law abiding, so not sure she would be excited by this, but also, I suspect she would value and treasure your support. Let’s hope it’s not necessary to commit any felonies!
Birchie
I haven’t been to Oceanside, but I will add it to my SoCal list.
I don’t know the science behind why ears stand up or flop, but I love a half n’half. I think it can occur naturally. Stepdog had floppy ears, but she could make them stand up when she wanted to. Usually when she was asleep one ear would be up.
J
SoCal is so big, and there is a LOT to see, between Los Angeles and San Diego, then add in tertiary places like Santa Barbara and Oceanside…it’s a lot! (I’ve never been to Santa Barbara, actually…but I’ve heard it’s beautiful). I think you would love Oceanside, though San Diego definitely has more to do and see.
Suzanne
I have never seen a mulberry! Very cool, although they sound labor intensive.
Your photos are gorgeous! Wow. You really captured the ocean looking super fly.
Your comment about loving pelicans reminded me that I have seen several pelican videos on Instagram lately. The videos make it seem like pelicans will try to eat anything, including giant capybara. Adorable.
J
The mulberries were a lot of work and kind of messy!
The ocean was showing off, wasn’t it? Lovely.
Oh goodness, a capybara? That seems like more than a mouthful, for sure!
Lisa's Yarns
I have also never seen a mulberry before so I have not eaten one before. They sound good but like they are a bit of work to get off the woodsy stem.
I’ve never been to Oceanside but I have been to San Diego. We stayed a bit north of the city in a beachy area that was cute. We had gone to Santa Barbara the previous year and much preferred that area to San Diego but we still had a good trip! We saw Coronado Island from a distance but did not drive onto the island. The hotel looks so grand and beautiful!
J
There are so many beachy little towns north of San Diego! I’ve never been to Santa Barbara (well, not yet)
Margaret
So many adventures! I’ve never had a mulberry; in fact, did I even know it was an edible berry? Hmmm. I get seasick so I would have to be careful of any dolphin or whale watching tour. Is that a jacaranda? There are many of those purple trees in LA.
J
Yes, it’s a Jacaranda! Isn’t it pretty? I’m noticing more of them around here now, but not anything like what I saw in Oceanside and San Diego.
PocoBrat
I’ve never seen or eaten mulberries before, but now I’ll recognize them. Lily is adorable, and your pictures of the ocean gave me extra life today!
J
I’m glad my picture gave you extra life! I feel like things are so hard politically, it’s important to fill our cups as it were, by finding beauty where we can.
Daria
Julie! Thanks for a lovely post. I’ve never been to Oceanside but have been to Santa Barbara. I love that climate, the scenery, everything.
Mulberries grow in the South of Russia (in the Caucasus and near Black Sea, think Sochi, Adler, etc). I have had them when I was a kid, for sure. Now, in Chelyabinsk, that is in the mountains, I have not seen them- maybe too cold?..
The pictures of the ocean are so beautiful, and that puppy <3 with that ear <3
J
Thanks Daria! I don’t know if it’s too cold in the mountains or not…Nance says they have them in NE Ohio, which definitely gets cold. But I don’t know how to compare to Chelyabinsk.
Nicole MacPherson
Gnomes!!!
This looks like such a lovely start to the trip, J! Delicious food, gnomes, nice views, a dog, a pedicure. Sounds kind of perfect to me! I’ve never had mulberries but they do seem like work. Kind of like pistachios or shelling peas.
J
But pistachios are SO WORTH IT! Not sure peas and mulberries are though.
Ernie
That hotel is stunning. Am I right to guess that it is in movies? We did dolphin watching boat thing in Florida a few years ago and it was so fun. I’ve not been to California but I would love to visit. Seems like so much to see. I am second hand bummed about your hat. Ugh.
J
Oh, there is good news on the hat front. We went back to the restaurant after the cruise and they had it! I will add that snippet to my Friday Randomness post this week so no one else is ‘second hand bummed’. 🙂
Regarding the hotel, yes it’s been in quite a few films, most famously in ‘Some Like it Hot’.
Stephany
This is lovely! Thank you for taking us along. <3
We were supposed to do a dolphin cruise for book club last month, but we got rained out. So I'm jealous of all the dolphins you got to see!
LILY!!!! I love her!
J
A dolphin cruise is SO worth it, they are just so amazing. I hope you can do it another time.