The Best Places In San Diego!

San Diego finally has its first Five Diamond Restaurant - The Addison in the Grand Del Mar Resort. Serving French Cuisine, the Addison offers four course meals starting at $98.  Only four restaurants in North America were added to this year’s Five Diamond Award List issued by AAA.  Congratulations to the Addison.  We are lucky to have you here in San Diego.

Four Season Resort Aviara in Carlsbad and The Lodge at Torrey Pines once again were named to AAA’s list of Five Diamond Award Winning Hotels. Only 103 establishments in North America earned that distinction this year.  The San Diego area offers more Five Diamond hotels than such cities as Boston and Seattle.

What better place could you live to enjoy a Five Diamond Staycation! San Diego has it all - fine dining, luxurious resorts, and great year-round weather.  (It’s the middle of November and as I write this it is a balmy 90 degrees outside.)

Welcome to the third edition of comments visitors from around the world are making about San Diego.  This ought to make you feel good about living in a city where others only get to visit for a day or week.  If you missed the previous editions, start with Comments on San Diego #2.

Atlanta Journal Constitution - “It’s never easy taking that cab ride to the San Diego airport on Sunday night, the sun setting, the cool breeze blowing, the pretty ladies walking along the sidewalks, the outdoor cafes bustling, the sailboats on the harbor.

But duty calls, and we’re leaving the paradisical city with its tanned denizens, its rich assortment of tattooed locals, straw-fedora’d cruisers, wealthy tourists, hard-working immigrants, and bums — surf or street, they got ‘em all — and did we mention beauties? Of every nationality, they got those, you better believe it.”

Traveler from London - “San Diego must be one of America’s best-kept secrets, at least on this side of the Atlantic. Very few Europeans would put it at the top of their list of places to visit and yet is has a climate unrivalled by Florida and a location to surpass Los Angeles. It also has a diversity of culture and sights to match Washington, New York, San Francisco or any of the other “great” cities.”

Belfast, Ireland Telegraph - “In Southern California, where the desert meets the Pacific, you’ll find a city that combines opulence with stunning scenery.”

Salt Lake City Tribune - “Southern California’s gem of a city, San Diego, ranks as a wonderful year-round destination…”

The Independent (London) - “..San Diego, being the second city in the most powerful state in the world’s supreme nation isn’t so bad after all, especially when the city in first place just does not have the looks and location. You know who I’m talking about, LA. Give me San Diego anytime: an oasis of indulgence between the desert and the ocean.”

San Diego is the perfect place to ride out any type of storm.  Obviously, the weather here is near perfect.  But, did you know San Diego is also a great place to ride out an economic storm?

Tourism nationwide fell dramatically after 9/11 as people reacted by staying closer to family and avoiding planes. As a result, people throughout the Southwestern part of the United States turned to San Diego as their vacation hot spot.  We served as the getaway vacation capital for the 10 million residents of Los Angeles and the nearly 5 million residents in the Phoenix metro area. These two cities are the largest in the Western United States and San Diego is within easy driving distance of both.  That helped to prop up our tourism industry during the weak economy at that time.

Now that our nation’s economy is going through another rought spot, here is another sign that San Diego’s tourism business will get a boost.  The Cruise Log Blog at USA Today reports Royal Caribbean Cruises is moving their 2,501 passenger Randiance of the Seas ship from the Caribbean to San Diego to ride out the current economic storm.  The theory is a lot more people will be willing to drive to San Diego rather than fly to the Caribbean during the economic downturn.  An additional 24 trips will originate out of San Diego, bringing up to 60,000 more visitors through San Diego.

It is always nice to see a bright spot in every storm.  This is just another one of the benefits of living in San Diego. If you want to see the cruise ships up close, check out my post about the San Diego Cruise Ship Terminal I made earlier in the year.

A few months ago I shared with you how, surprisingly to me, San Diego County leads the way in farming.  Well, here’s another surprise from our fellow food-making San Diegans.  We are also home to a cheese company that consistently wins top honors at the World Cheese Competition.

This year, the competition for the World Cheese Awards took place in Dublin, Ireland.  Our own Cantare Foods, based in Otay Mesa, won 2nd place for best Mozzarella Cheese. Cantare Foods has won several awards in recent years for their Mozzarella and Mascarpone cheeses.

If you love cheese, the Cantare Foods web site provides a number of recipies using their award-winning cheese.

You can find Cantare cheese at grocery stores all over the country. So, go out and support a local company producing some of the finest cheeses in the world.

One of the benefits of living in San Diego is we get to enjoy ice cream season year-round.  The cool treat was especially enjoyable over the past couple weeks as the temps rose to record levels in San Diego, while we got to watch the news show snow falling in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

Although it’s finally cooling down, the election day weather forecast shows San Diego and much of the south will still have decent ice cream eating weather. That means we can take advantage of Ben & Jerry’s Free Ice Cream offer on election day!

Just show up with your ‘I Voted’ sticker from the polling booth and get a free scoop of your favorite ice cream. Better yet, head to the Seaport Village locations and take a picture of yourself strolling along the San Diego Bay with your scoop of ice cream and send it to your friends living in colder climates.  You will find a shop on the east end near the outdoor Gazebo and on the west end near the historic merry-go-round.  Two more great picture taking spots to send to your friends. Both of those shops will be serving free scoops from 5PM - 9PM.

You will also find Ben & Jerry’s locations at Horton Plaza and the UTC Mall but I believe both of those locations stop serving free scoops at 8PM.

Be sure to vote on Tuesday, get a free scoop of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, and enjoy San Diego’s wonderful weather.

Rancho Bernardo High School’s Cole Hamels, a 2002 graduate, will be the starting pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies’ in Monday night’s Game 5 of the World Series. Should the Phillies win the game, they will be the winner of the World Series. (I’ll be cheering for them since they’re my old hometown team!)

Cole Hamels is a 24 year-old left hander who won the MVP of the National League Championship when the Phillies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers to reach the World Series. Cheer him on tonight as he seeks to win his fifth game in this post season. The Phillies are odds-on favorites to win due to the strength of their #1 pitcher, who won Game 1 of the World Series.

Hamels is not the only major leaguer from Rancho Bernardo High School. All-Star Hank Blalock of the Texas Rangers is a 1999 graduate. They are just two of the 33 major league baseball players from San Diego who played in 2008.

Let’s cheer on San Diego’s own Cole Hamels as he seeks to secure the Phillies’ first World Series since 1980. Who knows, he may just secure the MVP of the World Series as well. The game will be at 5PM on FOX5.

Read more about Cole Hamels from the Philadelphia Phillies web site.

If you think it was life on our beaches or camping in our mountains that got featured as good stress reliever on the CBS Evening News a few days ago, you are not even close.

Think of something more drastic.  Something more smashing.  The newest business venture to help people relieve stress comes from the Smash Shack in downtown San Diego.

If you ever wadded up a piece of paper and threw it against a wall to vent your frustration and then started to pick up something heavier like a plate or drinking glass and felt like doing the same, the Smash Shack is just the place for you.

Have at it!  Bust those plates! Shatter those glasses! You can even obliterate your old cell phone. Day or night, the Smash Shack will get you properly geared up and provide you with the amo and the wall to let it all out.  For some ideas, here is the Smash Shack Menu of items.

So, if something ticks you off at work or if you need to get over your date from hell, just head over to the Smash Shack near the Gaslamp and have a smashing good time.

If it is still hard to fathom that someone made this simple concept into a great business, just watch this video from CBS Evening News.

I started this blog back in February after a two week visit to the hospital for heart surgery. (A word to the wise: Wash your hands frequently and do whatever it takes to avoid random viruses, a few of whom like to attack the heart. I was one of the lucky ones to recover and am back to running several miles each week.)

I could have created a blog to share my thoughts and experiences on overcoming the challenges of being knocked off ones feet, adapting to circumstances, and then ultimately fighting for recovery. However, I personally was more moved by the appreciation I re-established during my two-week hospital stay for the great fortune we have for living in San Diego.

It dawned on me there are very few places in our country, if any, that enjoy many of the privileges we have living here in America’s Finest City. I wrote in my first blog entry that I had the great fortune of spending two weeks in probably one of the best hospital rooms in the country. I stayed in the same room Mother Theresa had stayed in when she had heart surgery. Every evening I enjoyed watching the sun set over the Pacific, with a view of the Torrey Pines Golf Course, home of the 2008 PGA U.S. Open Championship, in the foreground. Now, how many hospital rooms in the world can you think of that offer a view of a golf course, ocean, and beautiful sunsets?

Looking back on my 10 years in San Diego, I began to remember all of the great attributes that attracted me to San Diego in the first place. Hoping that others do not have to go through the challenging experience I endured to re-appreciate all of the great things about San Diego, I decided to create this blog to remind people what a great place we live in. I aim to write each post about something that makes San Diego unique or at least makes it stand out from other cities. So far, I have thoroughly enjoyed sharing my findings with others.

That brings me back to the question I asked in the title of this post. What about yourself. Do you have thoughts or experiences you would like to share with others? Do you tell your friends and family about things that you think others might have an interest in as well? Chances are, there are other people out there who can benefit from hearing about your experiences or who can learn from your knowledge.

Blogging has become mainstream. You hear every TV and radio personality telling you to check out their blog. If you think there must be too many blogs now that everyone is talking about them and thus yours will get lost in the shuffle, think again. People are always yearning to learn more or find someone else they can relate to. You might just be the person they are looking for.

Here in San Diego, there are blogs about communities (such as San Elijo Life or La Mesa Real Estate), moms (Mel, A Dramatic Mom in La Costa), food (places to eat out and easy recipes), dealing with life in one’s 20s (Girlola) and much more.

What do you have to share? — Viewpoints on politics? Knowledge on economics? Advice on dating? Experiences as a Taxi Driver? (There’s actually a San Diego Taxi Blog.)

If I’ve wet your appetite at all to start your own blog, why don’t you start by meeting some of the local bloggers. The San Diego Meetup group for bloggers, SD Bloggers, is getting together on Tuesday, October 28th in downtown San Diego. Over 225 members have joined since its inception a year ago. You will meet about a 100 of them on Tuesday. They are a friendly group and drinks are free for the first hour courtesy of Integral Impressions, owned by one of our fellow bloggers. Sign up to attend the SD Bloggers meet-up and get some inspiration to start your own blog!

For the next couple months, we will see one of the fastest sailboats in the world navigating San Diego Bay.  The BMW Oracle Racing Team is in town with their brand new trimaran boat. The 100 foot sail boat with 148 foot mast is docked behind the San Diego Convention Center.

The America’s Cup competitors from BMW Oracle will be working to acclimate themselves to the new boat as they prepare for the next racing season.  You can read more about the planned stay in San Diego from the Valencia Sailing blog and view pictures of recent practices held in San Diego Bay on the BMW Oracle Racing Team web site.

I know who I’ll be cheering for - BMW Oracle.  Hopefully, you’ll cheer for the ‘home team’ as well!

The Project for Public Places is a New York based non-profit that works with communities around the world to develop quality parks and public squares.  Since their beginning in 1975, they have worked with over 2,000 communities in 26 countries.

With that said, it is quite impressive they ranked our own Balboa Park, the 13th Best Park in the World and 4th Best Park in the United States.  If you haven’t been to Balboa Park lately, it’s time to learn more about the park in your backyard that is the envy of communities around the globe.

Take advantage of this unique gem.  And, if you hear someone complaining San Diego doesn’t have the amenities of a world-class city, send them this link and tell them stop looking in someone else’s backyard and to appreciate that we are living in a special place.

The Project for Public Spaces put together lists in 2004 of both the Best Parks and the Worst Parks in the World. These parks are used as examples on what should and should not be done to create a wonderful park to be enjoyed by local residents. Although there is always room for improvement (like making Balboa Park #1), we do have something to hang our hat on.