San Diego, Day 2

Yesterday was our first full day in San Diego, and we were out for 12 hours sightseeing. I’m exhausted! I’ll tell you all about everything we did and saw in a later post; for now, let’s eat!

This was my breakfast: whole wheat wrap filled with avocado, cucumber, lettuce, tomato and alfalfa sprouts. Accompanied, of course, by a soy latte!

Awesome energy breakfast!

We spent the morning exploring Balboa Park, which is the largest urban cultural park in the US. We entered on the eastern side and walked west until we came across this sweet little scene below.

The park is full of all sorts of great attractions: museums, gardens, shops, restaurants, hiking trails, the San Diego Zoo, and so much more. It’s really incredible.

Toby and I spent the afternoon at the San Diego Zoo. I was pretty torn up about whether to go or not because ever since I saw the documentary The Cove I have been pretty opposed to the general concept of animals in captivity. In the film, the trainer for the dolphins that were used in the TV show Flipper recounts how he watched one of the dolphins commit suicide as a result of being kept in captivity. I won’t go into this now, but I will say that I have mixed feelings after my day at the zoo. Definitely some good feelings (the zoo does some fantastic work with conservation and animal rescue) but also some sad feelings too.

Lunch was at Albert’s Restaurant inside the zoo. First came the bread…

… which I hollowed out to make room for a surprise that you will see later in this post!

I ordered the Portobello sandwich…

… which actually came on a Brioche bun. I didn’t know what this meant until I got home and looked it up. Apparently it contains a lot of butter and egg. When will I learn not to order anything that sounds French? I haven’t got to this in my vegan diary posts yet, but when I was in Mexico I ate a croissant without realizing that they are full of butter. I know it sounds stupid to anybody who does know this stuff, but it was an honest mistake. I learn from these mistakes and then move on.

I am really fond of veggie burgers and sandwiches that feature a mushroom instead of a vegetable patty. The mushroom is the perfect star ingredient! It tastes so clean and fresh, much better than any sloppy, salty pre-made patty. Yum!! This burger tasted so good, although I really didn’t like the texture of the bun so I am glad that I won’t be eating any of those again :)

What’s this?

Chip sandwich!! When I was growing up my family used to go to the beach a lot, and on the days when we didn’t pack our lunch we would get a big packet of hot chips and a loaf of bread to share for lunch. I love chip sandwiches!

Here I am posing with a statue of Kate Sessions, who, as I learned from her plaque, was a scientist, horticulturalist, nurserywoman and “mother of Balboa Park”.

Dinner was at Fred’s Mexican Cafe in the Gaslamp Quarter. Don’t you just love the decor?

Chippies and piña colada to start…

… then dinner, which was veggie fajitas. Sizzle, sizzle! Look at the steam!

My first fajita had veggies only…

… but this was too spicy for me! So I added some rice ‘n’ beans ‘n’ guac :)

We stayed for a while, drinking and talking nonsense. We now know who every one of our friends would be if they were in the TV shows we watch! Very important stuff!

Another full day of sightseeing ahead… Stay tuned!