We decided to head out to to California on a very cold Thursday and arrived at Del Mar around 9 pm. We stopped at Bully's East http://www.bullyseastsd.com/ for some dinner. One of the dishes we ordered was potato soup which tasted very much like a Russian stew and was very thick. Very good dish. We met a Russian girl there - Tatyana from Belarussia who studied to become a nurse in San Diego. She was the friendliest waitress in the restaurant that night. Our waitress on the other hand seemed to either have a bad day or a bad attitude - it was very hard to tell. I wish I could afford to be so intolerant to complete strangers.The next morning we had breakfast at Bibby's Crepe Cafe in La Jolla. We love crepes and always look for places that serve them. Bibby's served a menu full of buckwheat savory crepes and sweet crepes. They also sold Leonidas Belgian chocolates - same ones we always get at New York's Manon Cafe. We ate there twice that week and especially enjoyed a crepe with pears, chocolate and vanilla cream.
We saw the seal beach on the news while in the hotel and decided to go visit the seals at the beach in La Jolla. The seals were very relaxed and quiet, sunbathing in the sun and completely oblivious to the people watching them. One very large seal occupied a prominent spot on on of the bigger rocks. It wasn't until he was completely dry that he decided to slide down to the water very slowly. I previously only saw seals while on catamaran in Boston and at the Sea World in San Diego, but never like that - wild in the open. It was wonderful to see them in the natural habitat - near the ocean water.
After driving around looking for a place to have lunch, we somehow settled on Pamplemousse Grill http://pgrille.com/. While nice and welcoming, the place was way too formal for what we expected from the name. We gave it a try and I ordered a seafood bisque, which was absolutely wonderful and full of flavor. A great soup for $18. Felt good in my pregnant belly.
We wanted to relax by the hotel pool in the afternoon and it was wonderful. It was still windy and chilly on Friday, but very refreshing. I swam for the very first time since November. It made me think how much I enjoyed swimming in the past.
We decided to go back to La Jolla beach to try Royal Thai Cuisine http://www.royalthaicuisine.com/. The place had excellent red curry. Although it looked more like yellow curry and was hardly warm enough. I wasn't a big fan of their "hot green tea" either - just lightly colored lukewarm water. Are they saving on electrical power there as well as tea bags?
Wayne discovered that right across from the hotel where we used to stay in the past was the Russian-Georgian Restaurant called Pomegranate. Naturally, we decided to try it. We ordered a salad platter full of familiar Russian salads and some Georgian salads that I wasn't familiar with. There was mashed bean salad that was pretty good. The green spinach dip was our least favorite, while the cabbage-apple salad was the best. We had an authentic Russian feast there: chicken kebabs and golubtsi - cabbage rolls filled with ground beef and cooked in the vegetable stock. The $4 tea came in a glass with metallic holder and we had to choose the syrup to go with the tea: I went with sour cherry.
We met uncle Bob and Diane on Sunday - the hottest day of our trip and went to the Presbyterian church with them in the morning. The service was good, but I didn't find the church to be very friendly. The pastor hardly made any eye contact when we went to visit with him and ended the conversation well before it started. Another tall guy with a big nose came up to introduce himself, did not even glance our way when shaking our way. Sometimes I wonder if it is social awkwardness that makes people act that way. I don't think we are very intimidating. Either way, I was happy that our home church is completely the opposite. We are friendly, open and like to socialize with new people.
We had wonderful time with uncle Bob and Diane during our brunch in Alpine. They got a new puppy - a little adopted white poodle mix named Princess that loves to jump on coaches despite having hip problems. The cat was still living at the house and we decided not to go there to avoid my allergy outburst.
