The “spring forward” time change to Daylight Saving Time each year is one of our favorite days of the year. In fact, it just may be Veronica’s very favorite. David, on the other hand, leans toward Thanksgiving as his.
Before we go on, I must admit that I’m pretty sure I usually say “daylight savings time,” with an s. Turns out that is incorrect, I checked. You see, the word saving refers to the word daylight so it should be singular. We are not savings daylight.
I also found out that the phrase does not need to be capitalized (obviously after I wrote it up above, and no, I’m not going to fix it. I like the way it looks.) Additionally, there is some debate as to whether it should be hyphenated. I saw some good points made as to why it should, but once again, I’m leaving it as is.
Anyway, this year we decided to celebrate moving our clocks ahead by one hour, and thereby making a day of only 23 hours, in a style befitting such a grand stretch of the time – space continuum.
That number seemed significant, and so we made a getaway to San Diego’s only luxury, lifestyle hotel on the beach, Tower23. And when we say on the beach, we really mean on the beach. As in, walk out the door and the beach is right there.
Too many times we have booked a “beach” vacation only to find out that we were staying near the beach, but not on the beach.
That meant having to carry a bunch of stuff a few blocks, or even more sometimes, and across busy waterfront streets. Sometimes it even meant driving a for a while, and then the real nightmare begins … trying to find a place to park that is even remotely close to the seaside.
Another problem with those not quite on the beach accommodations is that if one person is ready to go, then everyone has to go too. “The cars leaving guys!”
Well, we eliminated all of those problems in one swoop by staying right where the sand meets the sea. Tower23 has complimentary valet parking included with the room, and easy access to a rockin’ yet relaxing stretch of Pacific Beach just a few steps from any room.
Over three miles of boardwalk stretches out in either direction, and we love riding bikes, so since we didn’t bring our own, we figured we could rent some. No need. Bikes are also included with the room, so we saddled up and pedaled down the boardwalk for a leisurely ride.
The inland side of the boardwalk is lined with restaurants, pubs, coffee bars, and some souvenir shops, but the ocean side is wide open. This makes for a wonderful uncluttered views of the sea and all of the activity taking place on the beach and in the water.
It also offered us a perfect view of a certain lifeguard tower that gave the name to our new favorite hotel in San Diego, tower number 23.
Since Pacific Beach is known as one of the area’s best surfing spots, much of the in-water activity involved the delicate balancing act of riding a board atop crashing waves. Looks like fun, but we’ve tried it and have been extremely unsuccessful at ever achieving a standing position. This made us perfectly content, as well as amazed, to be watch others who know what they are doing glide effortlessly across the waves.
After riding nearly the entire 3 miles of boardwalk and back, we figured that we had earned a treat and hit the balcony overlooking the Pacific for a quick drink. Then we headed down to JRDN, the onsite restaurant where chef Stephen Gage prepares oceanfront inspired meals right on the boardwalk.
We began with the Chopped Salad, that has a distinctly Italian flare, and TUNA, TUNA, TUNA Sushi roll, featuring ahi, albacore, and spicy tuna, along with cucumber, yamagobo, shiso, and negi. The fresh fish paired practically perfectly with the fresh sea air.
I continued with my Italian theme and had the Lobster Risotto, while Veronica stayed by the sea and had the SO CAL Clam Chowder.
The risotto had a whole lobster tail parked in the center of the bowl, so I pretty much had to love it. Meanwhile, the chowder was unique as clam chowders go, in that it isn’t anything like the typical potatoes, shellfish, and heavy cream broth. This is more of a stew, thick with tomato, and has a decidedly Mexican flair with guajillo chili, cilantro, and lime.
We could give more of a detailed review I suppose, but let’s just say that not a drop of either dish was left in the bottom of the bowl. That pretty much says it all.
Yet, we still managed to squeeze in a little dessert. Well, we shared one, and everybody knows, that’s like not having any at all, right? Not this time.
The Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding certainly deserves more recognition than that. In fact, in a meal where everything was absolutely fabulous, this may have been the star of the show. All that chocolate, topped with honey buttermilk ice cream and chocolate sauce, made for an exceptional end to an exceptional day.
And yes, it was dark by the end of it, even with daylight saving time. (See, no capitalization…I can do it.)
The next morning, we lounged in late and enjoyed a room service breakfast on our own private lanai.
Pretty fancy, huh? Man, we could get used to this.
The menu features some intriguing choices, we tried the Steak & Eggs Rancheros and the Avocado Toast. Now these may not sound all that unique but let me assure you, this was not your typical steak and eggs.
The JRDN version comes with black beans, guacamole, lime crema, queso fresco, pico de gallo, and three short rib with mashed potato rolled tacos. Olé! The avocado toast, while a little more traditional, was still spiced up with some garlic chili oil and dukkah.
They both had us ready for an hour longer day of sight-seeing around beautiful San Diego. But that’s another story for another time. I promise, we will get to it here very soon.
For now, let’s just say that we were back in time to enjoy a spectacular sunset from the end of Crystal Pier.
An hour later than it was a the day before.
David & Veronica, GypsyNester.com
Big thanks to Tower23 for providing this time-changing adventure! As always, all opinions are our own.
Thank you for sharing such a great article.