Day 3: Charlin's Day Off

When vacationing, timing is important. If the vacationer attempts to do too much too soon, he or she burns out, gets cranky, and turns a good trip into a bad experience. A wise planner will include time for rest and leisure. So, today I did just that.

I managed to sleep in a bit (I always have trouble with hotel beds). Eventually, I migrated out of the room and looked around the hotel.

Fish

The hotel sports a lounge with big, overstuffed chairs, a television that only shows a fireplace, and a fishtank. The tank has a bitty little redtooth triggerfish, an evasive snowflake moray eel, and a very fat puffer fish. After looking around, I sought sustenance.

  Coffeeeeeee

 

Actually, it's hot chocolate.

I was ready to go, but the decor of the shop really struck me.

Doesn't he look like an icon at a cathedral?

Anyway, I decided to work off some of the junk food I ate over the past week and do some walking. The Internet recommended a few stores I really wanted to check out. The first was So Simple, a jewelry store.

Bling-bling

I am a total and utter sucker for necklaces, so I walked out with a very nice fluer-de-lis pendent. Walking further, I found the sign every website promoting any shop, hotel, restaurant, or tourist destination in the Gaslamp Quarter.

I'm N UR shot, rooning UR pic

This part of Gaslamp is, in fact, the land of the suits. Apparently, San Diego's very large convention center had a major event and all the suited businesspeople left for lunch. I had never seen so many suits outside of a department store. Of course, the suits need someplace to stay, so many hotels and offices with bad art surround the area.

  I just don't get it

Jerome's in the picture, but it came out darker than I expected.

Instead of just looking at the big buildings, I found a beautiful view.

Beautiful

Unfortunately, there was one flaw with the view, and this is it:

The view is guarded by a million stairs. Seriously. And they are not all in one staircase. Noooo.

 You think you're almost to the top. You take two more steps...

Daahhh! Curse you, terranced stairs!

As you can tell by the photo, some die-hards were actually doing up-downs on these stairs. Multiple times. Around noon. The. Very. Hottest. Time. Of. DAY.

I just can't relate to that. So I got some lunch.

Fiiissshhhh

The Tin Fish serves a great batch of fish and chips. I scarfed all six pieces. Then, I did some more walking. I got to the beach, almost got run over by three bikers, talked to a fisherman (who told me he caught a 32-pound fish last week, but he had to let it go), and got tired. However, I wanted to see a few more highly-recommended stores. Known as Crunch Time, the shop was praised for its friendly service, great variety, and tasty popcorn. All accounts were perfectly accurate.

Yay!

The sales clerk was very excited about Jerome. She explained that she had seen a commercial where a father does something similar to Jerome for his son. I think she is awesome.

After purchasing some very yummy popcorn, I headed to the mall. This time, I managed to avoid pushy salespeople. Unfortunately, the last store I wanted to see, the Discovery Channel Store, had closed two months prior. I still managed to find a nice souvenier for some of the folks back home, although I may get something else for them as well. It's been a long, restorative day, so it's time to kick back and eat popcorn.

Livin' the good life

Tomorrow, we take on Sea World!