Exploring Cabrillo

From Mission Bay, it was just a short drive to Point Loma and historic Liberty Station. Formerly known as the Naval Training Center (NTC), after its closure in 1997, Liberty Station was transformed into a shopping, dining, arts and entertainment hub. 

When we were here in 2018 for a campus tour of UCSD for J, we had a late lunch at Liberty Public Market. R and I came back again today to see what else we could try.

After making our way through the market a couple times to get the lay of the land, we decided to divide and conquer. R ordered bao buns and satay skewers from Bao Bar, while I chose a bulgogi beef burrito with spicy aioli from Bopjo. And we got an assortment of macarons from Le Parfait Paris to eat later. Multicultural yumminess!

Then we headed over to Cabrillo National Monument at the end of Point Loma peninsula. Why yes, there is a stamp here, too. But I think we actually earned this one because we hiked the 2.5-mile roundtrip Bayside Trail, which we had never done before. Nice views of San Diego, Coronado, and the birds of North Island Naval Air Station!

Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo

Since it was now late in the afternoon, we decided not to fight traffic back to LA and hang out in San Diego a little while longer instead. So we called my brother and had dinner with him and S at Smokin J's BBQ in Poway.

The Smokin J (brisket/pork belly) and Brisket Grilled Cheese 

Traffic was definitely better by the time we hit the road. At least we didn't have to make the drive all the way home in our food comatose state. We only needed to get to our hotel near LAX since we're flying out to Chicago early tomorrow morning to surprise R's dad for his 90th birthday. Shhhh!