My Travels

Looking back, I've been to San Diego and vicinity quite a bit this year particularly in the past 30 days! Between conferences and work events, I've returned this time for some college football. On the way down to San Diego, I tried to make a pit stop at Betty's Pie Whole and found that they had closed for the holiday. Saddened and hungy, I went next door to Pho Ever . A rather high end looking Vietnamese restaurant (there's a bar inside), the food was good! The pho has a stronger anise flavor. It is a bit pricier than the typical run of the mill pho restaurant but I'm sure you're helping to pay for the ambiance and the rent. They also have a lunch special add-on. For $1.50, you can get a free drink and egg roll or spring roll. It's not a bad option. The spring roll is better than the egg roll. Stayed at the San Diego Marriott La Jolla . Unfortunately, the room was not available and so I opted to head out to the SDCCU Stadium. The room ended up being ready

Headed out to Salt Lake City for some snow and fun. I recently did a status match with Delta Airlines and was pleasantly surprised to get upgraded. It will be interesting to see with the changes United is making to their mileageplus program if I'm better off switching to another carrier. It will be strange since I've primarily made Star Alliance and United my main carriers. I was able to get dinner at Hoof and Vine upon landing into Salt Lake City. I was attending a group dinner and the preset menu included an option to have elk. Not a common dish for me, I found the elk entrée excellent. I finished off the meal with the peach bread pudding. Snowbird Resort Checked into the Homewood Suites Salt Lake City Draper for the night before heading out for snowboarding. The hotel was nice, the suite was an oversized studio. Good space for all my extra large gear with me. The breakfast option was the typical Homewood Suites menu. The next day, I went to Snowbird Resort to cat

I had a quick work event at UC San Diego and returned to the area after my Carlsbad trip. I mostly stayed on campus in between buildings and found it quite nice. The work event required me to stay two nights and I was able to see and walk around the campus more than I normally would. Overall, I found the campus impressive especially since it seems they are constantly building new buildings. UCSD view from one of the buildings to ocean For dining options, I visited a few eateries locally when not fed by my work host. Sprinkles - there is a location in La Jolla and it was convenient to swing by and grab my favorite cupcakes. Which Wich - in a plaza down the street from Sprinkles, there is a which wich location and I was able to get my favorite items to take back to the hotel. I get tired of scrambled eggs in hotel breakfast buffets so I ordered a sandwich I could eat for breakfast. Betty's Pie Whole - Always in the market for good pie, I found the strawberry rhubarb

Despite the chilly weather, went down to Carlsbad for a quick trip. I was not able to get a big enough room at the Hilton Grand Vacations Club at Mar Brisa . The group was spread out between the Westin Carlsbad Resort and Spa and the Hilton. Westin Carlsbad King Room Hilton Grand Vacations Club MarBrisa Both hotels are essentially across from each other separated by a parking lot. The room location in the Hilton (inside the Cove neighborhood) meant it was a five minute walk to get to the Westin. When I visited the Concierge, I was given a discount card for all the restaurants in the area including those in the Westin and Sheraton. It makes me think that the three hotels are franchised by the same hotel group. I later found out that the Legoland operator does own all the hotels within the complex. Parking everywhere is about $25 a day except if you are a HGVC owner. That appears to be the only exemption from the parking fees. In my last stay at the Hilton, I was not nea