Willy’s wake went as well as could be expected. I saw lots of old friends and we celebrated his life and talked about some good times we all had. He was a very special guy. When it was all said and done, Jane and I still had a couple of days left in San Diego and we planned on making the best of them.

Due to the limited number of meals that my stomach can handle a day, we had to really cherry pick where we planned on eating on any given day. There is a reason I gain 5 to 10 pounds on every trip back, and it is spelled M-E-X-I-C-A-N.

Our very first stop was to a taco shack near our old apartment complex on Banker’s Hill (near downtown). Taco Rey has the best carne asada in a town that sets a high bar on good (cheap) meat. I kept waiting to see the prices jacked up a dollar or two, which I would have happily paid. Instead, we paid maybe an extra 30 or 40 cents at each place we ate. I don’t think we spent more than 10 dollars for two on any meal in the city (the airport not included). These were all admittedly fast food places, but I can’t even go to Jack in the Box for under 10 dollars these days.

We drove the “scenic” route back through town to get to Lemon Grove. My grandfather and my dad were nice enough to put us up last minute in a spare guest room. It is pretty much centrally located to most of the areas that we planned on going in the city. Despite already angry stomachs, we decided to hit up an old burger stand that serves some of the best shakes around. Beef N’ Bun, I salute you.

We crawled our way back home to let the meat and diary settle nicely as we slept.

Breakfast was a no contest decision. Cotija’s was the clear winner. As a matter of fact, there was debate about whether or not we would go there when we first got into town, and then again at some point. Anyone that has ever talked to me about food in San Diego knows that Hash Brown burritos are my favorite breakfast food ever. One of these days they will change management and ruin the recipe and I will openly weep. Sunday morning was not that day. Let me set this up for you. Imagine a massive soft tortilla wrapping eggs, bacon, sausage, cheddar cheese, sour cream, and crispy hash browns. And oh god the hot sauce! I am pretty sure that I only ate one of the burritos in this picture… barely. They are still 4 dollars. The craziest part is, Cotijas is a chain in San Diego, but the only place you can get a good hash brown burrito is in Santee. God bless them for it.

On a side note, I need to dress up for breakfast more often.

After the wake we decided on In N’ Out burger. Washington has a similar chain with an admittedly funnier name of “Dick’s Burger”. They are both a bit silly if you ask me though. I have the mind of a sixth grader.

In N’ Out (heh) has it all over Dick’s (I kill me) in the food department though. The best part is when you order off of the secret menu and get things “animal style” or crazy burgers like the “4×4″ or burgers without buns wrapped in lettuce. The first few times you order like this, it is like you are part of an awesome club. I always half expect to have a newbie working the register who will give me a weird look. All of the kids are well paid and have help with money for college. So again, we have a winner. High fives were had.

We had plans on going out with some friends that night but decided to take it easy since Jane had been feeling poor. Everytime we get on a plane, one of us gets something. It ended up being a nice night in though.

Monday we met my grandfather Tom and his squeeze Zenda for a meal at Anthony’s Fish Grotto. They have one here in Seattle, but this particular location brings back fond memories for me. They have a large pool with ducks and fish where you can take walks before or after a meal. It was one of the places that my family would gather for dinner occasionally. I didn’t exactly capture the essence of the location with this picture, but it will have to do.

That night we met up with our old friend Geoff and his friend Ashley to go into North Park to see some music. Another friend Kelly was playing with a band called Wild Weekend. A Seattle band called The Girls opened and were pretty infectious fun. Two of the boys were down to their underwear and dancing and sweating across the stage. It was a (good) mess.

Wild Weekend came on a little later than I wanted them to, but they were quite good as well. Jane and I got some dancing in too. When it was all said and done, we grabbed some food at Del Taco and got back home for some needed sleep.

I haven’t stepped on the scale since returning, but I am sure it isn’t pretty. Time to get back on that bike.