Weekend trip to San Diego to see a pool tournament

So I'm actually a couple of weeks late on updating the blog about our trip to San Diego, but it's better late than never, right? We left for San Diego around 3PM on the 4th and the drive was fine, until we hit the area around the Marine Base. Traffic was quite bad, and we weren't sure why, but our guess was that it was the time that people were leaving the beach. Nick really needed to use the bathroom, so he took the exit for Oceanside thinking that there would be a Starbucks in that city. Well, he was wrong, and not only was traffic bad on the freeway, it was also horrible in the direction that we were headed (towards the ocean). Nick decides that it would be faster for us to park somewhere and walk around, so he turned down the next street that he came across and parked. We started to make our way towards the water and much to our surprise, there was no Starbucks at all.

I felt rather out of place in this city. Since it was so close to the Marine base, there were many military people in Oceanside (all donning the usual military buzzcut). Knowing that the military tends not to be very accepting of gays, I was a little nervous that Nick and I were two men walking around this city and didn't look at all like we were in the Marines. This made me very motivated to find Nick a restroom, so we quickly walked to the beach where there were public restrooms (yay). We then walked back to our car and left Oceanside (and will probably never return there).

Traffic was still bad, but it only lasted for a couple miles or so. Before we arrived at our hotel, we made our annual stop at the Fashion Valley mall. Usually we go there to grab a drink at D'lush. It's this high end drink place that does boba (bubble tea), but what we really know them for is their over the top sales people. The previous times that we've walked past their location, we were usually accosted by perky people shoving drink samples in our face and then literally grabbing our arms to go into the store. It worked 'cuz that was our first experience with them and we actually ordered drinks for ourselves. And then after you finish your drink, the person (usually a young woman wearing a tank top) gives you a straw and says very enthusiastically "Try it, make sure you love it!" Here's a video that might better explain the craziness of it all.

However, this time, there were fewer people attending the booth and no screaming samplers. The sound of the blenders were still there, but there wasn't as much screaming and hollering. We didn't get drinks because we had dinner reservations and wanted to be able to eat dinner, so instead we tried out their donut holes, which made for a good snack. It was all very sad to see that Dlush was no longer that lively of a place...but maybe we showed up on an off day. Anyway, we'll probably go back there again next year.

After a quick walk around the mall, we drive to the US Grant hotel. We have only stayed there once before (last year for the same pool tournament), but the system remembered us because the woman welcomed us back. It's a nice hotel with elegant decor and furnishings. It's a stark contrast to the W San Diego, which is a few blocks away, whose decor is more sleek and modern, but still nice as well. The reason we went with the US Grant was because for the same price, we could get a bigger room.

The next morning, after having breakfast at the restaurant in the hotel, we drove to Alpine for the pool tournament. We tried not to make the same mistake that we did last year when we showed up at 1:02 only to find out that the first game had started already. This time, we showed up with 5 minutes to spare, which meant that available seats were rather slim. For some reason this year, they didn't install bleachers for one section, so we ended up sitting in the middle row of chairs where our view was blocked by the people in front of us. I spent a lot of time looking at the large TV screens, but next time, we are soooooo showing up earlier.

The tournament was fun, as always. It's amazing just how personable the competitors are before the matches when they warm up. We were watching Ga Young Kim who, on TV during competition, is very focused on the game. But during warm ups, she was answering questions from the audience, making fun of the tournament referee, and even showed us a trick shot at the request of an audience member. There were a lot of amazing shots during the semis and finals...one game that we both remember quite well was when Monica Webb broke and made the 1 ball, but had no shot at the 2 ball. However, the 2 ball was hanging in the pocket, so she had to jump over a ball in order to pocket it, but not jump so hard that the ball would follow into the pocket. She made that shot but then had to jump for the 3 ball, which she also made. And then after that, it was a cakewalk to win the game.

I think the tournament airs on ESPN on 5/3. If we're on TV, we would be near the back of the venue. I think this time, we'll be in a lot more TV shots than we have been in the past.

Anyway, it was a great tournament and we will be coming back again next year!