A Weekend In San Diego

It was a business trip that Mack won as a result of his networking accomplishments as a member of BNI, Business Networking International.

We landed Friday afternoon, checked into the Sheraton Hotel & Marina near the airport, into an 11th-floor hotel room with sweeping views of the marina, downtown, and Coronado Island. We grabbed a cab to the Gaslamp district, made our way through the aisle of 5th Avenue which is lined with young women between 5’2″ and 5’4″ all saying, “Hello” as a way of bringing your attention to the establishment and its menu. We finally settled on Beer Co, a sports bar on 6th, watched some baseball, then went back to Bite M.E., a fledgling chain concept featuring modern fast-food design and slow-cooked Mediterranean fare. It was exceptionally good!

Saturday morning was a presentation by Ivan Misner, who shared how a chance meeting with someone who wanted to collaborate on networking instructional materials led, in five steps over a couple of years, to spending a weekend on Richard Branson’s private island and a later tour of Virgin Galactic. How cool is that?

Everybody told us to go eat at the Old Town Mexican Restaurant, which does make their own tortillas in the front window, does have a mariachi band, and still manages to have boring, below-grade Mexican food. So we went to the fabulous Balboa Park, strolled down the loggia of El Prado, which was the site of a 1913 World’s Fair. We came back to the hotel, ate, and watched baseball.

Sunday, we had good breakfast at a fly-infested spot in La Jolla, apparently screens don’t work if you have an open-air sidewalk cafe. We went to UCSD and strolled the campus looking at sculptures from the Stuart Collection, then went to Encinitas to check out the Botanic Garden. There, we met a couple who suggested a restaurant in town and a garden at the Self-Realization Fellowship Retreat, we went to the garden which is on a bluff overlooking Swami Seaside Park, no joke! They had built a palace on the bluff in the early ’30s, but cliffs are unstable, so they took it down and landscaped several gorgeous viewpoints.

We didn’t take the restaurant advice, and because we like the modern, went to the brand-new Union101, with a strong industrial decor, extensive beer list, and lots of TVs. Everything was good except, alas, the food.

Monday morning, we turned in the rental car, sat by the pool and took in some sun, and caught a mid-day flight back. It was not an exciting trip, but it was a good one, especially because it helped to remind us that we’re not just in the real estate business, we’re not just here to help you and your friends and family buy and sell homes and gardens, but we’re here to help you connect.

We can be a great resource for tradespeople in real-estate related fields, but we have other connections – you can check out some of them on Facebook, or Mack’s LinkedIn page, or Cynthia’s LinkedIn page, or you can call or email us!

That’s why we’re here.