San Diego and the Savannah Bananas
If we didn’t have enough fun on our Summer Escape, we were home for a week before it was time to go on another adventure!
This year, we entered the lottery to win a chance at tickets to a Savannah Banana game, and we won for San Diego. So, a quick 5-hour drive for us and a flight for my parents, and we met in the sunny city for the weekend.
San Diego
While we have been to San Diego before, we don’t have a ton of pictures or stories, so we wanted to do the full tourist experience while we were there.
To start our morning off, we took a quick drive from our hotel to Coronado Beach. Going at 9 am meant we almost had the beach to ourselves, and gave my dad plenty of time to soak up as much water time as he could 😜.
After enjoying the beautiful views, we took a quick drive up to La Jolla.
I found a recommended lunch spot called The Taco Stand (website here), and who doesn’t love tacos! They had a pretty cool spot setup, and we found out that they are a local chain, so you can find them in a few different areas. Worth checking out if you are in the area!
In that area is also a walking trail that I wanted to check out. So after finding a closer parking spot, we started to meander that way.
I had to hit the restroom, which actually turned out to be a happy accident because we found this cool alley that took us directly to La Jolla Cove, which had a whole park area and public restrooms.
After a quick stop, we realized that there was a huge cove area where there were probably hundreds of seals and birds just soaking up the sun! Plus, you could actually go swimming in the cove, and people were hanging out right there next to them!
We kept walking east towards the Coast Walk Trail and found another cove. On this side of the natural rock barriers were a whole bunch of paddleboards and kayaks, clearly being separated from the swimmers but still enjoying the water.
Now we have to plan a whole trip to come back out here to play in the water!
Last on our to-do list before the game was to visit Balboa Park.
The way this park is talked about, I had pictured a smaller version of Millennium Park in Chicago, where you have the museums and park area to explore. That was not the case. We spent more time driving around trying to orient ourselves, and the view along the way was just sad. I had expected a green park with at least grass, if not trees and such, but nope. I will blame it on the time of year, but we were not impressed.
So, in a last-ditch effort to find something cool, we went over to the visitors center area to check out the outdoor Organ Pavilion. We knew we didn’t have time to go to the actual museums, so that wasn’t a focus, but that is where you had to park.
Now we have to find a parking spot. We do one loop, then another, and on the third loop, I was over it. The park was a bust; we couldn’t find a spot, and I figured we might as well just go to the game early, maybe grab a bite to eat first. At the last second, Nathan found a parking spot, so a little begrudgingly, we got out of the car to go see this Organ on principle.
It was about a 15-minute walk, and along the way we saw a bunch of tents and tons of people.
As we walked through, we realized there were a bunch of small cottages with different country names on them, and they were giving/selling food! It took a few more minutes to find the signs and figure out what was going on, but then we were sold on sticking around!
As part of Balboa Park, there are the HPR International Cottages, and they were celebrating 90 years in operation! So each cottage represented a country, and you go in and learn a bit about their culture, and many of them were offering regional food samples.
This quickly became one of many highlights of the entire trip!
I couldn’t even begin to remember all the places and foods we tried, but it was so much fun and they were all great foods. I think there were only 1-2 things I didn’t care for, but not because it was terrible.
By the time we made it through the cottages, we couldn’t take another bite of food. We were so full!
So, we swung by the Organ Pavilion to check it out on our way out. Sadly, the show for the weekend wasn’t until Sunday, so we didn’t get it see it open or in operation.
Then it was time for some baseball!
Savannah Bananas
If you are not familiar, the Savannah Bananas are a baseball team in the league Banana Ball. It was created in 2016 and is a twist on traditional baseball to make it way more fun and entertaining. Some people associate them with the Harlem Globetrotters, but they are not the same! Banana Ball is a legitimate league and game with no set outcome. If you haven’t already seen them, go check out their stuff on YouTube!
We made it super early, so our seats weren’t even open. So, we checked out some merch and somehow got more food 😂.
I grabbed a t-shirt, and Nathan got a banana split that came in a little helmet, which I really tried to think of a use for, so we could keep it, but no such luck.
They kept the crowd entertained through songs and dancing, and we were introduced to Princess Potassium and the Man-Nanas, which is their male cheerleading team. The whole night felt more like a cover-band concert than a baseball game, and we LOVED it!
After 30 minutes or so, our seats were open, so we grabbed them; and then there was a good hour or more of pre-show entertainment with the Savanana Banana and the opposing team, The Firefighters.
In addition to the fun atmosphere, there were multiple celebrity guest stars!
I will never be able to describe how much fun this game was. We had an absolute blast, and if any of this looks slightly enjoyable, then you should join us in future games, because we will absolutely try to go to more games next year!
We finished the weekend exhausted but happy with all of our adventures, the best of which were totally unplanned and unknown, but sometimes you just have to go with the flow! 😊
If you want to see all of our pictures, you can check them out here on Google Photos!
