Anniversary

The first Tuesday of our vacation was our wedding anniversary. We celebrated by spending the morning and early afternoon at the USS Midway.

Touring the USS Midway was a similar experience to touring USS Yorktown at Patriots Point in Charleston, SC, which we did on our honeymoon. It was very interesting, the people working there were very helpful and informative, and there was a lot to take in. Lots of aircraft on the flight deck.

 Great views from the flight deck.

I suspect SP enjoyed it a lot more than I did, and that's OK. Not all parts were accessible, so I spent a lot of time just hanging out, looking at the views, and people watching while he explored. After the USS Midway, we went over to Seaport Village and walked around that area and along the water back towards the USS Midway area. We saw lots of boats:

And we eventually got back to this statue in front of the USS Midway:

The Kissing Statue. It's inspired by the famous photograph of the soldier kissing the nurse in Times Square when World War II ended in 1945.

We retraced our walk along the water back to Seaport Village and decided to enjoy a small snack from Frosted Robin Cupcakes.

I got an iced mango tea and SP had an iced green tea plus we shared a cupcake. A very small cupcake. A very small cupcake that cost $3.95.

It was a latte cupcake, I think. Chocolate cake. Latte icing. Coffee bean on top. I thought it was very pricey for such a small cupcake. I've seen not so positive comments about cupcakes from Dozen here in Pittsburgh and I can assure you that a Dozen cupcake is larger, tastier, and cheaper (well, I think cheaper, not sure what they cost these days) than this cupcake. It was quite disappointing. The cake wasn't dry, but it wasn't especially flavorful, and I found the icing too grainy/sweet for my tastes. It was pretty, though.

When we returned to the hotel, we discovered that my parents had arrived. They were joining us for 2 days in San Diego. So we all gathered in our room for a glass of wine, toasted our anniversary, and then went our separate ways, my parents to Marble Room and us to dinner at Island Prime.

It took us a very long time to decide where to have our anniversary dinner. I searched for San Diego Romantic Restaurants, San Diego Best Restaurants, recommendations from Food Collage & Rodzilla. And for some reason, I just couldn't decide. I had a list of about ten possibilities. Finally, I told SP to choose. Based mostly on location, he chose Island Prime on Harbor Island.

We arrived a bit before our reservation time, and after a brief wait, we were seated right next to a window with a wonderful view of the water & city.

Here's what we enjoyed:

SP chose sake, I chose a viognier

The bread was actually a popover, the first time I've ever had a popover

The inside of the popover. It was tasty, airy, crusty.

A Study in Lobster appetizer: lobster lollipop (tempera battered), lobster-fontina grilled cheese, lobster bisque. 

SP's entree: Hazelnut Crusted Grouper with pineapple salsa, lemon-sea salt beans, lime-ginger beurre blanc

My entree: Pan Roasted Day Boat Scallops atop fingerling potatoes instead of risotto cake (which had garlic in it), crispy prosciutto, butternut squash, and yuzu beurre blanc

Close up of scallop

Side order of Smoked Wild Mushrooms, peppercorn demi, puff pastry, shallots, thyme, and rosemary sprig

Dessert: Creme Brulee Trio (chocolate, vanilla, pineapple)

Hot Tea

I chose a fruity black tea from a tea chest of loose leaf teas. The loose leaf tea was placed into a tea bag for brewing.

View towards end of dinner

My thoughts on the meal: Service was terrific. Pacing of the courses was great. The lobster appetizer was really tasty. I liked the popover for the bread. SP loved his entree, I thought mine was OK. For $37 I expected slightly larger scallops as well as more than three scallops. These also were not the best scallops I've eaten at a restaurant - they were a tad overcooked. I've had much tastier scallops in Pittsburgh at Eleven and in Charleston when we ordered them. The potatoes were good, but I was very disappointed I couldn't have the risotto. Normally, I would have gone ahead with the risotto, but my stomach had been a wee bit unhappy that morning (the tartar sauce from Point Loma Seafoods and the bite of garlicky mac & cheese from Marble Room) and I didn't want to risk any... reactions. The mushrooms were very, very tasty and it made us sad that we couldn't finish them nor could we take them back to the hotel because there wasn't a way to reheat them. I thought the creme brulee was just OK. The tea was terrific and I liked that it was loose tea and not tea bags. The view was fabulous.

Definitely a good place to celebrate our anniversary.