New Year's in La Jolla

There’s only one problem, really, with staying at Sommerset Suites Hotel: it’s too tempting to spend evenings lolling about the suite drinking wine rather than going out to some chichi bistro to loll about drinking wine. We were so comfortable staying here that we found it difficult to bestir ourselves. Happily, we didn’t have to venture far to find those chichi bistros (or a decent bottle to take back to the room), as the hotel is smack in the center of the Hillcrest District, one of San Diego’s liveliest neighborhoods.

The friendly, efficient staff manning the front desk made an immediate positive impression. We soon had our swipe cards to a first-floor suite located just across from the dining room, where a complimentary continental breakfast is laid out each morning by another smiling staff member. There’s a happy hour each evening, too, featuring various snacks, beer, wine, and soft drinks.

Our suite featured a good-sized living room and dining room area, a full-size kitchen with a separate pantry, a spacious bedroom with walk-in closet, and a nicely appointed bathroom. Additional amenities included free wireless internet access, free parking, two television sets receiving HBO and other premium channels, fluffy white bathrobes, and a welcome basket of coffee, microwave popcorn, and granola bars. All this came at an extremely reasonable price, with discounts for extended stays.

My one quibble was that while the kitchen had every appliance needed, it lacked basic utensils, such as a strainer, spatula, and decent knife. However, this was one occasion where that mattered not one whit: I’d resolved to not lift a finger in the kitchen on this vacation. I did make use of the laundry facilities on the fourth floor, however.

Our suite’s decor was low-key, featuring a warm amber color scheme. The place felt more like a condo than a hotel suite. In fact, Sommerset Suites was once a residence for interns at the nearby hospital. Although the hotel is next to the hospital on a busy street, we didn’t notice a great deal of outside noise beyond an occasional muffled-sounding ambulance siren. Unfortunately, we did find that being directly across from the dining room led to a fair amount of corridor noise. When we mentioned this to the front desk, we were offered another room, but after weighing the inconvenience of moving with the slight noise annoyance, we opted to stay put.

Although it was too chilly to swim, the hotel’s pool area with umbrella-shaded tables would no doubt be a nice place to relax on warm days. However, I’d say the most winning aspect of the hotel is its convenient location. There’s a movie theatre less than a block away, plus several dozen restaurants and clubs within walking distance. The Hillcrest District is the hub San Diego’s gay community and has a slightly festive, offbeat feel. There are lots of nice places to shop, a terrific array of neon signs, and a fine mix of congenial folk about night and day.

I was delighted to find this highly regarded Thai restaurant only a few blocks from our hotel. On a busy Friday night, we stopped by and made a reservation for later that evening, deciding to walk around Hillcrest and work up an appetite rather than join the throng waiting for a table. Upon our return some 45 minutes later, we still had to wait a few minutes, the time spent perusing the many dining awards and reviews on display in the foyer.

Celadon is obviously popular for dates, as there were a number of young couples seated in the romantically lit dining room. The decor is a fusion of modern and traditional Thai, with suitably low-key music playing in the background. The acoustics in the room are good, and although the tables are set fairly close together, there’s no feeling that conversations of nearby tables intrudes.

While the romantic decor and intimate ambience explain part of Celadon’s appeal, the attentive service and outstanding food explain the rest. The wait staff are well trained--attentive but not obtrusive. The chef’s timing was good, too. We had our appetizers shortly after our drinks arrived, and our entrees appeared just after we’d finished our appetizers.

For starters, we split an enormous pot of shrimp Tom Yum soup. The soup was a tad on the sweet side, but the flavorful broth contained large chunks of tomato, plenty of straw mushrooms, and large shrimp. Chunks of ginger, slices of lemon grass, strands of cilantro, and kaffir lime leaves enhanced the flavor.

Greg had a second starter, chicken satay, which was the largest portion I’ve ever seen served as an appetizer. Each of the five skewers looked like it held almost a quarter pound of chicken. Of course, I had to have a taste of the moist, flavorful chicken served with traditional peanut sauce. ("Quality control" is the family euphemism for this sort of sampling.)

Not feeling in the mood for spicy food, I ordered chicken and shrimp in a savory sauce. The dish glistened with perfectly cooked asparagus chunks, tender chunks of chicken, and succulent shrimp. The sauce was delicate, more reminiscent of Chinese oyster sauce than anything Thai. To accompany this, I had a glass of Viognier, a very generous slosh poured into an enormous wine glass, the sort favored by wine connoisseurs. Jack ordered a seafood dish with scallops, shrimp, squid, and firm-fleshed fish in a fiery sauce. Greg chose a Thai duck dish, which was served with a large portion of freshly pickled ginger on the side, an interesting combination I hadn’t seen before.

For dessert, we were each brought a complimentary cup of warm tapioca and sweet corn. I found this a little runny for my taste, but Jack and Greg polished theirs off. All in all, we were mightily pleased with Celadon, which scored high marks across the board for ambience, service, food, and value.

It was pouring rain on New Year’s Eve, putting a damper on our plans to participate in festivities downtown. The idea of scouting around town for a nice restaurant for dinner wasn’t particularly appealing, either. Luckily we remembered an attractive bistro just a few blocks away that we’d spotted the previous evening. Our luck and timing were both good when we arrived at Ortega’s, as the restaurant was gearing up for a private party later that evening but was still serving customers. Soon we were seated in the nicely decorated main room featuring large wicker lanterns in the high-beamed ceiling and wrought iron and leather furniture.

Ortega’s is a fairly new venture started by Juan Carlos Ortega, a restaurateur from Puerto Nuevo, and John Haughland, a retired San Diego police sergeant. They’ve already established a fairly steady clientele, so the wait for a table can be over 30 minutes on busy nights. Reservations are recommended. The bistro features recipes from Ortega’s hometown, a seaside fishing village in the Baja peninsula. The grilled 1-1/2 pound lobster is the restaurant’s signature dish (that’s Pacific lobster, by the way, the spiny, clawless kind). The Baja-style lobster dinner comes with handmade hot corn tortillas, fresh salsa, rice, and pinto beans, not the refried kind. It’s very light for Mexican food.

Our son Greg habitually requests lobster when we go to nice restaurants, and we habitually tell him he can’t have it. He was surprised when we told him to go ahead and order it at Ortega’s. The price was so reasonable, there really wasn’t a reason not to splurge.

Our meal started with a generous basket of thin tortilla chips and a tasty homemade salsa. The reasonably priced Cabrillo margarita ($6), which was Jack’s choice, features good-quality tequila and triple sec, but I opted for passion-fruit ice tea. My tea and Greg’s Coke were replenished continuously.

Jack and I both started with soup, mine a savory black bean and pumpkin soup thick enough to use as dip for the chips, while Jack opted for tortilla soup. Both Jack and Greg had variations on a theme of lobster, Jack had the half lobster and shrimp combo and Greg the half lobster paired with tender beef filet medallions.

I was in the mood for something completely new, so I ordered banana-encrusted huachinango (red snapper). This was a delicious pick. The snapper fillet was smothered in a not-sweet carapace of seasoned banana and atop a bed of red rice, which was, in turn, surrounded by a thick pool of roasted tomato sauce with a swirl of green cilantro sauce as a flourish. The fish was very tender and the flavor married well with the banana and subtle spices of the sauces.

The rain had abated by the time we finished our meal, allowing us to stroll once again through the lively Hillcrest District. We counted ourselves as lucky to have found such a pleasant spot to enjoy our New Year’s Eve dinner.

I’d read that the Museum Cafe at the Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla was worth checking out, and as we arrived at the museum near lunchtime and hadn’t eaten, we decided to give it a try. I’d say this was one of our trip’s "finds"--I just wish this place could be cloned and transplanted to our hometown.

The café is in an airy atrium-like setting with suitably modern minimalist touches. There are outdoor tables that can be set up under the museum’s trademark palm trees, but on a chilly, gray day, dining indoors seemed a better bet. On the other hand, with the nasty weather, there were relatively few patrons on hand and we were immediately seated.

The menu presents an immediate dilemma: what to choose. Each listing sounds more appealing than the next. I was intrigued by such dishes as Moroccan grilled shrimp or a salad with grilled chicken, Gorgonzola cheese, green apples, organic greens, and candied pecans. One sandwich features roast beef, caramelized onions, and Manchego cheese, while another featured applewood smoked bacon paired with avocado. Emphasis was on using the very freshest ingredients and little fat in preparation.

Greg knew instantly that he wanted: the "Classic Cove" burger, which came with herbed wedges of Yukon Gold potatoes. His meal was truly mouth-watering just to look at--one of the prettiest burgers I’ve ever seen, and from his mute nods of appreciation, it was probably one of the tastiest as well. After some deliberation, Jack and I ordered. He started with a bowl of black bean soup topped with sour cream and shredded cheddar, followed by an inventive quesadilla featuring fresh mango, avocado, and a smoky-flavored cheese I couldn’t identify. Jack asked the waitress to bring him some chopped jalapenos--there were supposedly jalapenos already in the quesadilla, but not enough for a man who downs half jars of pickled jalapenos at a single sitting. "Some like it hot," indeed.

I opted for a beet and orange salad, served with a wonderfully subtle balsamic vinaigrette on the side. The rondels of cooked beet and seedless orange ringed a bed of baby greens. Salted almond slices and dollops of wonderfully creamy goat cheese made the perfect accompaniment to the pairing of beet and citrus. I must say that I’ve never had goat cheese that I liked as well as that particular type. Normally I find goat cheese a bit chalky, but this was wonderful stuff.

Jack and Greg finished their meal with frothy double espressos, while I contented myself with a refill of fragrant apricot iced tea. This quintessentially Californian meal was both light and wholesome, yet it felt like we’d really splurged. It wasn’t particularly hard on the wallet, either, given the upscale La Jolla location. The total bill came to $41. Note that this is a great place for brunch, too, as breakfast items such as huevos rancheros are served until 3pm.

We’re what you might call aquarium connoisseurs. We live within striking distance of the immense National Aquarium in Baltimore, plus wherever we travel, we seek out aquariums, such as the splendid ones in Boston, Chattanooga, Chicago, and Monterrey. We’re avid snorkelers, too, so we’ve got a lot of first-hand reef experience and are keen observers of aquatic life. Needless to say, we expected great things of the Birch Aquarium, associated with the world-famous Scripps Institute. Alas, while the aquarium is perfectly adequate, it didn’t really live up to our expectations.

This is not to say that it’s not worth going to. For starters, the entry fee is a reasonable $11 for adults. Large aquariums, such as Baltimore’s, run to around $22, while commercial ventures, such as Sea World, will set you back fifty smackers. The Birch Aquarium is also to be commended for showcasing California sea life. The largest tank, for example, illustrates the inhabitants of a kelp forest similar to the ones just offshore. Furthermore, the setting for the aquarium is stunning, perched up on cliffs overlooking La Jolla’s scenic coast. Just don’t go expecting something comparable to a large aquarium and your expectations will probably be met, particularly if you have young children in tow.

If you don’t have young children along, however, there are a few things to consider. First, consider going on a school day. Weekends are quite crowded, and even though there are signs telling parents not to take strollers through the heavily trafficked tank area, the rule doesn’t seem to be enforced very well. There is also the perennial problem of any museum that has a lot of glass surfaces and lots of children--it’s impossible to keep the glass from become grimy, no matter how vigilant the cleaning crew. As E.F. Benson once remarked, "Children are so sticky, especially after tea."

The much-vaunted hands-on tide pool area is extremely popular, and there’s an education center with various easy-to-understand scientific displays on such things as earthquakes. In short, the aquarium does a good job of catering to families with young children.

If you can manage to go at a relatively quiet time, check out the displays featuring seahorses, including leafy seahorses blending uncannily with the aquatic plants in their tanks. There are extensive displays on invertebrates, such as sea anemones, and tanks of ethereal moon jellyfish back lit in dark tanks for optimal effect. Another star attraction, a giant octopus, was putting on quite a show slithering around his tank when we visited. I got a big chuckle out of an ungainly fish named the Sarcastic fringehead--you can’t fault marine biologists for their sense of humor, apparently.

Of particular interest are the aquarium’s public programs. During winter and early spring, naturalist-guided whale watching tours are offered, including weekend trips to whale calving lagoons in Baja, Mexico. Such a trip, making use of the institute’s considerable expertise, might be something we’ll consider next time we’re in the area.

There’s a lot to like about the Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla, but there’s not too much, if you catch my drift. Rather than overwhelm the visitor with crammed exhibits and diffuse sensibilities, the museum lets select pieces and tightly focused exhibits showcase California art and themes. This is not to say that the museum confines itself to local artists--non-Californian contemporary art is well represented with pieces by such major figures as Rauschenberg, Warhol, and Lichtenstein, and work by Latin American artists are featured as well.

It’s not just the art that’s thought-provoking here, but the building and its setting as well. The foyer of the museum serves as an exhibit space, and the first piece that caught my eye was a romantic-looking group of paintings on the wall facing the door, entitled "An Inland Sea" by Jean Lowe. What looked on first glance like a lush landscape painting from the 19th century on closer inspection features a dammed river and landscape ravaged by pollution--a statement on the destructiveness of man. This was one of the pieces of an exhibit entitled "Southern Exposure," which drew from the museum’s collection to ably demonstrate the diversity and creativity of the region’s artists.

One of the pieces I liked best was a disturbing 18-minute film depicting a woman’s obsession with psychic phenomena and her house. Perhaps the piece that "spoke" to me most, however, was an acrylic Minimalist sculpture by Robert Irwin, beautifully lit from the sides to cast shadows onto the wall behind it. It was hard to tell where the piece ended and the shadows began. I also liked a triptych of photos taken at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City--a commentary on the institutionalization of culture.

One section features a long Plexiglas window with several cut-out areas offering views of the gorgeous shoreline nearby. The difference in hue between the Plexiglas (bluish cast) and open spaces and the inclusion of outdoor elements in an indoor setting pose interesting questions about the boundaries of art, architecture, and the outside environment. This was another work by Robert Irwin, who seems to say quite a lot with very little.

My one regret was that I couldn’t enjoy the lovely outdoor sculpture garden. I made a brief foray there, but a light rain quickly turned into a downpour that sent me scurrying back indoors for shelter. Instead, I made do with a visit to the museum’s appealing gift shop. I’d love to return to the museum on a sunny day to better enjoy its outdoor displays. Since exhibits change frequently, there’s sure to be something new to enjoy indoors as well.

Open Thursday 11-7, Friday-Tuesday 11-5. Entrance is $6 for adults, $2 for students, seniors, and military personnel. Children under 12 free. The museum is free the third Tuesday of the month and provides free guided tours at 2pm each day, with an extra tour at 5:30pm on Thursday.

Torrey Pines State Reserve has multiple appeal. The reserve is popular with birdwatchers, beachcombers, fitness buffs, surfers, photographers, whale watchers, wildflower enthusiasts, naturists, and all manner of folks who simply want a peaceful break. Since this lovely piece of wilderness occupies prime coastal real estate in a densely populated area, however, you’re not liable to be enjoying its much-vaunted splendors in solitude. We came fairly early on New Year’s day, around 8am, and already found the parking lot beginning to fill. Fitness walkers and joggers were busy fulfilling their New Year’s resolutions by ascending the long winding road up to spectacular bluffs looking out over the sea. Less-ambitious folks like us simply strolled along the beach then drove up to the visitor center to have a look around.

The reason this slice of wilderness exists at all is because of the eponymous Torrey Pine, found only here and on Santa Rosa Island. Some 6,000 of this rarest of North American pines grow on the reserve, and their dramatically wind-twisted forms are the first thing a visitor notices from the heights of the cliffs. Westward lies the blue Pacific, a scene untouched by modern man, but eastward from the overlook near the visitor center are La Jolla’s suburbs in full fig. Turning our backs on suburbia and setting out on a short hike, we could still hear the rush of busy I-5 in the distance almost (but not quite), overshadowed by the sound of the wind and the call of scrub jays.

Although we’d picked up a trail map at the visitor center, we quickly abandoned all plans to "do" one trail or another and simply lost ourselves in the warren of hiking trails along the flattened tops of the bluffs. I’m always interested in the local flora and have read that in the spring and summer Torrey Pines is a marvelous place for wildflower spotting and photography. Indeed, a pamphlet we picked up mentioned that there are some 400 blooming species in the reserve, including verbenas, California poppies, wild lupines, Indian paintbrushes, and morning glories.

We made our way out to Red Butte, an impressive spine of bright red rock commanding a stunning view out over the preserve. Torrey Pines’ signature cliffs, orange-red and deeply furrowed, drop precipitously down to Black Beach, infamous for its nude sunbathers. There’s a trail farther along leading down to the beach, but it’s currently closed due to damage from the heavy rains of 2004-5. (I understand it’s scheduled to reopen soon.) An hour’s leisurely cliff-top ramble was the perfect beginning to yet another sunny California day.

Specifics: Open to pedestrians and cyclists from 6am until 11pm. The parking lot ($6 fee) is open from 8am to sunset. No dogs, smoking, camping, or fires. Day use only. Picnics are allowed down on the beach, but not up on the cliffs. Bicycles and baby strollers are not permitted on the hiking trails.