OB - Ocean Beach

Here in SoCal, we can say PB, OB, or IB and even the tourists know the correct beach.  But none would even dare call Coronado Beach CB.  Not sure how these familiar terms came to refer to 'my' beaches. Thus we’ve made a couple bike rides. to OB.

Built in 1966 the iconic OB Pier has been shuttered since an October 2023 storm caused significant damage.

Damage from high surf has caused closures of the pier in recent years.
Photo: Sean M. Haffey/Getty images

This past week the city has confirmed that no additional repairs will be attempted.  The OB Pier will be demolished and replaced.  The current plan rendering has been released.

Ocean Beach Pier rendering.
Photo: Courtesy of the City of San Diego

The estimated cost is near $200 million! and will take years to complete. The new rendering shows the pier to be 2000’ as was the original.

I believe the WOW Cafe on the pier is also gone forever :(, it has not reopened anywhere in the OB area ... so I am now on a personal quest to find another fish taco in OB worthy of replacing WOW.

Fran and I rode our bikes over the recently completed bike path on Sunset Cliffs Blvd through Rob Field and down to the sand volleyball courts at Dog Beach.  She had heard that Beach Tennis is to be played there.  It’s kinda like Pickle Ball on a half-height volleyball net, in the sand.  We enjoyed walking the beach, but alas no tennis.

It’s nice to have the sand between the toes, it’s even nicer to wash it out.

We walked all of Newport Ave from the beach and then back checking out the options.  And we ended back at South Beach an old favorite.

Really, it is a very good taco, with a variety of condiments

At $5 their ‘World Famous’ grilled Mahi Mahi is going to be hard to beat.  But their service is a bit slow and does not have the personality the WOW had.

Saturday 9/7 Old Mission Beach Athletic Club (OMBAC) was sponsoring a wheelchair Over The Line (OTL).

Many of the participants are not disabled, but are there to support friends or family.  OMBAC provides chairs for the them, so they too can compete.

A while back I put together an OTL-101 blog.  If you want to check up on the game that blog can be found HERE.

A few concessions for the ADA version.  Although the ball must still go Over The Line.  If the ball is fielded cleanly in the air that, of course, is an out.  However in Chair OTL The ball can be fielded cleanly after a single bounce or simply touched in the air before a bounce and that too is an out.

The use of a T-ball stand is permitted at the batter’s request.

Field positions are the same with 2 forward to protect the corners and 1 deep to prevent a home run.  A good hitter will spin the ball into a corner over the line and with bounce out of bounds.  It's only a homerun if the ball travels over the last defender's head without touching the ground, hence he plays deep.

Rather than use a T-ball stand, the batter may chose to have a teammate pitch the ball.

The idea is to drop the ball near the wheel so a nice one handed golf shot can spin the ball over the line into a corner or sideline.  After watching for awhile I drove to Rob Field to unload my bike for a ride over to the Sunset Cliffs Auto Show.

With 250,000 miles on my truck I just put on a set of new tires.  I should have waited!, now these are some tires!, don't think they'll fit.

My personal fav at the show

Custom surfboard graphics to match his car.

A fully restored 1929 Hudson and it’s available!

A Stoddard Dayton 10-K.

A 1953 Bentley

also with some nice tires.

This 2017 Rolls-Royce Ghost is a commissioned build.  Simply it’s one-of-a-kind.

You get the idea the OB Auto Show has some really classic entries.

New to OB is a City Tacos.  They are a chain found throughout the county.  But this one is  their OB playground.

I wanted a grilled fish taco, but what came was fried.  Hard to compare grilled tacos ... maybe next time.

But their salsa bar is to be recommended

The outdoor patio is pretty open.

With it’s own fenced dog park

Foosball and cornhole for adult entertainment.

And on the puzzle table, Aj and I finished this mosaic.  Aj calls the edges 'The Crust', since neither of us start there and we completed the guts, we left all the 'crust' for Fran :)

Then Aj whipped out this Bobcat in record time.  Since it does not have an interlocking 'crust' and a nice collection of pieces in the shape of animals, I thought it might be more of a challenge … nope ....

That’s the action from the past couple weeks.  Fran has planned her Ohio trip for next week.  And I’ll let you know how my new tires hold up, next time!

Tacos, Hillary and College Bound

Of course Marty follows the blog and my ratings of our ‘grilled’ fish tacos has him wanting to find the best ‘authentic’ fish taco.  To be an authentic fish taco, the fish would need to be beer battered and deep fried.

Rubio’s started the fish taco craze, by bringing the original San Felipe formula to the US.

Rubio’s also offers a very nice salsa bar.  There are three choices of heat in the spices, jalapenos and pico de gallo with cilantro and onions.  A nice touch.

I had my 2-taco plate made with their original fish taco and the grilled mahi.  Along with picante salsa, pico de gallo and a few extra jalapenos.

Rubio’s original taco was Marty's instant favorite!

We had to take him to the Royal Rooster.  Fran and I enjoyed our grilled fish while Marty raved over the more authentic fried fish taco.

We also split a 50/50 basket.  That is a nice balance of fries and onion rings.  I have not their 'authentic' fish taco in so long that I really don't remember it, but the grilled is really good!

Of course we took him to Aquarius, where the weekday Happy Hour starts at 11 am.

He also had a carne asada taco.  The Aquarius does not offer an 'authentic' fish taco, but he was quite pleased with the grilled mahi.

For Taco Tuesday it would be hard to be beat the offerings at Off Shore.  Marty’s now favorite ‘authentic’ fish taco.

Insider tip:  Order just one taco, with black beans.  The beans are warm and cheesy with enough chips.  If two tacos are ordered they are served on the same sized plate and the chips are sacrificed.

And there is one thing he will not let us run out of is fresh salsa!  Almost daily he’s in the kitchen whipping some up.

The pan is lined with foil to prevent the sugars released from burning into the pan.

We received our first ever Tropical Storm Warning as Hurricane Hillary moved north.  The counter clockwise winds did bring us a nice sunset, that we enjoyed for the deck.

We were spared the fury fo Hillary, our only damage was a branch knocked off our Sweet Gum tree.

We had tickets to the Moonlight Theater's presentation of 42nd Street, but alas the performance was cancelled, for fear of what might have been.  Aj was disappointed as she wanted to ‘Dance in the Rain’.

At least Aj danced in the rain ... in her own back yard.

Cities east of us were hammered!  Palm Springs, Ocotillo, Borrego Springs, etc. all received their annual rainfall in just a couple hours.

The next day we had a nice lunch as both Aj and sister Kg head off to college.

I dropped Marty off at CBX this morning.  He’ll fly out of Tijuana and be spending a week in Mazatlán.  I’ll drop Fran off tomorrow as she heads to Dayton for a couple weeks.  I’m on my own for a bit of ‘Me Time’.  I have no plans at the moment as to how to spend it ... suggeations?

Tacos, Bombs, and yard work

It was a short bike ride to the Pacific BeachFest.  This gathering is more for geared toward us locals, rather than a tourist extravaganza.

The draw for us was not the 3 stages with live music, but the Best of PB Fish Taco Contest.  We purchased just a single $10 ticket to taste 5 competing fish tacos.

Note: Below are our rankings, not that of the votes cast at the Fest.

Fish Taco Contenders

1. Royal Rooster is way off in Quivira Basin.  Making it a destination, not a chance stop at more convenient Belmont Park.  This is a favorite stop on our Bay/Library bike rides.

Royal Rooster on the right
PB Fish on the left

2.  PB Shore Club is another popular hangout.  And it should be, with those sunset views!  The grilled Mahi-Mahi was seasoned nicely as were the toppings.  This was was our favorite until I brought us a Royal Rooster to share ;)  I didn’t tell Fran it was an RR taco either!

PB Shore on the right 
Sandbar on the left

4.  Sandbar Sports Grill is next to Belmont Park, popular with the college crowd and a frequent winner.  They won again this year.  Altho a generous portion of Mahi-Mahi, too much grease on the fried corn tortilla and weird toppings, such as deep fried onion bits.  But I’d give them another chance  ;)

5. PB Fish Shop is a popular chain in the area.  As such it’ll never disappoint, but will not be remarkable either.  At least their tacos are huge! with able toppings and include a fork :)

I deliberately skipped #3, as Aquaris was not at the fest, but is also on our bike route.

3.  Aquaris Bar and Grill in Quivira Basin at the point.  It’s also in zip code 92109 and should be included.  This is also a favorite stop on our Bay/Library bike rides.

Did I mention they have an 11:00 am weekday happy hour?

Alas I cannot include the OB Pier, our current favorite, but need to revisit while the competition is fresh in our minds.

W.O.W Cafe fish taco on OB Pier

 

As we rode to the BombFest at Crown Point we passed Heali'is Polynesian Revue in De Anza Cove.  It was fun watching the drummers and dancers during their practice.

I was asked not to post pictures of the kids ...

Bombs at Mission Bay

The Bombs are back at Mission Bay and there are more than ever.  The Bomb Fest is bigger than ever!

Please forgive the bluish photos.  My Lumix camera sometimes has a mind of its own …  Display cars and trucks are 1960 or earlier, altho I did see a few I’m sure were a bit newer.

I put some effort into the 2019 Bomb Fest HERE.  I suggest you check that out for more info on the Bombs.

Here’s a few blue-tinted pics of the couple hundred Bombs on Mission Bay.

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Carrier for a baseball bat on a Bomb bike

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Suicide doors and a gull wing hood

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Awesome old Chevy, but check out the slammed Bomb behind it

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I do like old trucks ...

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Slammed, topless and chrome

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Yard Work

A lot more needs to be done but a couple items are blog worthy.

The Macadamia Nut harvest is getting close.  I’ll add a piece on how I shuck and shell those guys on a future blog.

Each nut hangs from a single stem.  Like a bunch of green Christmas ornaments

With the City of San Diego removing all the majestic non-native palm trees in the area, I planted one!

I didn't want it to get this big!

But it grew to over 6 feet in a few years and was becoming more of a liability than a protest.  I cut it down to about 4 feet and it started growing back at about an inch a day.

EGR Valve

The continuing issue with the check engine light has been resolved.  A bit of money can fix a lot of things.  The valve uses coolant, with sensors at both in intake and outlet.  Replaced both the valve and sensors and it’s sure to fix something! 

With that fixed I’m looking forward to the next outing. ... Perhaps Borrego Days …