Hearthiseatthatravelthere's Blog
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Seaport Village (San Diego)
Whenever in San Diego, one of my favorite frequent spots to visit, shop or walk around on such a beautiful summer day is Seaport Village. They have various and quirky shops which are individually owned (which I like btw, power to the self-employed). And they have good selection of delectable restaurants and dessert places. By far, my favorite place is Ben and Jerry’s and always make that our first stop whenever we go. I’m an ice cream girl, and enjoy the walk better with an ice cream cone in my hand.
Walking around is always a different and refreshing experience. I love walking along the bay and breathing in the fresh ocean air. I love all the different arts and crafts events and things going on as there are various characters that bring the area to delight. To me, it’s a very happy place whenever I’m here.
Today was special because Angelo surprised me with tickets for the No Doubt concert next week here in San Diego. I was saddened the first time they were here in So Cal because all their concerts were sold out. This guy, he remembers everything to the point and tiniest detail. A keeper he is. =)
- Sunday
The Shout! House
If you ever visit San Diego and want to have a different kind of fun for a night out in town, you should head over to the Gas Lamp Quarter in Downtown. One excellent spot in particular is The Shout! House. If you haven’t heard of The Shout! House, it’s a “dueling piano” bar, similar to those I’ve been to in New York, Chicago and Las Vegas. Last night, Sunday and her cousin Alice and I decided to spend our evening there.
The premise of the place is this: someone requests a song by writing it down on a piece of paper along with a tip, the piano player that does the song best plays it using the other guy as back up and they get the crowd heavily involved. They call up people to sing, if they don’t see you singing, you get called out. It’s actually a lot more involved then that, the piano players are traded off every hour, during the trade off, the off going players play backup for a couple of songs with the drums and a bass guitar. Occasionally throughout the night, they call all of the wait staff to come up and do choreographed dances, the bartenders dance on the bar and if it’s your birthday, you can expect them to sing you happy birthday and make up a dirty song in your honor.
Definitely not a politically correct place, leave your politically correctness at the door and be prepared to rock your socks off. They did the favorite oldies but they also do recent songs and hits which turned out surprisingly good considering it was sung by a middle aged bald white guy. They also did Baby Got Back in where they called all of the women on the stage as Sunday and Alice showed that they could shake it with the best.
The age group varies as there are plenty of young guns and an older posse to boot. It’s a great atmosphere if you’re not into the whole clubbing scene or not in the mood or just taking a break from it. Service is great and price of drinks are decent compared to other spots in the Gas Lamp Quarter. If you’re a regular, soon enough the bartenders will recognize you. One of the female bartenders calls me, “Filipino guy with the hot ass Korean girlfriend.” All in all good times indeed.
- Angelo
