The Cupcake SAGA - pt 5

We got up early and headed to San Diego for some sight seeing and the harbor excursion we had been blessed with, free, thanks to a guy Dan works!!  So  many blessings on this trip!!  What an awesome God we serve!!  And last but definitely not least some CUPCAKES!!

We were so excited, our first stop was going to be Little Italy.  Oh my, Italy is at the top of my list of places to go, so anything remotely close, is exciting.  I wasn’t sure if we would be finding any ITALIAN cupcakes, but I was definitely willing to try some!!  We must have looked like tourist (couldn’t have been the amazed look of our faces or the large camera around my neck) because a local man stopped us and asked where we were from.  He started telling us all kinds of things about the area and recommended a local restaurant he thought the boys would enjoy.  We took his advice, and headed to  Filippi’s Pizza Grotto!! 

It was so cool.  You walk in through a very authentic Italian market with a cheese counter and fresh pasta you can buy.  Then we came to the restaurant part, which was cool too.  You could see into the whole kitchen and watch the chef, now that’s our kind of restaurant.  We were seated and everything looked and sounded so good that before it was over, we had ordered way too much food.  Oh well, we knew we wouldn’t be eating again for quite a while, so we stuffed ourselves, good thing we were going to be walking a lot!!!  Pizza, ravioli, pasta shells with a humongous meatball, and a foot-long meatball sandwich, not to mention the free bread they serve first!!  Yummy!!  There was also an old Italian man sitting at a booth across the restaurant from us and I got such a kick out of him with his heavy Italian accent and the way he carried on!!

This little business cracked me up with the matching car in front!!

Loved this old house in the middle of Little Italy

After leaving the restaurant, we walked around a bit and eventually found a beautiful old cathedral.  I was so excited to look in it, I love all the detail.  I walked up the steps with my camera ready, the door was open just a bit, so I knew it was okay to go in (we’ve done this in other cities).  Just as I pulled on the door to open it, MASS let out!!  It was the middle of the day and it was a weekday, I guess I didn’t realize they had lunch time mass for people who work!!  Imagine my surprise when there were tons of people headed straight for me and I appeared to be taking a picture of them.  I about died, of course Dan and the boys were getting quite a kick out of it.  Oh well, definitely not the craziest thing I’ve ever done...  I will be thinking long and hard before entering another cathedral though!!  Needless to say, I didn't get a picture of it!!

A view of the bay

On to the Harbor Excursion, a tour of the San Diego bay on a huge boat!!  We saw lots of huge Navy ships, sail boats, The Star of India, several old timey pirate ships, and tons of sea lions!  That was totally cool, the boys really got a kick out of it.  The tour took us down and under the Coronado Bridge.  This bridge is the only way to get to Coronado Island and I wanted to go there, they had CUPCAKES, but bridges are just about my least favorite thing, right up there with windy mountain roads on a stormy, rainy night, so I searched the internet long and hard for another cupcake place!  Imagine my excitement when I found Cupcakes Squared and it was only a few miles from where we parked to go on the Excursion!!  I was loving the excursion and all the sights, but I was ready to get back to the car and head for cupcakes.

The people who own these boats, live on them.  There is a 2-3 year waiting list to rent a buoy to anchor to and live.  I was shocked that these people pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars a month to rent a tiny buoy and a little bit of water.

Loved these old style pirate ships

Unconditional Surrender!!  I’ve seen pictures of this my whole life, was really cool to see it in person!!

The sea lions were out in abundance.  This one was really fat!!

A mad dash across town and HUGE disappointment, they are closed on Mondays and you guessed it, it was Monday!!  The truth of the matter though is Dan and the boys were dying to go across that BRIDGE, so I think they had secretly been praying for a closed shop so they could talk me into the trip across.  With a tiny bit of coaxing and a huge promise to produce cupcakes, I agreed to go.  Just a tad terrified, but I agreed.  It was a little weird as we entered the bridge, to see them moving the center lane dividers, apparently they do that at heavy traffic time to make one side have more lanes.  I had never seen anything like it, but for a minute it got my mind off the fact that I was even on that 2 1/2 mile bridge.  The rest of the time it was pretty much a 2 1/2 mile prayer!!

This is only a small part of the bridge.  It is 2 1/2 miles long and SCARY!!

Off the bridge and the cupcakes weren’t far away!!  Coronado Cupcakes!!  A little whole in the wall, no seating, just lots of cupcakes with funky names, to go - my kind of place!!  There was lots to choose from, so after a long while, we picked ours and headed to the car, forks in hand.

Here’s the run down!!

Isaac with his Chai Spice Marianne - Chai Spice cake with unknown frosting, we couldn’t even figure it out so who knows!!  He said it was dry but had good flavor!!

Adam with his - DUH!!!  Velvet Valerie (has anyone figured out what his favorite is???)  Red Velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting!!  All he said was YUCK!!

Drew with his Black Bottom Betty - It was a layered cupcake, chocolate bottom, chocolate chip top with red piped frosting!!  He said Delicious!!  I think everyone liked this one!!

Dan with his Mama Rosa - Chocolate cupcake with chocolate ganache frosting and bavarian cream filling.  He also said good but a little dry!!  Cream filling was similar to mine!!

Me with my Mexican Maria - Joke of the day, I read it wrong and ordered a Mexican Marla and really got teased about it because Marla isn’t Mexican!!  It was a mexican chocolate cupcake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting!!  Again flavor good but dry!!

After the cupcakes, we walked around the island a bit, it was really neat, would love to stay there sometime but from what I hear it is extremely expensive.  They told us the smallest houses there were 10-15 million dollars!!  Just a tad out of my budget!!  So we decided to move on, unfortunately, that meant back across the bridge, UGH!!  I have to say it was better the first time, I had my eye on the prize!!  Another 2 1/2 mile prayer and I was back on solid ground and thanking the Lord for protection!!

We headed to a part of town called Hillcrest because we had seen it on Food Network and they said it was the culinary capital of San Diego.  You know we love food, so why not!!  WELL, we were in for a big surprise, let’s just say, it wasn’t the part of town we wanted our boys to be spending time in!!!  SOOOOO, we headed to Indigo Grill, owner, a well known head chef we have watched on Food Network.  We were definitely not disappointed!!  The food was amazing and our waiter was fabulous.  He BLESSED us with an appetizer and an amazing desert, HOW AWESOME IS THAT!!  With all the food we ordered, we were stuffed once again only this time it was kind of late, so we headed back to the hotel for the night!!

Baked Brie with all the extras - OMGosh this was awesome!!

Stuffed Chicken - Dan and I shared and it was still too much!!

Ribs for Drew with a Corn Pudding that was to die for!!

Adam and Isaac shared Nachos and they were huge and definitely the be nachos ever!!  They were really different and I have craved them since!!

This was the fabulous desert we were blessed with - a pan browning with caramel and chocolate molten center, ice cream and the chocolate mold on top - Can You Say “Can we have another!!!”

A trip to Italy, lots of sightseeing, a long boat ride, sea lions, full tummies from tons of amazing food, and CUPCAKES all in one day - we were exhausted and looking forward to tomorrow, no plans except hopefully some cupcakes and a relaxing day at the beach.

As the Cupcake Saga continues, I am wondering if we are going to find an “to die for” cupcakes, you know the kind you talk about to your friends??  So far, we have had some good ones, some okay ones, and even some “I wouldn’t eat those again” ones, but where are the “I gotta have another one” ones???  Obviously, still searching!!!

Don’t forget tomorrow is my JOYfilled Wednesday post!!  Grab my button, make your list, and come back and link up so everyone can read your JOY!!

Counting it all Joy!!