March 11-12: Vista Village and Carlsbad, CA
A friend of mine from my days in Ukraine who now lives in Carlsbad was kind enough to invite me to her home for the weekend.
My plan was to stop on the way in Temecula to get money (there’s a branch of my bank there) and to stop at In-n-Out, the best fast food hamburger in the country. (If you think I’m exaggerating, talk to someone who grew up in California and then moved back East—9 times out of 10 they’ll tell you the only thing they miss is In-n- Out Burger.)
Anyway, as usual the best laid plans of mice and myself often go awry. The merge of the 215 and 15 South brought the freeway speed from 85 to 0 in 10 seconds. Thank God my ABS (Angel Braking System) was working. After about 10 minutes of waiting in the exit lane for Winchester Road in Temecula and realizing I’d only gone half a mile while cars in the far lanes were going 40-50 miles an hour, I decided even In-n-Out wasn’t worth waiting that long for. I thought I’d get off at the next exit (Rancho California), but alas, that too was a long line of cars that weren’t moving too quickly.
It wasn’t until after I passed Rancho California that I realized why these two exits were so popular: they were the last signs of civilization on I-15 for a good 15-20 miles. Not that I minded the scenery—the rolling hills were green from recent rains and even the valleys shone brightly in the sunlight. By the time I got to 78 West, though, I was ready to eat pretty much anything. I had a problem finding a place to stop: each time I got close to an exit it seemed there was no place to eat, so I’d pass the exit. Then as I was passing the exit I would see places to eat.
This went on for several miles until I finally saw Panera Bread just before I got off at Vista Village Drive in Vista. Here’s where things got even odder: I couldn’t find a place to park in the shopping center. It was adjacent to the movie theater, and I’m guessing that many people were out seeing movies on a rainy Saturday afternoon.
The funny thing about my life is that just when I think everything is going wrong for me, I realize that all of those wrong turns were just leading me to a new and unique right. As I came out of the shopping center, I turned left and ended up driving into the heart of Vista Village (actually Main Street, parallel to Vista Village Dr. and accessible from Santa Fe Avenue). It looked like a group of shops that were built in the 1950s. It was unexpectedly scenic.
There was an Italian deli that looked okay, so I stopped and parked at the first space up the street I could find. I stopped at a bank for money, and then I walked into Piancone Bakery and Deli. Looking at the jars of oil, bags of pasta, rows of Old World Bread, and sheets of cakes on the shelves, I knew I was in a real Italian deli. For $7.99 I had a large sub sandwich on a ciabatta, a small cucumber salad, and Italian mineral water. I don’t think I’ve had deli meat that good since I bought prosciutto at the airport in Rome. The olive spread on the bread was a nice touch too, and I don’t usually like olives. I didn’t have room for a cannoli (an Italian rolled dessert filled with a special sweet ricotta cheese concoction), but I enjoyed a large sugar cookie with green sprinkles for another 65 cents. I was a little bit jealous of the locals who could come in there regularly for birthday cakes and catered meals.
15 minutes later I arrived in Carlsbad. The rest of the day my friend and I hung out at her house drinking (tea and later wine), watching movies, eating homemade Indian food, and chatting.
Sunday we did two things of note to travelers to Carlsbad. For lunch, we went to Lotus (on Pio Pico near Carlsbad Village Drive), a Thai restaurant voted the best Thai restaurant in Carlsbad. The pad thai was pretty good, but I really liked the fact that on Sunday I was able to get a good lunch special–shrimp pad thai, two fried won-ton (similar to small samosas), two tiny spring rolls, a small salad, and tom yum gam soup for $8.95. After lunch, we drove down Carlsbad Village Drive through Carlsbad Village. We drove past Mariah’s Restaurant where we’d gone once before for brunch; they have over 300 varieties of omlettes. We drove to Ocean Street and then turned left to find parking. Once we did, we took a nice walk along the beach, talking about the costs of home prices and the possible eating disorders of the skinny runners on the walking path.
The capper of the day was on the drive back from the beach. While stopped at a red light, a man motioned to us to roll down our window. My friend did and he shouted out, “I saw the In-n-Out Burger bumper sticker on your car. Do you know where I can find one around here?”
Tags: beach, California, ethnic food, Travel, U.S.
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