San Diego Day Four- Temecula and Stone Brewery

I was a major slacker last week. Work was slightly crazy, and I had no desire to spend anymore time at my desk than I had too. I can not believe I haven’t finished our San Diego post yet. We’re literally planning our next trip {30th Birthday celebration:)} and I’m still recapping our last trip. At this rate, I’ll just keep posting travel recaps and make this a travel blog. I’m 100% okay with that by the way.

Don’t forget to check out the other post from our trip to San Diego: Day One (US Midway and Coronado Brewery), Day Two (Octotillo Wells), and Day Three (Bite San Diego and Sunset Cliff). 

Day four started with a big breakfast at 12th & Broadway Restaurant. They were close to our condo and had good reviews on Yelp. The staff were great and the food was real good. Huck and I ordered the Machaca. It was meat and scrambled eggs served with refried beans, rice, and tortillas. Huck loved the breakfast options in San Diego. As I’ve mentioned a million times, he’s not big into breakfast. He usually eats leftovers but give him anything with hot sauce and he’s a happy man.

From breakfast, we headed to the Air and Space Museum at Balboa Park.

The museum was packed full of replicas, restored, or original airplanes starting with a replica of the Wright Brothers airplane all the way to modern fighter jets.

From there, we headed an hour north to Temecula for some wine tasting. See, not everything we did was beer related!

Our first stop was at Bel Vino. For the tasting, we each received 6 1 oz samples. Huck and I shared each sample, so we could try all 12 of their wines.

I really know nothing about wine, so I enjoy any opportunity to learn more about different styles, flavors, and grapes. I’ve also noticed from the few wine tasting and wines I’ve tried lately, I really enjoy blends. Bel Vino had a great blend that was my favorite of all the wines we tried.

Our only group picture from the whole trip 

From there, we went across the street to Lumiere Winery.

Bel Vino was more of a larger winery with multiple bars and a larger staff offering information and samples. Lumiere was a much smaller family owned and operated vineyard. The winemaker was behind the bar handing out samples and explaining the process of how he makes each wine. He also pulled out a special port for us to try.

We split a sample that included 3 reds and 3 whites. It was nice having the owner explain the process of how each style is made and how the grapes and soil can affect the favor.

From there, it was time for food. With a quick Google search, we found out there was a In-N-Out Burger on the way back to the freeway. I felt no trip to the west coast would be complete without an In-N-Out Burger.

Great burger. Worth the trip.

On the way back to San Diego, we stopped at Stone Brewery in Escondido. We ordered some beers at the outside bar and found a spot in the garden.  The whole setup was awesome. The outdoor space was huge and provided lots of places to hangout. It also felt very secluded even though we were in the middle of an industrial park surround by people.

Representing 26° Degrees and Coolinary Cafe

Once we finished our beers, we headed back to the condo. Huck and I decided to walk down the street to Half Door Brewing for a light dinner and beer.

The pear poached salad was really good and the atmosphere was cute. It felt like we were hanging out in my grandparents living room.

Loved their tap handles!

Next, we walked to Mission Brewery. This was the first brewery we went to in San Diego that, to me, felt like a brewery. Everything else was brew pubs, but Mission was a brewery. They have food trucks, so you can still ordered food, but it feels like you’re sitting in the middle of the actually brewery.

Fun fact, Mission is located in a historic Wonder Bread factory that was built in 1894.

After a couple flights of beer, we were ready to head back to the condo. Jon and Betsy had an 8AM flight the next morning, and we had to be up early to take them to the airport.