Our tails are wagging!

The puppy gurus at Dog Fancy magazine have released the results of their fifth annual Dog Town USA contest and guess where tops the list? 

Yep, for the second time, San Diego was rated the best big city in the country for dogs and the people who love them.  Editors and readers loved San Diego’s dog beaches and parks and our wide array of pet-friendly hotels, restaurants and more.

Friday, Nov. 6 through Nov. 15, breweries, bars, restaurants and hotels will celebrate the first-ever San Diego Beer Week with tons of awesome events all around town.

From beer dinners, cask nights and barrel-aged tastings, to learn-to-brew classes and beer education seminars local brewers plan to show off the goods that recently earned San Diego the honor of being named the top beer city in the country by Men’s Journal.

The kickoff event is the San Diego Brewers Guild Festival on Friday at the World Beat Center in Balboa Park.  The festival will feature 80 beers brewed in San Diego – admission includes 10 samples, complimentary food, live music and a souvenir tasting glass.  

Festivities wrap up on Nov. 15 with a Chef Celebration of San Diego Beers in La Jolla.  The event will feature 16 local chefs and eight San Diego breweries. Admission includes a souvenir tasting glass, live music, all you can eat pairings and beer seminars presented by local brewers and chefs. 

During the 10 days in between, there are more than 200 fun San Diego Beer Week events. 

You heard me right, that’s two full weekends of pints, pours and parties. 

Plus, if you’re considering a last-minute trip, hotel packages and special rates are still available.  Come and raise a glass with us!

A spooky wind has swept into San Diego and strange things are going bump in the night!

But, don’t worry about it being too scary. 

• Shamu and the gang will get into the “spirit” of Halloween with a new, not-too-scary celebration, SeaWorld’s Halloween Spooktacular, featuring festive family fun tonight, tomorrow and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.  SeaWorld’s walrus, sea lion and otter comedy team will star in a Halloween show called Clyde and Seamore’s Trick or Treat, and Sesame Street’s Countdown to Halloween musical will entertain the littlest guests. Other festive fun will include cookie decorating and photo opportunities with Halloween-costumed characters. 
• LEGOLAND California in Carlsbad is calling all monsters, mermaids, witches, robots and pirates to its Brick-or-Treat Party.  Tomorrow from 5-9 p.m., the family theme park will be a not-too-spooky Halloween haven featuring costume contests, nighttime trick-or-treating on the Brick-or-Treat Trail, live music and entertainment. Little ghosts and goblins can also enjoy activities like building glow-in-the-dark treats, a dance-off with special prizes for the best dancer and the Howler of the Hour contest for young guests who really want to scream. Families can also climb aboard a giant jack-o-lantern that is more than 7 feet wide, made of 22,000 DUPLO bricks and weighs 850 pounds.  
• Tonight at 8 p.m., Fiesta de Reyes in Old Town State Historic Park will kick off a fun, freaky evening with a Beetlejuice movie night under the stars.  Tim Burton’s famous “bio-exorcist” film will be projected on a big outdoor screen, and visitors are invited to bring a warm blanket and enjoy the movie with friends and family.  Admission is free. 
• Tonight and tomorrow Old Town State Historic Park will host hilarious ghost tours through the park at 6:30 and 7 p.m.  Lead by an unfortunately clueless ghost hunter, the tours will highlight plenty of ghosts, many of them real San Diegans who experienced tragic deaths in Old Town during the 1800s.  Tours meet at the Old Town Visitor Center on Twiggs Street, located at the entrance to the park.  Tickets are available at the Visitor Center for $10 or online for $8 plus a service fee. 
• Trick-or-treaters are also invited to visit the park from 4-6:30 p.m. on Saturday to collect goodies from the park’s participating shops and museums where resident shopkeepers are always dressed in period costume.  The haunting evening continues at 8 p.m. with a live story telling of Old Town’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow, occurring in the spooky yard behind the Seeley Stables on Old Town’s main plaza.  Both events are free. 
• From 5-8 p.m. today and Saturday, ghosts, goblins, pirates and princesses will gather at the San Diego Maritime Museum aboard the Star of India for ghostly lantern-led tours of the historic ship and hear eerie legends from the ship’s past. During the tours, costumed docents will share tales of how young John Campbell fell to his death from the rigging, how an Army Captain on the ship slit his throat and more creepy events that occurred aboard the historic vessel.  The museum will also host a carnival 11 a.m.-4 p.m. tomorrow with games, prizes, food and costume contests for parents and kids of all ages.  Lantern-led tours are included with the general museum admission; admission to the carnival is an additional $5 per person.

Take that ye salty dog!

The San Diego Maritime Museum is offering aspiring buccaneers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Throughout September, they’ll be hosting cannon battles on the high seas (of San Diego Bay) as the state’s official tallship, The Californian, defends our harbor from the invading privateer Lynx. 

The mock battles – with real explosions but, thankfully, no actual danger – will take place over two weekends from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 19, Sunday, Sept. 20 and Saturday, Sept. 26. 

Visitors can experience these epic battles in several ways. 

• The Maritime Museum is offering wannabe pirates the opportunity to climb aboard the tall ships and experience all the cannon battle action from the inside.
• San Diego Harbor Excursions are running slightly more sedate spectator cruises that get you close to the action but keep you out of the line of fire.
• Finally, landlubbers can stake out a waterfront spot along the Embarcadero, Harbor Island, Shelter Island or Coronado – and enjoy the show from the safety of the shore.

Awww. Cuteness.

Okay, I simply can’t resist.  This just in from the San Diego Zoo:

“In just one week, the San Diego Zoo’s giant panda cub gained a little over one pound. The 3.9-pound male cub is getting plenty of milk to drink, as evidenced by the milk moustache he sported during his veterinary exam on Thursday.

“He vocalized a little today,” said Geoff Pye, B.V.Sc., San Diego Zoo senior veterinarian. “It was nothing dramatic. He was just letting us know he was aware of what we were doing.”

The cub’s eyes and ears have not yet opened, but he can smell and feel the touch of his caretakers. The cub is not yet strong enough to crawl or walk and is completely dependent on his mother, Bai Yun.

In 1999, Bai Yun gave birth at the San Diego Zoo to the first surviving giant panda born in the United States. She has since given birth to one cub in 2003, 2005, 2007, and most recently on Aug. 5. This is Bai Yun’s second male cub. Following Chinese tradition, he will remain unnamed until he is at least 100 days old.

Giant pandas are on loan to the San Diego Zoo from the People’s Republic of China to study this endangered species. The exam gives the panda team the opportunity to learn more about cub development as well as mother-and-cub relationships, information that is important to better understand giant panda biology.

Bai Yun and the cub will remain in the den for four to five months. During the denning period, the only way to see them is through the San Diego Zoo’s live Panda Cam.”

Listen Up!

A couple weeks back, Peter Haigh of the internet radio show On The Menu was in town scoping out the San Diego restaurant scene.  Peter and his co-host (and lovely wife) Ann have been doing this show for years and have interviewed some of the culinary world’s biggest stars.  So, I was really excited to get an opportunity to chat with him on-air. 

We got to talk about San Diego in the fall, all our amazing farmer’s markets including the Little Italy Mercado (a personal favorite) and our incredible fall culinary events like San Diego Restaurant Week on Sept. 13-18, Celebrate the Craft  on Nov.1 and the first-ever San Diego Beer Week coming up Nov. 6-15. 

Peter also got a chance to interview a great local chef, Adam Bussell from the Vela at the new downtown Hilton San Diego Bayfront. 

Adam’s a native San Diegan (they are hard to find here!) who spent the last several years in the kitchens at the Five Diamond Award-winning Mary Elaine’s at the Phoenician in Scottsdale, Michael Mina’s Aqua at the St. Regis Hotel Monarch Beach and Montage Studio Restaurant at the Montage Laguna Beach.  Now, he’s back and cooking at Vela.

Listen to us online in the On The Menu archives (look for the Sept. 6 show) or click here.

Popcorn Chicken is one of the 30 new Urban Trees on San Diego Bay.

My perennial favorite public art project is blooming again along the shores of San Diego Bay.  Each year since 2003, the Port of San Diego has commissioned artists to dream up fantastic, fanciful sculptures and install their “urban tree” on our waterfront. 

Over the years, the Urban Trees project has produced works of art that range from literal to surreal to kinetic to musical to just plain silly.

What does Urban Trees version 6 have to offer?  

Well, the trees are installed, the Port has posted a handy google map to guide you and they are definitely worth a leisurely stroll along the Bay to check them out. 

Paper Airplanes are pretty, no?

Pop art crops up in “Popcorn Chicken” a 10′ tall red and white striped popcorn box filled with, you guessed it, chickens. 

It’s graceful and beautiful but it also reminds me of being a kid and long lazy afternoons lost in imagination. 

A little whimsy – it makes me smile!

So much so that he’s offering up a series of video tips on how to make the most of your  experience Sept. 13-18.  Watch and learn!

Chef Jeff Thurston, catch him in October!

Want to channel your inner Julie & Julia?  

Whether you want to master the perfect hand-rolled sushi or unravel the mysteries of wine tasting, this fall the Balboa Park Food & Wine School is offering the chance to dig in and savor the experience with an exciting roster of autumn cooking classes.  

Classes are held at the school’s gorgeous facility in the heart of Balboa Park and fall highlights include a brunch how-to with last season’s Top Chef contender from San Diego, Rich Sweeney, on Sept. 19 and the 9th Annual Harvest Celebrationwith The Prado’s chef Jeff Thurston and local winemakers on Oct. 15.

Of course, Balboa Park isn’t the only place in San Diego to give your culinary muscles a good work out.  Classes are also regularly scheduled at downtown’s San Diego Wine & Culinary Center, at Great News! Cooking School in Pacific Beach and at Macy’s School of Cooking in Mission Valley.   Bon appetit!