My PC took me to PB

As far as I know there are four beach areas in the city of San Diego: Coronado, Ocean Beach, Mission Bay Beach, and Pacific Beach. The later I did not yet visit in the six months I’ve lived here and didn’t really feel so eager to explore it anytime soon. Based on the prejudice that the area hosts a bunch of student rental houses kept me away from what I thought to be a campus like neighborhood.

WROOooNG!!

One shiny morning my Windows Vista PC crashed in front of my eyes living me with a day of despair, useless phone calls, runs to the library, questions, and failed attempts to restore it. In the end I picked some random phone numbers from PC repair shops in my neighborhood and cried for help. Needless to say none were successful until finally someone answered at the other end of the line, plus! had a satisfactory solution… However! it ended up to be located in Pacific Beach.

Hmm… so, I though: my steps might take me today to an unexplored area, by the sand surf and sun, relax and hard/soft ware nirvana!??!... Why not?! I embarked a series of trams, buses and never before walked streets to a small PC repair shop owned by some young Israeli “Regie-like” boys who just made my day brighter!! Judah and Tom used to have an office in downtown, five blocks away from my house and just moved to PB due to economic restrains. The shop runs because of their skills (apparently Microsoft certified) and produces profit to fuel their surfing camp trips to the Pacific shores of Costa Rica. Because of them I’ve got to discover a new side of San Diego, which turns out to be another favorite place.

Pacific Beach might be a students mainly neighborhood, but it also strikes me as healthy, clean and family vacation oriented. The arena is populated with restaurants (street and ocean front), beautiful worldly shops, bicyclists, vacationers, relaxed people, holiday atmosphere. What I really like is the beach, which has beautiful views and wide golden sandy area, all though devoided of palm trees or shade. What I don’t like, which seams to become a leitmotif of the West Cost shores, is the abundant algae population and the low temperatures of the ocean waters.

On a professional side, I was immediately attracted by what I think to be the landmark of PB – the Crystal Pier Hotel. Established in 1927, this is a typical American beach cottage based hotel, built on the pier over the beach and waves. Their logo romantically invites guests to “Sleep over the ocean” and immediately transposes the spirit into the calm of the Pacific waves.

I asked the key keeper what type of clientele they have, giving the fact that it looked to me as a shabby, but not too classy place. The place would really use a facelift! Well, even though, while having only 32 cottages the rates gravitate around $300/night. This shoots targets into the family market and advises reservations to be made 4-6 months in advance.