San Diego, CA
The best things to do Thanksgiving weekend in San Diego
Here are some of the best things to do this weekend in San Diego from Friday, Nov. 29 to Sunday, Dec. 1.
RELATED LINKS
Friday
Liberty Station tree lighting: A ceremonial lighting of Liberty Station’s 88-foot Norfolk pine tree is at 5 p.m. Nov. 29 along with entertainment, festive firetruck rides, photos with Santa and an outdoor holiday movie showing of “The Grinch.” San Diego Chevrolet Dealers are sponsoring the event, and the Chevy Silverado EV RST will be the power source for the Christmas tree lighting. Admission is free. Visit libertystation.com/events/salute-the-season/holiday-tree-lighting.
“Misery”: Backyard Renaissance Theatre presents William Goldman’s stage adaptation of the Stephen King novel about an obsessive and violent fan who kidnaps her favorite author. 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays; 3 p.m. Sundays. Through Dec. 7. Tenth Avenue Arts Center, 930 Tenth Ave., downtown. $18-$40. backyardrenaissance.com
Safari Park puts on ‘Wild Holidays’: The San Diego Zoo Safari Park celebrates the “Wild Holidays” with an expedition of light and travel through places that twinkle with holiday cheer and seasonal culinary delights from 4 to 8 p.m. on select nights Nov. 29 to Jan 5 at the park, 15500 San Pasqual Valley Road. The Safari Park will be open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. during the event, with “Wild Holidays” festivities beginning at 4 p.m. Entertainment includes the “Light Up the Holidays” choreographed lighted tree show with holiday soundtracks, Holiday Troubadour, fanciful characters, and visits with Santa along with lighted archway Bridge of Lights, Forest of Color, Baja Gardens and Nairobi Lantern Walk. “Wild Holidays” activities are free with Safari Park admission or membership. Visit sdzsafaripark.org/wild-holidays.
‘Winter Wonderettes’ opens Friday: San Diego Musical Theatre presents this holiday adaptation of Roger Bean’s all-female comedy “The Marvelous Wonderettes.” In this version, the women’s quartet are pressed into service to create a holiday show after Santa turns up missing. Opens Friday and runs through Dec. 29. 7 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays. 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. SDMT Stage, 4650 Mercury St., San Diego. $30 and up. 858-560-5740, sdmt.org
“A Christmas Carol”: Cygnet Theatre will present its annual production of Dickens’ redemptive holiday tale, once again starring Cygnet artistic director Sean Murray as the miserly Victorian money-lender Ebenezer Scrooge. The 2024 staging will feature an expanded storyline, fresh original music and a revitalized script. Opens Friday and runs through Dec. 24. 7 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays; 2 and 7 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. Cygnet’s Old Town Theatre, 4040 Twiggs St., Old Town San Diego. $73. (619) 337-1525. cygnettheatre.com
BalletCenter Studios presents “The Nutcracker:” Director Michelle Noblejas-Bartolomei and former principal dancer Trystan Merrick created original choreography for “Clara and the Nutcracker Soldier.” The reimagined version of the classic tells the story of Clara, an orphan who looks for her parents with the help of the Snow Queen. 7 p.m. Friday; 1 and 5:30 p.m. Nov. 20.. Joan B. Kroc Theatre, 6611 University Ave., San Diego. $30-$60. 619-322-7328, balletcenterstudios.com
Saturday
Holiday Lights on Main: El Cajon is kicking off the holidays with an even featuring live music, food trucks, photos with Santa, carnival rides, ice skating, cookie decorating and other activities. A tree lighting will take place at 6 p.m. There will also be a new feature called Holiday Lights Art Walk, with art from 28 artists from San Diego. Art galleries on Main Street will be open for visiting. 3 to 8 p.m. Saturday. Main Street in El Cajon. Free. downtownelcajon.com
“Arthur Christmas”: Reading Cinemas Town Square will be re-screening a holiday classic, “Arthur Christmas.” The screening is billed as a “Pajama Party.” The theater will also show “Elf” on Dec. 4, 14, 15 “The Polar Express” on Dec. 7 and 8, and “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas” on Dec. 21 and 22. 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday. Town Square, 4665 Clairemont Drive, San Diego. $11.19. readingcinemas.com/townsquare/signature-programming/pajama-party
Leslie Odom Jr. – ‘The Christmas Tour’: A versatile singer who earned a Tony Award for his electrifying portrayal of Aaron Burr in the smash musical “Hamilton,” Leslie Odom Jr. also portrayed vocal legend Sam Cooke in the film “One Night in Miami” and won a Grammy Award for his self-titled debut album. Wirth no fewer than three Christmas releases to his credit, he’ll have lots of songs to choose from for his orchestra-free concert here at the home of the San Diego Symphony. 7:30 p.m. Nov. 30. Jacobs Music Center, 750 B Street, downtown. $39-$147.619-235-0804, sandiegosymphony.org
Tree lighting at One Paseo: Lighting of a 30-foot Christmas tree begins at 6 p.m. Nov. 30 and festivities continue until 9 p.m. at One Paseo, 3725 Paseo Place. The center will be shimmering with firefly lights in the trees and festive decor. The evening will feature live music performances, some snow and Santa along with special guests. Visit onepaseo.com.
Light Up the Holidays: The Salvation Army hosts its red kettle kickoff, “Light Up the Holidays,” from 5 to 6 p.m. Nov. 30 at Grossmont Center, 5500 Grossmont Center Drive. The free family event includes a tree lighting, hot chocolate and coffee, Christmas music by The Salvation Army San Diego Brass Band and guest performance by Rat Pack Reborn and photos with Santa. Besides money donations, the Salvation Army is accepting new, unwrapped toys. Visit sandiego.salvationarmy.org/san_diego2/event-page—light-up-the-holiday-red-kettle-kickoff
East Village Tree lighting: The holiday event is from 4 to 8 p.m. Nov. 30 at Quartyard and 13th Street, featuring a curated holiday market by San Diego Markets, live entertainment, food and drinks and activities for kids. The traditional tree lighting ceremony is at 6:45 p.m. Visit eastvillagesandiego.com/events/east-village-tree-lighting-and-holiday-market
La Jolla Symphony and Chorus’ Joyful Traditions: On the eve of December, LJSC kicks things off with its annual community Messiah sing event. The ensemble will perform Handel’s full “Messiah” oratorio. The audience is invited to sing along with Part I and the Halellujah chorus. 2 p.m. Saturday. San Dieguito United Methodist Church, 170 Calle Magdalena, Encinitas. $10-$20 (plus $10 cash for vocal score rental). 760-753-6582, ljsc.org/joyful-traditions
Sunday
City tree lighting ceremony: The event starts at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 1 at Memorial Park on Third Avenue. The ceremony will feature remarks from city officials and community leaders to kick off the season. There will be carolers, holiday shopping and food. The Downtown Chula Vista Farmers Market will have extended hours from 3 to 6 p.m. Visit downtownchulavista.com
Snowfall & Light Show: The free holiday shows begin at 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. each Friday, Saturday and Sunday from Dec. 1-22 near the Koi Pond at Village Walk at EastLake, at Eastlake Parkway and Miller Drive. Children will receive free magic glasses to view the light show in an array of colors. Entertainment on Dec. 1 includes a performance by the Discovery Charter School at 5:30 p.m. and between shows. Various community caroling groups will sing between shows on other days. Visit shopvillagewalk.com/special-events
Camp Christmas: Pine Valley Camp Christmas, a holiday festival for all ages, starts Nov. 15 and runs from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Friday through Sunday in November and Dec. 1, 6-8, 13-14, 18-22 at 8668 Pine Creek Road. Festivities include a Lights & Sounds of the Season show and dancing water show, hay rides, train rides, a nativity scene and a talking Christmas tree. There will be a game room, archery and bounce houses, among other attractions. Visit PineValleyCampChristmas.com.
Christmas concert: The Music Men Barbershop Chorus will perform a concert, Twas The Week Before Christmas at 3 p.m. Dec. 1 at San Marcos Lutheran Church, 3419 Grand Ave. The family-friendly event includes popular and classic holiday songs, sung in Barbershop harmony. The show will feature a guest chorus, The Pacific Belles and audience sing-a-longs. The suggested donation is $10. Visit musicmenchorus.org
Originally Published:
By Dave Rice
Is Measure A going to affect a significant number of properties? Is it going to affect affordable housing in any meaningful way? Come now, let’s not be dense – this hits a handful of rich people who can absolutely afford to drop $10K in the city coffers if they’re leaving a vacation home vacant on purpose – let’s say that’s their civic contribution that would be realized in other ways if they actually lived, worked, and shopped here full-time.
Or it hits STVR hosts, who can either factor the cost into their business model or give it up if margins are really that thin (maybe not everyone needs to fancy themselves an amateur hotelier). But let’s not kid ourselves and believe the kind of housing this will free up will be plentiful or affordable.
In the exceedingly rare instances where someone might be eligible for an exemption, will it be too hard to apply for? That’s something we can argue and refine but that’s the bathwater, or just the little bit of it that splashes out of the tub, not the baby. An argument that the whole proposal is DOA because military members are too stupid to file for an exemption is either dismissive of or telling tales out of school about what we really think of military intelligence.
Poor, poor grandma who needs a home near her doctor? If she’s really poor why does she have multiple houses, and if she’s not does this really affect her? I live in a neighborhood where “aren’t you afraid you’re going to get shot?” is the first thing outsiders ask me about where I’m from, and if Grandma has owned her mostly-unoccupied vacation house for any significant time I probably pay a lot more property tax than she does. You couldn’t trip over the limbo bar to gain my sympathy, it’s buried a few feet deep.
This is a tiny nod toward taxing the rich, but that’s all. It’s not significant or meaningful, it won’t do a lot, most of the housing stock in question even if returned to actual residents won’t make a dent in the astronomical cost of living in or anywhere near this city. But it’s a tiny step in the right direction – and watching how hysterical the moneyed class is about the rest of us asking for even the tiniest drop in the goddamned bucket we’re trying to fill without their help is telling.
Related
Skip to content
Contact Us
This is the first installment in a series of stories on the history of dining out in La Jolla, how it’s changed and how it continues to evolve.
It’s hard to imagine La Jolla without its restaurants, from the lines stretching down the block at The Taco Stand to the iconic views at George’s at the Cove.
But the way La Jollans eat and where has changed dramatically since the area’s founding in the 1800s.
In this first part of the new month-long series “Dining Out,” the La Jolla Light looks at local restaurants from the 1880s (when La Jolla was first developed and settled) to the early 1920s.
“La Jolla had very few people at that time,” according to local historian Carol Olten. “There weren’t a lot of restaurants, as far as we know.”
Olten said she gets information about La Jolla’s earliest days from the diaries of local pioneer Anson Mills.
“He kept track of where he went and what he did … but he did a lot of home cooking,” she said. “So when they went to a restaurant for dinner, it was a big occasion. It was something people mainly did on holidays or … a social occasion.”
One restaurant Mills would go to — believed to be one of the first in La Jolla — was Montezuma Cottage. Olten said it is believed to have opened in 1895 near the intersection of Prospect and Jenner streets.
Mills described the restaurant as a popular eating and gathering spot for locals and tourists, Olten said. He wrote an entry about a Thanksgiving dinner there with about 60 people.
Montezuma Cottage later became known as the Seaside Inn and Ocean View restaurant. It was torn down in 1931.
Culturally, eating at a restaurant was a more formal occasion at the time, Olten said.
“You didn’t go to a restaurant just to hang out with friends like you would today. It was purposeful then,” she said.
Around 1900, a restaurant known as the White Rabbit opened near the corner of Girard Avenue and Prospect Street. In addition to a rooftop garden, it featured a tea room, joining a national trend.
“Tea rooms went with the suffragette movement because in those days, [women] didn’t have a place to gather without an escort, so tea rooms started opening in hotels and women could go there and sit down and have a social tea or lunch,” Olten said. “La Jolla got in on the tail end of that thanks to [Green Dragon Colony founder] Anna Held and [La Jolla philanthropist] Ellen Browning Scripps.”
One of them, called The Cricket, opened in the early 1900s with white tablecloths. Olten said it was near what it is now Eddie V’s restaurant.
“It was originally part of the Green Dragon Colony … and was sold to a British woman named Daisy Mitchell,” she said. “It stayed a tea room for many years, and she kept a guest book that was decorated with reds and greens and had a medieval theme. So it was very British.”
Joining a trend toward more upscale dining, one of La Jolla’s “most well-established and well-known restaurants” opened in 1912 at 1227 Prospect St. The Brown Bear had “stylish, fashionable service and a menu to please the gods,” Olten said.
A house specialty was Welsh rabbit served in a silver chafing dish. The restaurant was in operation until 1941.
Several restaurants opened around 1915, about the same time as the Panama-California Exposition, a world’s fair-type event held in 1915-16 that brought 3.7 million people to San Diego.
One of La Jolla’s new restaurants, the Spindrift Inn, opened in 1916 and was considered a “last stop” out of town.
“Most restaurants at that time were located in the immediate Village area,” Olten said. “The one that was astray would have been the Spindrift Inn [in La Jolla Shores]. This was in the very early days of automobiles, so not very many people had cars, but those that did would … drive their cars and the last stop before you got out of town was Spindrift Inn.”
The Spindrift Inn later became The Marine Room, which still stands.
Olten said the restaurant was operated by the Hannay family for about 20 years. Their “rambunctious” fox terrier, Jiggs, would roam the dining room.
Another Expo-era restaurant was the Dining Car, which operated in an old trolley car parked near Goldfish Point. Dinner was $2 per person. It burned down on Halloween night in 1923.
Next installment: With new hotels being built in La Jolla in the 1920s came new hotel restaurants. But later, World War II would have an impact on La Jollans and San Diegans in general and on where and how they ate. ♦
-
North Carolina50 seconds agoFormer North Carolina officer charged in beating caught on doorbell camera video
-
North Dakota4 minutes agoNorth Dakota Attorney General’s Office issues a warning on asphalt-paving scams
-
Ohio9 minutes agoOhio blogger The Rooster arrested at Statehouse for online harassment
-
Oklahoma16 minutes agoCity leaders break ground on MAPS 4 multipurpose stadium in downtown Oklahoma City
-
Oregon19 minutes agoFBI Special Agent Bobby Gutierrez named Freedom 250 Hometown Hero in Oregon
-
Pennsylvania24 minutes agoPennsylvania House approves bill to restrict cellphones in schools
-
Rhode Island31 minutes agoRhode Island Senate approves bill requiring staffed lanes alongside self-checkout
-
South-Carolina34 minutes agoSouth Carolina early voting surges ahead of primary election
