1. Restaurants

Cafe Bar Turquoise has a cute, quirky ambiance, live music every night, fantastic tapas, and delicious wines. The prices are great, the musicians are talented and fun, and a cool twist is that they don’t have formal “servers.” Instead, you order at the counter, choose a table, and later an employee brings the food to you. This means that your experience is unbothered and intimate - perfect for a first date.

Another fantastic establishment is the Patio on Lamont. I fell in love with this restaurant before I had a bite of the food, and if you go, you’ll understand why. The seating area outside is surrounded by a gorgeous, jungle themed, succulent covered wall that makes you feel like you’ve escaped to a fine dining establishment in Hawaii. The service is fantastic, the guy in the kilt is hilarious and sweet, and the food and beverages are reliably perfect.

Seafood. From the new poke bar, to the well established Ichiban, PB Sushi, and Fish Market, the selection of fresh and delicious seafood available in Pacific Beach is insanely extensive. Not only do you have options, but its hard to make a bad decision between them, they’re pretty much all great. The Fish Market has oysters on happy hour for only a dollar!

2. The Beach/Boardwalk

The boardwalk is a mecca of every kind of physical transportation. You’ll see joggers, skateboarders, rollerbladers, hoverboarders, bicyclists, everything. Not to mention the surfers, scuba divers, and snorkelers coming back from the water. It is a great place to people watch, listen to street musicians, grab a cocktail at a beachside bar, or just sit back and enjoy the sunshine. Be careful of the guys who throw footballs at people jogging, though. They’re just being playful but I got hit in the head once.

3. Slo-Mo

We have our own low key celebrity, who has been famous to locals for at least a decade now. He can be frequently found rollerblading on the boardwalk in slow motion, while giving high fives to people that he passes with a huge grin on his face. A local news channel interviewed him a while back, and I recommend watching the it online. He’s a smart, good natured guy who has some incredible advice, and seeing him is always a treat.

4.You can go out any day of the week

I’ll start this segment by explaining that I actually don’t like to go out much, I prefer to stay in with friends to drink, and usually incorporate making art. That being said, having the option to go out no matter what night (or day) it is by simply stepping out of my front door…well, for a mid-twenties person, regardless of how social they like to be, that’s kind of a luxury. It can be irritating when drunk people yell past your window at four in the morning, but you get used to it like you do with trains passing or planes flying overhead. It’s also convenient that both Vons and CVS are 24 hours/day, and there are always people awake. I can go on a jog at one in the morning on a Tuesday and wave hello to my neighbors, hanging out on their porch. That’s kind of cool to me.

5. An environment in which exercise is enticing

As many beach communities are, Pacific Beach is a very active town. Add the boardwalk, Kate O Sessions Park, and an awesome path around Crown Point, and you’ve pretty much got an environment that begs you to get outside and take advantage of it. Not to mention, if its ever too cold to go outside (ha,ha) or you just feel like using gym equipment, 24 Hour Fitness on Garnet is a fantastic, affordable spot to work out. The employees are welcoming and funny, the premises are clean, and the people are friendly. I’ve become far more fit since moving to Pacific Beach, and had a lot more fun doing it than I could have ever imagined.

Images:

http://www.pacificsandsvacations.com/attractions/t...

https://www.venuereport.com/venue/the-patio-on-lam...

http://dailyhive.com/vancouver/poke-bar-burnaby-sf...

http://cisl.edu/wordpress/student-life/a-day-in-pa...

https://www.yelp.com/biz/johnny-v-san-diego

https://markshimazuphotography.wordpress.com/2013/...