The Great San Diego Crawl of 2013 Part 4, the final part of this trip...

It is the last blog of the San Diego Excursion.  Four chapters sums a good part of the day, but cannot describe the great times that we had.  The pictures shown do no justice to all that we saw, did, experienced.  Yeah, good times.

Smiles like this, from Nate:

Bites like that, from Mike:

They just don't fully illustrate the story...

So, we are driving back up.  We get to Bucky's and Peck and Paul jumped in the Honda and shot towards LAX, or did they?  We have a "Whatsapp" for The Order of the Taco.  It is awesome.  We share messages, thoughts, stories, articles, everything.  It is a very entertaining thing.  I digress, yes, you should know this by now.  So Paul and Peck are in "such a rush to get to LAX."  I got the rest of the story from the pictures and from my dad.  They went to El Tarasco, an Order favorite.

I will say that it was great to have both of my little brothers there with us on this trip.  Paul was on round one, Peck was in town for round two and that made it better.  I mean, I don't cuddle with them like I do Brandon, or talk to them with the same fever I do Mike, but their presence was most excellent.  So yeah, they went to El Tarasco, if you haven't been, it's in Manhattan and a few in the surrounding area, please check it out.

While they are eating alone, without the group, we got cigars together, made sure the hot tub was ready and watched the sunset from Casa de Monstrosity:

Yes, we parked the Red Dragon so that it could face the sunset and watch...

Alright, so we regroup at Bucky's, have a couple of beers and decide we are going to get wings, things and of course, more tacos.  Where to go, where to go.  We weren't driving the exhausting six miles to the last two places on the list.  We did the impromptu thing we'd been doing all day and went to Tonlin's.  What is this place?  Taco place in a liquor store?  Umm, yes!  

If you ask me, I'll tell you that all those things on that sign are done in the same store, and you can sign me up for more.  The place is unique, really it is.  Their flavors are unique.  So here are some shots.
The store front:

The Menu:

The Wall between the Liquor Store and Taqueria:

The food was great.  Tripas were a 5, nothing else went below a 3.  Only warning that I have is that everything comes with pinto beans, I liked it.  I didn't think I would, but it was nice.  Their salsa bar is a 4:

What a spread.  It was all really good.  Nice flavors, spicy.  I dig it.  I enjoyed the whole thing.

So we get all the food back to the house.  The spread was second to none:

Yeah, we were ready to chow the heck down!  We did.  We enjoyed every bit of that food.  The tacos, wings, fries, everything.  It was so good.  I enjoyed every bite I had.  We went to the backyard, some smoked cigars, some got in the Jacuzzi.  It was a great way to unwind as we all told stories about the day, yelled at the TV, just enjoyed each other's company.  Were we done?

No!

We piled into the van and we went to this great dive bar.  The clientele was fantastic.  Pool tables, fake shuffle board, wood trim, you can close your eyes and imagine.  It had a "smoking section."  I loved this place.  The guys played a little shuffle board, I really just sat around watching people.

There was some great people in there if you hadn't caught the drift.  A couple in their late 40's were arguing, she says she is more orally inclined then her friend and wanted to show the guy.  We laughed listening.  Some girl who was disproportional just below her neck, pronounced just as much on the right and left side of her chest was all over the bar.  She was not attractive.  She still had "her old nose."  She was running around screaming how it was her birthday and nobody cared.  She was right, no one in the bar cared.  She was grinding on a support beam to the bar and thought it was a guy.  Really entertaining.  Nate and I caught up with some guy in an Alabama shirt as he was drowning the sorrows of the loss to Auburn.  Needless to say great end to the day.  Did it end right there, pretty much, though I will say that Nate sang us all to bed.  He is not the best singer, but I appreciate his efforts and moxy.

We went back to Bucky's, everyone picked a spot and went to sleep.  I had to take off my socks:

Yes, I wore those socks all day.  They are my taco socks, don't act like you're not impressed.

At the end of the day, I appreciate everyone on the trip and everyone who reads.  This thing is a ton of fun.  I'm glad we have a logo, coming to a shirt near you.  I thank everyone who has read, will read or is reading.  Please tell your friends, foes and acquaintences.  Extra special thanks to the dudes that went on the trip with me, Mike Phillips, Chris Randall, Nick Thomas, Nate Lee, James Anastasios, Mark Chan, Brandon Begley, Paul Zaferis and Andrew Zaferis.  

This is my thanks for reading face!

Stay Excellent Everyone!