Shhhhh, I'm Finding My Innerself.

When I rolled up to Hotel Solamar a few weeks ago, I had no clue how riddled with style this jem would be. I parked, handed the beetle over to a cute tall blonde valet and clickety clacked into the lobby. Whhhhaaa? Where am I? Did I mysteriously teleport to New York? Slip through a wormhole to South Beach? The swanky atmosphere permeated the entire space reminding me of being in the aforementioned places. Look at you San Diego, snap! I almost took the front desk girls hand off when she handed over my room key. Snatched it right out of her paws. If the lobby is this slammin, I wondered what the rooms had in store. I bolted to the elevator, pressed 10 and the giddy set in. I tried to be cool strolling down the hall, but I couldn't get there fast enough. Slid the key, opened the door and....POLKA DOT CURTAINS! Sweet baby Jesus! Sheer ones! Sexy ones! I could make one ridiculous (in a good way) dress outta those beauts. I rolled on the bed, tested the pillows (hello, heavenly soft) and threw open the windows to breathe in the crisp oceany air.

Onto the bathroom; always like to see what hotels stock the powder room with as I am a product junkie/lover-One can never have enough lotions, potions, soaps and scrubs. Job well done Hotel Solamar product buyer! L'Occitane en Provence all the way around. Luxurious indeed. I opened the bottle of body wash took a whiff and zinged off to lemongrass land. You ever been there? You should go, it's good fun. Much better than stinky over perfumed land.








I padded over to a window, pressed my head against the cool glass, peered down and this is what I looksee'd at: (Oh, I am there...in a hot second). Out of another window, if I chucked a rock good n hard it would nail Petco Park. But, I'm not into vandalism.

K. I'm there. Again with the funky fresh style. A jellyfish-esque hanging lamp above the bar. There where several and how the sun twinkled through them!

Just out of frame in the following photograph there were gaggles of bathing bikini clad hotties sipping icy libations. Made me thirsty. Need. A. Cold. Beverage. Stat. I bellied up to the horseshoe shaped bar and began grilling the bartender. As any good investigative traveller knows, bartenders are a pandora's box of information and must be interrogated. Any celebrities stay here? WOW. I can tell you dear readers that a long winding list of A, B, C, D, E, F and G listers have all laid their heads on those heavenly soft pillows. Gwen Stefani being one of them. Holla Back! The night I was there, a grammy award winning rap group was also in da hizzouse. Bartender and I chatted about the hotel (Hotel Solamar is part of the Kimpton Hotel family), amazing real estate deals in downtown (a fellow realtor sat next to me and I evesdropped on his conversation. Man did he prattle on. Windbag), the 'elements' are pushing further east, JBar goes off on the weekends and Mr. Bartender loves his job. Great.

I finished my tart vodka cranberry deliciousness and went on my merry little way.

I had a date with sangria drinking, tapas eating, live flamenco guitar listening, salsa dancing and people watching later that evening so I retreated to my KILLER room to rest, primp, preen, coif, gloss, lotion and blow kisses to myself in the mirror. Hi run on sentence. Nice to meet ya.
Suns going down.

Good Morning Glory. As I took this picture the next morning, my head thu-robbed from too many vats of sangria. Seemed like a good idea at the time, it always does. Uh. Couldn't tell if I was gonna barf or not. Damn shame to puke up all that incredible food. I poured glass after glass after glass of water down the gulley and shored myself up. The polka dot's helped.

Gleaming vibes just would not quit. FYI, there are catalogs in the rooms in case you want to purchase robes, slippers, sheets, beds, pillows, etc....Smart. Those beds are B-A-N-A-N-A-S.

My stomach stopped surging around 10a.m. so I sludged my way down to JSix Restaurant in search of something greasy and heavy. Again, with the lamps. What is my deal with lamps? The interior was just as hip as the rest of the hotel. HIP!

Ultra nifty cieling detail.

Behold the hangover wunderkind. Man, did this do a belly good that morning. It was rough.

Strong excellent cup o' coffee to start. Then this dazzling display landed on my table. Twinkle. Perfectly spiced chiliquiles topped with 2 organic farm freshy fresh eggs, side of tumbled potatoes and homemade (well, made there) organic wheat toast. I only ate half. Pussy! But wait, my eyes are notoriously bigger than my stomach, in theory.

Seriously, all tomfoolery aside, JSix Restaurant is dedicated to the Slow Food Movement, earth lovin' sustainable practices and organic ingredients everywhere. AND, the menu is brilliant, creative and chock full of choices. No boredom here. The food is tremendously fresh and the chef is kinda hot!

Xo