For our anniversay, I surprised my husband and we drove down to Del Mar for dinner at MARKET Restaurant + Bar.
The award winning chef Carl Shroeder changes the menu daily according to what his local suppliers have so everything is fresh, local and seasonal.
He started with an organic baby beet salad and I had a Hamachi tartare and Dungeoness crab salad.
We both had the special of the day: organic filet mignon from a small, local farm. It was amazing, so tender and full of flavor.
I also had a pear martini that was probably the best martini I’ve ever had. It had a subtle hint of pear – fabulosity to the maximus.
I made the reservation through opentable.com and you can put comments in when you make it, so I wrote that it was our anniversary… and the chef sent out a little dessert for us.
The meal was simply amazing; everything was so fresh and full of flavor without being overdone or too ornate. It was also very pricey with small portions, but the food was so top quality. amazing.
After the meal we drove over to the Del Mar fairgrounds where we had tickets to see the Cirque du Soleil show Kooza. I had never seen any of their shows so I was pretty jacked up.
Kooza is the traveling show that goes around the country for a month at a time; the tickets were cheaper than the Vegas shows. Because the tent isn’t really big, it looked like every seat in the house was a good one. I’d definitely recommend seeing it!
My husband has seen “O” in Vegas before so I thought maybe he wouldn’t like Kooza as much, but he loved it! Some of the stuff we saw, especially the three contortionists, we just looked at each other and were like, Are we really seeing this? It’s like the Exorcist; those girls can practically make their heads spin around.
KOOZA is a return to the origins of Cirque du Soleil: It combines two circus traditions – acrobatic performance and the art of clowning. The show highlights the physical demands of human performance in all its splendor and fragility, presented in a colorful mélange that emphasizes bold slapstick humor.
Then after the show we headed down to San Diego and checked into the Hard Rock Hotel in the Gaslamp District. This hotel is so rad… modern and funky with a rock ‘n’ roll vibe. We loved it so much that we wanted to move in. or at least steal all the decor.
When I booked the room I noted that it was our anniversary so they gave us a top floor corner room with a view of the water.
Like the Hard Rock Cafes, there’s some music memorabilia around the hotel (This is a dress Madonna wore for some tour or concert), but it’s not as cheesy as the restaurants. Way more modern and sleek.
In the hotel there’s a Nobu, Pinkberry, and a couple clubs.
The location was perfect for walking around and of course, a good morning run. You just can’t beat San Diego.
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
What a fun anniversary celebration! I knew you were going to Cirque when you said you were coming here to San Diego
Looks like you two had an awesome time! Me and the hubby have our 7 yr. anniversary coming up on the 29th and I was going to surprise him with tickets to Cirque too! We went on our 1st anniversary, and stayed at the W (another very cool hotel), can’t wait! 
Thanks for sharing your anniversary fun! Hope you had a great run.
oooh i hope you got a good present! it sounds like you had a wonderful anniversary celebration. congrats!
Beautiful. Again, Happy Anniversary. Marriage only gets better as you get older!
Happy ann’y! Looks like y’all had a wonderful time. I have had hamachi tartare and it is wonnnnnnnnnderful. Good choice.
It’s a pretty cool place – we had our company holiday party there.
Congrats on your anniversary – we’re going on 6 years in July
)
I love love love Cirque. I saw kooza when it came to D.C. last year. I’ve seen 5 traveling shows and want to go see all of them in Vegas one day. Happy anniversary!
I’ve stayed there before. My friend LIVES in the gaslamp district (I would DIE if I lived there. Shopping.) and that hotel was amazing. I couldn’t afford Nobu after the hotel bill though, haha! I had pinkberry for dinner.
so much fun! i love how you actually did something for your anniversary rather than just do only dinner or something very simple like that…not that it’s a bad thing but i really like the specialness to your night
Congrats! The restaurant sounds amazing… Can you talk to me about where you got that fabulous sweater?! I loveeeee it!
I saw that Kooza show in Denver last year and loved it. The audience participation is my favorite part. Glad you and JJ Jaybob Jorge Jellybean had a good time. Happy anniv!
W.T.F. pinkberry IN the hotel? I’m booking as I type…just for the pinkberry..then I’ll check out.