San Diego Best Attractions

It’s that time again! You can be whatever or whoever you want to be and no one can say anything. Wondering where to go to show off your awesome costume? Here is a list of Halloween parties in San Diego:

Thursday 10/27

Syrah Wine parlor Halloween Carnivale -$10

Min Sok Chon Haunted Village - $5- $15

On Broadway Haunted Playground – $15

Friday 10/28

Broomstick Ball at the Hilton Del Mar - $10

Art After… Death at OMA - $25

Halloween Bash at Taste & Thirst - $5

North County Goons & Goblins at Club 945 - $10

Saturday 10/29

Costume Paintball Party – $40

Seaport Village Halloween Bash – free

Zombie Apocalypse Walk - free

Halloween Funhouse Costume Party – $20

HalloSheen Rockstar Party – no cover

Vampires Vs Warewolves – no cover

Halloween Cruise  – $35

Thriller Party – $50

Underworld Halloween – $20

San Diego Monster Bash – $30- $35

HOB Halloween Block Party – $30

Sunday 10/30

Nightmare on E St at Kleen House – no cover

Fangbangers Ball at Belo -$15

Monday 10/31

Halloween Ball at the Prado - $50 – $75

Fangtasia at Voyeur - $10

Down the Rabbit Hole at Stingaree -

Hallowierd – $20

Spellbound at The Lincoln Room – no cover

Of course, pretty much every bar will be having a Halloween party of some sort… whatever you do, be safe and have fun!

There are very few places where you will see museum quality cars in one place and up close as you can at The Del Mar Concours d’Elegance, which took place on 10/16/11 at the Del mar fairgrounds. There were gorgeous cars being showcased, from Rolls Royce to Fleetwood to Pierce-Arrow classics. A 1936 Delahaye 135 Competition Convertible – Figoni et Falashi was awarded Best of Show. . Attendees had a chance to look under the hood of these beauties, as well as see all the intricate details up close. Most of the car owners were there to answer questions, too. If you have a car buff in your life, this was definitely the place to take them.

To see pictures of the show and a complete list of winners check out: Concours d’Elegance

The Pearl Hotel in Point Loma is a boutique hotel decorated in vintage swanky 60′s decor. They host a variety of events in the bar/pool areas, including movie nights, co-working events, meetups, bingo, and holiday events.

On October 20th, they hosted their annual pumpkin carving contest. They provided the pumpkins and the tools, pumpkin carvers provided the creativity. They had Frankenstein projected on the big screen over the pool and specialty cocktails being shaken up for the night.

There were about 30 guests transforming their gourds into everything from intricately detailed patterns to cats to traditional faces. One man even brought his power tools. The winners were a mustached pumpkin face, an angry bird, and Snookie (complete with cocktail in her mouth). Prizes included a one night stay at the Pearl and gift certificates to the restaurant.

If you haven’t been to the Pearl, I highly recommend checking out one of their events. Check out the event calender here: The Pearl

The San Diego Asian Film Festival, SDAFF, is in full swing with a lot of movies, celebrities, and after-parties. The festival started October 20th with the opening movie and after-party. It will continue until October 28th. There are movie shorts and full-length films in just about every genre. Tickets are $11 for individual films or you can purchase 4 and 10-packs for a discount. Some of the movies are free and there are some you can watch online.

I attended the Blowfish party at the Culy Warehouse downtown. I thought it was interesting that they had a completely separate room for the VIP guests. They had a great dj, Mike Relm, playing music in the main room and Croniclr was there capturing it all for their projection screen during the event. The VIP area featured beer, wine, sake, and food from Rendezvous Del Mar.

I also attended the karaoke party at the Sheraton on Shelter Island. They had a karaoke contest and a lot of talent was displayed. Afterward, they opened it up to everyone and I even got to sing a song!

There is one more after-party coming up on October 28th at the Randy Jones All-American Grill in Hazard Center starting at 9pm. You can see the full schedule of movies and parties on their website: http://www.SDAFF.org

Water to Wine is a non-profit organization run by Doc Hendley. Almost half of the world’s hospital beds are filled with people suffering from water-related illnesses, such as diarrhea and bacterial infections. This could be easily fixed just by installing filtration systems that cost $20 and can filter enough water for 5-8 people for 5 years. This isn’t as easy as it may seem, though, because warfare is fought by infecting the water in many countries and the leaders of these militants will kill people who try to clean the water.

Doc Hendley has been trying to get clean water to people around the world for 10 years. On one trip, a friend of his was shot and killed for trying to do good things and helping people.  This man had a family and was ruthlessly hunted down by people trying to keep the water infected.

On 10/15/11 a fundraiser was held at the Coast Highway Photography and raised $6,000 for this cause. Chef Jeff of Taste Culinary made delicious hors d’ouvres  including stuffed baked baby potatoes, stuffed figs, coconut shrimp, and fried artichoke balls. Many different choices of wine were served and wonderful prizes were raffled off. It was a great event for a great cause.

Anyone can host a fundraiser for this cause. You can see photos of the event on our Facebook page.  

Hess Brewery celebrated OktoberHess last Saturday afternoon, 10/15. It is a small nano-brewery, located in a space the size of a large storage unit in a business park, but it can host a fun party. The event was held in the parking lot of their building and they were barbecuing up some brats with sauerkraut. They also had strudel on hand to make it really authentic. There was music playing and people seemed to really enjoy the special beers they made for the event.

You can do a tasting of 5 of their special brews for only $10 and that includes a souvenir glass. Make sure to get there quickly, though, because their beer sells out.

For tasting hours and more info check out their website: http://hessbrewing.com/index2.html

* Photography by Amir Abouriche

Pardon My French is creating fun networking events that showcase emerging artists in an upscale nightlife environment. Their goal is to bring the art to the younger generations in a fresh and exciting way.

I met both Eric Fillion of Pardon My French and Ryan Crowley of Symbolic Collection representing Trevor Young at their event at Fluxx on 10/14/11. Ryan said that Symbolic has one of the largest private collections of art in America, with over 30,000 pieces in their collection. Ryan has an eye for art and can recognize talent when he sees it.

Trevor Young has exhibited his work in galleries all over the world, including New York, Washington D.C., and Rome. His current collection is inspired by car culture and outposts of Americana.

The event itself was lovely. The attendance was lower than usual due to the traffic that evening, but the people that were there had a chance to sip champagne with strawberries and mingle with the other guests. The DJ played cool beats at a moderate volume conducive to chatting and Trevor was available to answer any questions.

You can find out about the next Pardon My French event by visiting their website: www.pardonmyfrenchevents.com

Haunted Houses are an awesome way to kick off Halloween! Dress up, grab some friends, and be prepared to scream and jump. The Haunted Trail in Balboa Park is an outdoor walk where thrills lurk around every corner. There are about 10 different “houses” along the trail with different themes and scary characters loom all over the trail. There is everything from a school bus to a farm house. Characters will crawl, jump, and fall out of nowhere at you. There are scary guys with chainsaws and creepy ghosts. You never know what is coming next.

The Scream Zone haunted house isn’t as scary. Maybe because it is enclosed so there aren’t as many places for them to jump out at you. It does have some cool special effects and banging. They can trap you more easily, though, so watch out for that. There are quite a few rooms to go through and since it isn’t as scary you can spend more time actually looking around and take it all in, instead of trying to run through as fast as you can to get away from an extra scary creeper like in some of the Haunted Trail rooms.

When deciding which to go to, assuming you can’t go to both (which I would recommend), decide how scary you want it to be and how far you want to walk. The Haunted Trail is a good 15 minutes of walking and just walking around Balboa Park in the dark is spooky enough, even without all the scary zombies chasing you. Do not wear heals! The trail is mostly dirt and you’ll be falling into it. I made that mistake because my costume called for it. I would go there if you aren’t scared easily. The Scream Zone haunted house is better for kids and for people who don’t want to walk very far.

*check back soon because I will be adding the Haunted Hotel review soon!

Wine to Water is a non-profit organization that provides clean water and sustainable water systems to needy people around the world. This Saturday, 10/15, Coast Highway Photography will be hosting a fundraiser that will feature wine tastings, passed hors d’oeuvres, opportunity drawings, and 4 guests of honor: Doc Hendley, Jay Kopelman, Chef Jeff, and Downtown Rob. Mingle with over 100 guests that are expected to be at this event while supporting a good cause.

Suggested donation is $25 but it is free to rsvp and opportunity drawing tickets are $10 each. Visit the website to rsvp: http://winetowater.charityhappenings.org/

THREADShow San Diego was a smorgasbord of fashion, beauty, and fun.  They had everything you need to be fashionable for fall, from jewelry to clothes to shoes to purses, they had you covered from head to toe. Diesel Salon was on hand to do hair styling, The Nail Bar was doing pedicures, and a chiropractor was doing massages to make sure you looked and felt your best during the event.

There was a craft station to make flowers out of newspapers, an art station to draw web-based pictures, live art, and two photo booths to capture it all. They also had tastings from Luna, Honest Tea, Pretzel Crisps, Vitamin Water, and a wine vendor. There was a DJ to make sure the atmosphere was festive and a cocktail bar in case you got thirsty during all that shopping. They even had a stylist on hand in case you needed some tips.

The space itself was in Horton Plaza and was huge with many rooms to explore. It was fun to walk around to see what you could find. I highly recommend the Thread Show if it is in your area.

Check out photos from the event on my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/sandiegosbestattractions

My after photo… hair styled by Diesel.