Scott Elwell

Schools started again this week for the San Diego youngsters out there but there's still some cool summertime fun to be had here in our neighborhood this weekend as the San Diego Symphony performs its 1812 Tchaikovsky Spectacular Friday, Saturday and Sunday night September 2,3,4 at 7:30pm at the Embarcadero Marina Park South. The 1812 Overture will be complemented by booming cannons over the bay, and piano prodigy Chu-fang Huang will be performing Tchaikovsky's Concerto No. 1. Seats range from $17-76 and family and military discounts are available. You can even pre-order food through Wolfgang Puck Catering! You can visit here anytime you like, but why not LIVE here where life is always a breeze. Click here for information on San Diego properties or Real Estate for Sale in Marina District San Diego CA

I admit, my title is a bit of a play on words. Growing up in Boston and with many formidable years spent watching the sitcom "Cheers" on television, enjoying the neighborhood bar feel and its memorable cast of characters, it was imperative that I find a neighborhood hangout here in the Marina District that could provide such a destination. Well. for my money, Morton's Restaurant, located in the Harbor Club highrise at 285 J Street, fills the bill. I must also confess that I have never eaten in the main dining room, which by the looks of the tray of beef cuts they wheel around looks like a carnivore's delight, but rather prefer the bar area where my favorite bartenders in the city work their magic. They also have a "power hour" menu from 5pm-6:30pm and 9:30pm to close Sunday through Thursday that features beer, wine and "Mortini" specials- all under $8.00, and a food menu including petite filet mignon sandwiches, mini cheeseburgers, mini crab cake BLT's and oyster and shrimp cocktail (biggest and sweetest in the city) specials to boot. But the real reason to hang out is the banter created by the bar staff. No place Downtown can compete with these guys for pure fun and professionalism, and the nightly mix of twenty-something go-getters to rich retirees makes the scene even livelier. So next time you're looking for Real Estate for Sale in Marina District San Diego CA, stop by and see Sean, Josh, Mike, Barry and the rest of the crew and tell 'em I sent you. They will not diappoint!

I just got word via CNN.com that a 5.8 magnitude earthquake had struck the east coast, mainly felt in Washington, DC as far east as Boston.I heard the Pentagon was evacuated and parts of Manhattan went into panic mode. Well, as a native east coast guy living the last four years in San Diego, I can only say "Welcome to my world!" It was just a couple of Easter Sundays ago here in San Diego when I experienced my first earthquake. My wife and I were at a fabulous restaaurant just across the bay from the Marina District on Harbor Island named C Level (its more formal restaurant next door is Island Prime) when we started to feel the tremors. Now Shannon is from Morgan Hill, California, located just by San Jose, so she is a veteran earthquake observer. She was actually in San Francisco working in 1989 when the big one hit during the baseball World Series that year. So, needless to say, as the tremors started ( during my appetizer, of course), I immediately figured that since the restaurant was so crowded that people were standing around waiting for tables, someone must be bumping into my table. Shannon immediately recognized what was happening and nonchalantly uttered, "It's just an earthquake". Now, if anyone reading this has been to C Level, you know that the restaurant is built on planks sitting directly over the water, so it made sense to still get out of there right away. So, as the crowded house is trying to leave, we realize the door is being blocked by some lady who claims that she heard that in an earthquake you should hang on under doorways. Maybe that's true, but could you please let the 200 of us out first! It lasted about 30 seconds but felt like an hour. About a dozen minor aftershocks followed in the next week or two ahead, just to keep us on our toes. So DC and NYC and you other east coast cities, welcome to my world. I just hope that wildfires and mudsleds aren't in your future, too. Please click for Real Estate for Sale in Marina District San Diego CA

Certain well-known San Diego neighborhoods have a distinct way of naming their streets. This little bit of trivia here will hopefully be a help to out-of-towners who may find these quite interesting. Take South Misssion Hills or Mission Hills as an example. While searching for Homes for Sale in South Mission Hills San Diego CA the other day, my clients found the street names interesting and actually made a game of recollecting or guessing the names. So first there are the "bird" streets , starting East to west with Albatross,Crane, Dove, Eagle, Falcon, Goldfinch, Hawk, Ibis, Jackdaw and Lark. Moving from Bankers Hill to Hillcrest, one finds streets named after trees from A-to-W: Ash, Beech, Cedar, Date, Elm, Fir, Grape, Hawthorn, Ivy, Juniper, Kalmia, Laurel, Maple, Nutmeg, Olive, Palm, Quince, Redwood, Spruce, Thorn, Upas, and Walnut in that order. How about Mission Beach street names by the beach? Well, they're locations of famous beaches, what else? Zanzibar, Yarmouth, York, Venice, tangiers, Queenstown, Redondo, Portsmouth, Niantic, Ormond, Liverpool, Nantasket, Nahant,Kennebeck, Jersey and Jamaica just name some. Remember, however that it all started Downtown, where North/South streets were simply named by numbers and East/West by letters of the alphabet. So next time you're in the neighborhood looking for Homes for Sale in South Mission Hills San Diego CA, play the street name quiz and have some fun.

While searching for Marina District San Diego Houses for Sale, one must not overlook one of the finest residential buildings Downtown in the Marina District, Park Place at 700 West Harbor Drive. A Bosa-designed gem from 2003, Park Place is known to be an architectural masterpiece built with the utmost integrity and quality. If location is important to you, then an across-the-street walk to Seaport Village and the Embarcadero, a 15 minute walk to Petco Park or the Gaslamp Quarter, and 5 minute accessibility by car to The 163 and The 5 make this the one for you. A 180-unit, 30-story complex, Park Place offers 1- and 2-bedroom units ranging from townhomes to highrises. Boasting one of the must well-landscaped, lush patio, pool and spa areas in Downtown, Park Place is the perfect urban hideaway. A phenomenal, experienced Prescott Management team completes the picture. Currently, I have a wonderful, 2-bed, 2-bath 1,353 sq. ft. unit for sale at Park Place #1305 for $725,000. Please call me for additional information on this specific listing at 619-847-7141