Let's organize a Meetup (San Diego/Tijuana)

drealm · Post by **drealm** » May 26th, 2014, 12:16 pm

I can fly out on a Friday, but I gotta be back Monday by the latest. So I can only commit for 3 days. Sorry work sucks.

To be honest it's kinda depressing to fly out and be so close to Mexico and not go there..

So far the votes are:

TJ: 4 (fschmidt, djfourmoney, Jester, drealm)

SD: 2 (Winston, TravelingFirefighter)

Anyone else interested?

Post by **fschmidt** » May 26th, 2014, 12:23 pm

Winston wrote:Yeah. If people fly down there, why not have a 4 or 5 day meetup? Why only a weekend? If someone doesn't have the time, they can just come for a weekend.

That's fine with me. What do others think? Can you do a 4 or 5 day meetup? In this case I think we would meet in San Diego on Wednesday and then go to Tijuana on Friday and end on Sunday.

I know a little about Tijuana but nothing about San Diego. If we do spend time in San Diego, someone else will have to organize that part of the trip.

You can organize it by finding out who's interested and then coordinating the time and place. Kind of like how Mark Davis did with his meetup. Or just announce a time and place and see who shows up.

I am very flexible, so maybe someone else can suggest a date. If not, I will pick one at random.

When I said TJ was rowdy, I meant it was noisy and distracting. Too noisy for us to sit and talk and get acquainted. Plus we'd be distracted by all the eye candy girls around. And hustlers would be bothering us too.

The hotel should definitely not be in the red-light district. And outside of there, it isn't so rowdy.

I'll send this thread to my mailing list to see who's interested.

Thanks.

drealm · Post by **drealm** » May 26th, 2014, 12:32 pm

fschmidt wrote:
Winston wrote:Yeah. If people fly down there, why not have a 4 or 5 day meetup? Why only a weekend? If someone doesn't have the time, they can just come for a weekend.
That's fine with me. What do others think? Can you do a 4 or 5 day meetup? In this case I think we would meet in San Diego on Wednesday and then go to Tijuana on Friday and end on Sunday.

This would work for me. I'm stuck M-F with work, so I can fly out friday afternoon and meet you guys in Mexico. Just need to pick a hotel and we're set.

Post by **Winston** » May 26th, 2014, 6:21 pm

If no one here is familiar with San Diego, then how about Los Angeles? Momopi and Jester live there. Maybe they know of a good affordable place to hold a meetup. How far is LA from TJ?

So far, no one has said that they don't have a passport, so maybe we can do most or all of the meeting in TJ after all.

Who here is familiar with TJ? Which hotels would you recommend? And what are the costs of it? Some members here may be on a budget, so we should not pick something too expensive.

I'll see if Mark Davis and Phoenix want to come too. Phoenix lives in Phoenix, so he's near the area too. And Mark Davis lives in Las Vegas now.

Post by **fschmidt** » May 26th, 2014, 6:49 pm

We can make the core meetup in Tijuana for a weekend and then anyone who can extend that before or after, I will also extend my trip to match. The extended time can be spent wherever the group wants.

I have been to Tijuana a few times because my dentist is there. I usually stay here:

http://www.hotellavilla.biz/

I can afford a fancier place if that's what most want, but I am cheap and prefer value. The rooms are quiet and the neighborhood is reasonable.

hornyabc · Post by **hornyabc** » May 28th, 2014, 2:15 pm

Any updates? What week/weekend were you guys thinking?

I'm in LA and would definitely be down to meet if you guys come here and SD/TJ isn't that far away. I've never been to TJ before and would love to go!

drealm · Post by **drealm** » May 28th, 2014, 3:52 pm

Hotel La Villa de Zaragoza is fine with me.

Post by **fschmidt** » May 28th, 2014, 4:37 pm

Someone please pick a weekend. Let's make the rule that if no one objects to a date for 48 hours, then that's the final date.

Post by **Winston** » May 28th, 2014, 10:36 pm

fschmidt wrote:We can make the core meetup in Tijuana for a weekend and then anyone who can extend that before or after, I will also extend my trip to match. The extended time can be spent wherever the group wants.

I have been to Tijuana a few times because my dentist is there. I usually stay here:

http://www.hotellavilla.biz/

I can afford a fancier place if that's what most want, but I am cheap and prefer value. The rooms are quiet and the neighborhood is reasonable.

That hotel starts at $40 and goes up to $60. I thought Mexico would be cheaper than that. Is that hotel first world style?

Another issue we need to discuss is that if you or others are flying into San Diego, we should arrange some type of carpool. Do you plan to rent a car or carpool with others to TJ?

I'm still on my road trip for about another week. And then I plan to go back to Asia after that. So I'm not sure if I can make it. But I will try. If I do, you can ride with me so you don't have to rent a car.

Would we be parking at the border and taking a bus or taxi across to TJ?

Post by **fschmidt** » May 28th, 2014, 11:33 pm

Winston wrote:That hotel starts at $40 and goes up to $60. I thought Mexico would be cheaper than that. Is that hotel first world style?

It's certainly comparable to Motel 6. But the main thing is that it is really quiet which is important to me.

Another issue we need to discuss is that if you or others are flying into San Diego, we should arrange some type of carpool. Do you plan to rent a car or carpool with others to TJ?

I wasn't planning to rent a car. If people are driving down, they can pick up those of us who would fly in. Otherwise I would just take the trolly to the border.

Would we be parking at the border and taking a bus or taxi across to TJ?

I don't know. Someone more familiar with the situation can give advice on this. If no one knows, then the safest is to park at the border.

Post by **Winston** » May 29th, 2014, 12:13 am

Another issue: Should we all meet at the airport? The thing is, most guys will probably be driving and it might be silly to try to get everyone to meet up at the airport. We don't even know where in the airport to meet at since none of us are familiar with it. Why not just meet up at a specific address in San Diego? One that people can use GPS to find?

Those who are flying in can arrange with some of the drivers to pick them up and carpool together. When you have your flight details ready, you can just PM some of the drivers to pick you up.

If most of you can make it on Thursday, it might be a good idea for all of us to get acquainted first on Thursday night. Most of us have never met and are still strangers to each other, so we should get acquainted in person first. Then we can decide how to do the carpooling arrangements the next day on Friday. What do you think?

That way, we will be more familiar with each other by the time we share cars and travel together to TJ.

How many of you can make it Thursday? We can meet at some easy to find place in San Diego and stay the night in a cheap motel. Or a hostel if you are on a budget.

So far, the following people have said they are in:

fschmidt
djfourmoney
Jester
drealm
Winston
TravelingFirefighter
gsjackson (maybe)
* plus one guy on our Facebook group wants to go too

Momopi said he's too busy to go. And MarkLambo prefers to go to TJ and come back the same day. He doesn't like to stay overnight there. So he may not be able to join us.

Gsjackson, when are you going to be in Tucson?

I PMed and Skyped Phoenix about this meetup since he lives in Phoenix. But he didn't respond to me yet.

To all of you who are going, can you please post your response to these questions:

1. Can you make it Thursday? Or only Friday?
2. Will you be driving or flying into San Diego?
3. Are you on a tight budget? If so, some of you can share hotel rooms together with two beds to minimize the cost.
4. Do you want to stay in TJ past Sunday? If so, and you flew in, you will have to discuss this with the person driving you. Or you can leave by public transportation later if your driver will leave before you. I'm sure there's a way to get to the border and to the airport using public transportation.

Then we can get a better idea of how to arrange all this.

Thanks.

drealm · Post by **drealm** » May 29th, 2014, 1:27 am

1. Can you make it Thursday? Or only Friday?

Only Friday.

2. Will you be driving or flying into San Diego?

Flying

3. Are you on a tight budget? If so, some of you can share hotel rooms together with two beds to minimize the cost.

I am not.

4. Do you want to stay in TJ past Sunday? If so, and you flew in, you will have to discuss this with the person driving you. Or you can leave by public transportation later if your driver will leave before you. I'm sure there's a way to get to the border and to the airport using public transportation.

I'll need to leave on Sunday.

Winston this is just a logistics suggestion, it may be easiest just to meet Friday at San Ysidro border crossing. Then we walk over together. Drives-ins can park at San Ysidro border station, it's very safe for cars. Fly-ins can taxi from airport to downtown SD, then take the trolley from downtown SD to San Ysidro. This eliminates the need to coordinate anything between us. We just get there when we get there and wait up for whoever arrives late. If we fly-in/drive-in at different times it doesn't matter. Then if people want to do something in SD after Sunday you just walk back and carpool from border station. You can think it over.

A few maps may help.

Here is San Diego Airport + San Diego Downtown + San Ysidro + Tijuana:

Here is a close up of the border part at very end of above mage:

Here is official trolley map:

hornyabc · Post by **hornyabc** » May 29th, 2014, 1:23 pm

Wow, thanks for sharing that map drealm! It's extremely helpful, especially for those of us who have never been and know nothing about the border!

I would be down for Thursday or Friday depending on the weekend. Since there's parking at the border, I would probably just drive from LA. Is it a day rate? I could carpool with others who are also coming from LA.

Post by **fschmidt** » May 29th, 2014, 4:14 pm

No one has proposed a date, so I will propose the weekend of July 12.

hornyabc · Post by **hornyabc** » May 29th, 2014, 6:07 pm

fschmidt wrote:No one has proposed a date, so I will propose the weekend of July 12.

I can't make that weekend... but here are a few other suggestions:

-Weekend of July 19, 20
-Weekend of July 26, 27 (this weekend has Comic-con in SD, if we do end up meeting in SD we'll see the whole downtown area full of cosplayers, a pretty neat thing to see)
-Weekend of August 9, 10

Also later this summer a really big event in SoCal is the US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach (Orange County, between LA and SD). This year it takes place from July 26 to August 3. If you google it you'll see LOTS of pictures of hot bikini girls. Yes I know these are bitchy American girls, so you're not likely to date any of them, but just look and take photos. That's what I do with a group of buddies every year. It's good to get your juices flowing, then after that go to TJ and let it all out.

Just an idea if some of you are in SoCal or are planning to visit SoCal anyway.