You stay classy, San Diego

In all of the Red Sox-Election hubbub, I just realized that I never gave an update on my trip to San Diego for the Society for Neuroscience conference, which I'm sure you were just waiting with baited breath to hear about. Without further ado, highlights:

-Fish tacos. Damn, they were good. Maybe not the best, but I don't have much to compare them to. I had them at a place called McGilicuddy Moose's, or something like that. With a big beer and the Sox game on. After having travelled all day and eaten basically nothing. It really hit the spot.

-Right by the convention center where the conference was happening was a little area of bars and shops and restaurants called the Gaslamp Quarter. Really a nice thing to have right there, and they probably clean up in terms of business from the convention center, and it's right by the new ballpark where the San Diego Padres play baseball. The area sort of reminded me of Bethesda, except a little hipper and not quite as yuppy.

-While standing and presenting my poster, I got to see and talk to lots of the old NIMH characters who I used to see on a much more regular basis. It was fun seeing them all again. For the most part, everyone is pretty much the same, which in a way is sort of comforting. By the way, there were an enormous number of posters at this thing. Row after row after row. You could spend all day walking up and down looking at them. And then there were the vendors, selling all kinds of crap I didn't need, like pipettes and microscopes and crap. It didn't stop me from taking free stuff from them, though. I got me a squishy red foam apple and a yellow foam light bulb and some candy.

-Had Moroccan (sp?) food in La Jolla at a place called Marakesh (sp?). It lasted two and a half hours, including belly dancing. It was all on the lab. Sweet. Good food, too.

-There is an entire street in downtown San Diego devoted to shops that sell bail bonds. There are also ads for bail bond places everywhere. Is San Diego just a more arrest-prone city than most? I was stunned.

-A bunch of us from Wash U took advantage of free events on the Monday night of the conference, first getting some free munchies at the Wash U neuroscience reception, then making our way to the party sponsored by MIT, which included open bar and a DJ. I had some free drinks and got down to that milkshake song. Best part: when you're on the dancefloor and you look up, all of a sudden you realize there's no roof.

-On the last day I was there, I got a chance to go to Balboa Park, which is where lots of museums and the zoo are, and then to Old Town San Diego, for some good authentic Mexican food. It was probably 11:30am and we saw a couple of old ladies with margaritas that were bigger than they were. Aye chihuahua!