Best of San Diego 2008

Since the New Children’s Museum opened last year, we’ve been admiring its motto: “Think, Play, Create”—so simple, to-the-point and spot-on. What more, after all, do you need in life than a good head on your shoulders, a little free time for fun stuff and the drive to make/do/be something?

We liked the motto so much that we ripped it off to help us organize this year’s Best of San Diego issue and convinced the museum folks to let us throw a party at their space—a sort-of kids party for grownups happening on Nov. 12 (the day this issue hits the streets). Come join us—it’ll be a blast (all the details are here). If you’re reading this after Nov. 12, the party’s over, but as a consolation prize, read our picks for best activities, places and people in and around San Diego that capture the cerebral, playful and creative spirit.  

THINK

These are a few of the best things in San Diego that excite or at least slightly tingle the neurons in your cerebral cortex. Things like a sommmelier who teaches you how to really appreciate wine, a monhtly night of high-tech Intelligent Dance Music, a couple local authors who might actually make you want to read again, a few good local book spots and a pizza place with a conscience.     

PLAY

This is a collection of the best things in San Diego that bring out our playful side: A dive bar with a wiener carousel, a bike shop that specializes in steel frames, laughter yoga in Balboa Park, a border town and a whole lot more.

CREATE

These are some of the best things in San Diego that -- somehow, someway -- use creativity or make us feel creative. From a salon where you'll likely score the best-looking bangs you've ever had to a group of misfits who put on weirdly entertaining circus shows, to a tiny place that keeps hip-hop alive and even a t-shirt company that lets its buyers vote on the designs worthy of being printed, we've used every last creative bone in our collective body to round this one up.

For the 2008 Best of Reader's Poll, click here.