The restaurant/bar the meet-up is hosted once a month is named Goli pizza eatery and martini bar. It's located in a higher scale area of San Diego so, high scale of high scale geographically speaking. I was a surprised by the big "Bitcoin accepted here" sign out front because I had asked the meet-up starter and host @DuncanCaryPalmer a few months prior if they would accept our sats for beers on at least meet up nights and it was a negative then. Inside was dimly lit, with dark-wood chairs and granite tables, beautiful tube lamps hung from the ceiling, abstract art pieces on every wall, shelves with many wines and wine glasses all around, and only a few people. As I'm taking it in, inspecting my surroundings, I locked eyes with the bar tender. "you're here for the bitcoin thing?" he asked. You caught me. Was it the wrinkled shirt, backpack, and warn sandals that separated me from his usual clientele? I assured him I was indeed there for the meet up and told him I noticed the big red bitcoin sign out there and asked if he would accept my sats for beers and he said no, which was deflating. A small gust of wind lifted my sails when he said "not yet anyway" as he went to pour my Booze Brothers Green Eyed Amber from Vista, California. As he handed me the beer, he pointed me towards the back of the restaurant where the meet up was being held.

It was a very inviting and intimate setting. There were tables grouped together to form a large square that would fit 20 people all facing inward to inspire conversation. Our table had the only black tablecloth and there were many large bottles of water and more glasses for anyone attending. This pizzeria is located on one long main road, and there had been an accident, causing bad traffic, and we were already getting signal messages of late appearances and cancelations. At this time there were only four people, including myself. The host, a tattoo artist from Vancouver who seemed to use his own body as an advertisement, and a new older gentleman with American flag suspenders. In the corner near our table there was as TV that was to be used for a presentation titled "micropayments" which I looked forward to. I introduced myself, and re-introduced myself respectively, took a seat, and sipped my beer in anticipation for good Bitcoin conversation. Right away, I got what I came for.

Vancouver had just moved to San Diego from the great white north five days prior to the meet-up in search of better weather as him and his Mexican Chihuahua, Ricky Bobby, had been living the van life for ten years. I hadn't joined in the conversation yet when he asked Duncan if there was anywhere he could be spending his sats in SD, and as Duncan was about to give a disappointed "not really" type of answer I jumped in with a "yes!" It's true, especially relative to Vancouver where he just moved from, we have little options. But the ones we do have need to be known and supported, So I shared with him the places I do know! I wrote about them here #1011444 back in June. Turns out the tattoo shop he works at is near Cafe Di Talya https://btcmap.org/merchant/node:11563024274 so I was to be able to spread the word about that.

The entire night the conversation was, as I often find in San Diego meetups, refreshing. Early on we discussed why America is leading the way in political and tradfi involvement but had such a relatively weak circular economy. Duncan asked a wonderful question to Vancouver: "We (the meetup) are all about circular economy, how can we move in the direction Vancouver has gone?" Which lead to discussion as to why Vancouvers circular adoption is through the roof while their federal law and tradfi bitcoin adoption was nearly non-existent. We talked about Canadas weaker and faster-debasing currency, Bitcoin-supportive mayor Ken Sim, the largest protest in Canadian history (truckers against vaccines), and general greater distrust in government especially in the Vancouver area as reasons for what's happening there now. He mentioned a really cool initiative where the big miner MintGreen, a 100% renewable Canadian mining company, is trying to partner with local government to heat three community pools in Vancouver. Currently these pools are open and heated roughly three months out of every year, which is all they can afford. With bitcoin miners as the heating source the local government would be able to open and heat these pools year around and profit at the same time. Here the CEO of MintGreen talks briefly about it, but I couldn't find much more than this https://www.thisisvancolour.com/blog/2025/9/26/can-bitcoin-heat-your-community-pool-colin-sullivan-mintgreen

As conversation ebbed and flowed between bitcoin use, politics, religion, I busted out the my Stacker News Zine that I recently purchased (and wrote about here: #1262561) so I could shill our awesome community and also the proof-of-work from @plebpoet. @DuncanCaryPalmer, a long-time professional writer, especially enjoyed it. He said it reminded him of the old days when such zines were more comonplace, and you could find them at any local bookstore on various topics. Then he was reminded that he had brought something of his own to share! A bad ass north county bitcoin meetup business card with a link to a new website promoting the meetup and also local business willing to accept bitcoin!

My favorite part about the new site is the marketplace tab. https://escondidobitcoin.com/bring-it/ There locals are encouraged and able to post their skill sets in exchange for sats! @DuncanCaryPalmer is a true champion for bitcoin and he's putting in the work. If you're around the area be sure check here if you're willing and able to spend your sats.

overall, wonderful meetup. It's so refreshing for me to have conversations with bitcoiners where we can talk and share our different viewpoints of the world under one unifying idea of what money should be. In any bitcoin gathering you'll find plenty of diversity in religion, lifestyle, politics, tech expertise, but everyone agrees that money should be free of debasement, agnostic to those opinions, and unseasonable. It feels really good to just converse with bitcoiners for a change instead of explaining this "radical" idea to the uncaring friends, family, or peers in my life. Which I seldom do these days. Keep you eyes on San Diego, bitcoin adoption is starting to simmer here. I foresee a roaring boil in the future and Duncan is a burning heat source. He is actively taking steps to build the world he wants to see, it's awesome and motivating to see and be a part of.