Didn't bring any fuel for my stove reasoning that the isobutane fuel canisters would probably be prohibited to ship on an airplane.    Now I discover that in all of downtown San Diego there is no place that sells isobutane fuel canisters so I'm not going to be able to use the stove anyway.    Made myself a replacement stove with an empty cat food can.    I know that sounds strange but it is actually a pretty well recognized way to make a cheap and lightweight alcohol stove.    If you google "super cat stove" you will probably get 10,000 hits.   

The irony is that I decided not to use an alcohol stove for safety reasons:  California doesn't allow open flames to be used in some areas when it gets very dry, which is most of the time.