San Diego-oh-oh!
Backdated May 22, 2015: And away we go! Audrey was picked up this morning by her Papa along with her cousin Evelyn. Audrey was in the best mood from the moment she woke up. She knew fun was around the corner - she'd be spending the weekend with Papa and Gramma with lots of cousin play time too! There was no fussy and no shyness from Audrey. She happily climbed in to Papa's mini-van, excited to watch "Oliver & Company" on the way to her grandparents' house, cheesey snack in hand and cousin sitting right next to her. It was enough to make my heart explode - I love that she can be a mommy's girl but then also be totally independent when we need her to be the most! I have the best daughter. Ever.
After waving good-bye, Jeff & I finished packing and then made our way to.... the Sprint Store. Yeah. My phone was broken. I couldn't retrieve any photos or video off of it. So... time for an upgrade! Woohoo! I got a nice, slick iPhone 6 (whatever that means) with a "free" tablet! I'll take it! So I had fun playing with these two gadgets on the drive down to....
Sunny San Diego! (Actually, it was quite overcast... oh well).
Our first stop was figuring out a place to eat in Del Mar. We ended up at a sushi place just south of Del Mar Heights road since we came in from the east on that new freeway, the 52 I think? The lunch was good.
Next we headed off to Torrey Pines State Park for a little nature hike. I hadn't been back there since I was a kid. Now I'm thinking every time I visit my dad I'm going to want to venture over here - the views are BREATHTAKING!
WOW!
We went for a 6.5 mile walk. I'm still really in to getting my 10,000 steps per day using my FitBit. Plus, Cassie invites me to all kinds of challenges so I need to keep my steps up, even on vacation! (Plus, I just want to get fit and stay fit.)
After our hike, we drove down to our hotel - Paradise Point. It is in Mission Bay and on the way down, we got a bit of downpour. If you look at the picture above, you can see the clouds out in the ocean on the horizon dropping rain. Yeah, we got some of that. Once we got to the hotel, we checked in and looked around. Jeff and I immediately noticed how kid-friendly the whole place was. We kept talking about Audrey liking this or Audrey liking that or this is something we could do with Audrey. Hey, whose vacation was this anyway?! :)
We decided to go to dinner at one of the restaurants at the hotel called Tidal. We got somewhat dressed up (hey, I wore heels so you know I'm being fancy!) and ate outside and saw the sunset - romantic! The water guy recommended the pork cheeks so Jeff went with that recommendation. It sounded funny to me - I got the salmon wellington. The water guy did NOT steer us wrong! The pork cheeks were sooooo good! At that point in the meal, Jeff wanted to tip the water guy instead of our waiter. But then, as we were waiting for our dessert, the waiter came out and told us to come inside quick "it's starting to rain." At first, Jeff and I were like "huh?" but then a second later we felt drops. Good call waiter! You've earned back your tip! So we ate inside and it was cozy.
The next day, we had breakfast at the hotel too. We ate at the Barefoot Bar & Grill and sat outside again. It was just so pleasant - I love the smell of the bay! After breakfast we got ready to rent BIKES! Woohoo! We rented for two hours but were only gone for about an hour and a half. We biked around the bay and almost made it over to Belmont Park before we decided to turn around. It was a glorious day! I loved people watching as I glided past in my little rental beach cruiser. And again, we thought of Audrey. She'd love biking with us and there was even a playground halfway down the path that we could stop at.
After we returned the bikes, we rested for a little bit (Jeff was sore! He's out of shape when it comes to biking...). Then we headed over to Old Town. This is a fun little pocket of San Diego that preserves some of the early history. We walked up Old Town with our eyes set on the hill where Heritage Park stood. For Jeff's birthday last year, we went to Heritage Square in L.A. and in the past we've visited other neighborhoods with old homes (Carroll Avenue is one of my favorites in L.A.), so Heritage Park in San Diego was a must-see for us! We loved these colorful Victorian homes. Jeff liked one called "The Bushyhead" (haha!) but I think we both like the one pictured below. Such fun architecture and colors!
After Heritage Park, we headed back down to Old Town and looked in one of the museums. We found these ol' lads playing a little diddy when we followed a sign advertising real donkeys! I video taped this... for Audrey to see (surprised?).
We followed the path past the cute donkeys... actually, I think it was just one (hm...). Anyway, we saw antique cars, a blacksmith shop, and a lady making soap the old fashioned way. Then we went in to one of the museums and learned about the early cowboys of San Diego. It was actually pretty fascinating. We also found a shop with all kinds of Victorian knick knacks and clothes and books for sale - Jeff's aunts would have loved it in there!
Finally, we found ourselves at Casa de Reyes Mexican restaurant. Both Jeff & I remembered grabbing drinks and chips here with my parents, Jim & Cassie a while back so fond memories beckoned us to return! I remember the ceviche was delicious and I got a three enchilada meal and was tickled to see the girl sitting at the table right next to me order the same thing. Anyway...
After Old Town, we headed back to the hotel for a spell, just to unwind and rest a little. Then, I had my heart set on checking out a bar I had researched in the Gaslamp Quarter of downtown. So off we went again to visit the Analog Bar. I thought it looked so cool online but alas.... it didn't open until 5pm. We had dinner reseravations at Hotel Del Coronado for 6:30 so we didn't have time to do both. I was a little mopey but cheered up when I opened my eyes to take in all the sites of downtown!
I LOVE these old buildings! So much fun! We walked all the way down 5th Avenue and paused at the Tuscany Cafe and Wine bar for a drink. I had a glass of wine and Jeff had some unusual cocktail contraption! As we sat and people watched, it dawned on me that the Rolling Stones would be playing their BIG concert at Petco Park the next day. There were flags on the lightposts advertising the concert and middle aged men wearing Stones shirts pausing to snap pictures. Haha! We saw that several times as we walked and as we sat! We could have turned it into a drinking game - drink every time you see someone in a Stones shirt! We would have finished our drink a lot faster! I also noticed on our way back up 5th after stopping at a San Diego souvenier store to get Audrey a shirt (as in "My parents spent the weekend in San Diego and all I got was this shirt"), we passed by American Eagle Outfitter. Again, I noticed an amazing amount of middle-aged people both entering and exiting this store. Then I saw why ---- all their shirts on display were ROLLING STONES shirts! Great marketing, AEO, great marketing....
We had our SUPER fancy dinner that night at Hotel Del Coronado. Jeff wanted to eat at the same restaurant we had eaten at with my parents for mom's 50th birthday, which they spent at Hotel Del, and at which Jeff had the best lobster bisque. EVER. Alas, that restaurant turned out to be no more, which we realized after we had gotten there. Jeff thought he'd made reservations for the fanciest of the hotel restaurants and thought for sure that had to be the same one we had eaten at with my parents. Nope. Completely different and in a completely different location. Oh well... no big deal!
We had a great meal! I tried baby octopus! With my octopus was this weird looking pepper type thing. I held it up to Jeff and asked "What is this?" because it looked like it could be a stuffed jalapeno (and I was NOT going to eat THAT!). Just as the phrase left my mouth, our waiter popped up as cheery as a cartoon character and said merrily, "That's a caper berry!" ....Oh ok! Thanks...? It was so funny how he popped up and just answered my question! And the caper berry was tasty!
Other good news during the meal was that apparently our meal got delayed in the kitchen so the waiter came out and offered to pay for our glasses of wine we were planning to have with our meal. Sure! We'll take it! Truth: we didn't care nor could we tell that our food was being delayed! It was a lovely meal and a lovely evening with Jeff.
The next day, we slept in a bit and then got breakfast at the same restaurant we ate at the day before because we had hotel credit for breakfasts. After that, we went to the top of this random 60's style tower in the middle of the hotel complex. Unfortunately, there were a bunch of bars and wiring at the top so the view out wasn't that great for photos but still it was cool to climb to the top.
After that excurstion, we sat out on the beach reading. Then we leisurely packed our bags, checked out by 11, and headed back up north to Pomona. We grabbed lunch in downtown Pomona at Pizza, Beer, and Wings (dumb name but good food) and then headed out to Jeff's parents' house to be with family and see Audrey! We celebrated May birthdays and Mother's day with the family and had fun listening to Audrey recount all her adventures with her grandparents, which consisted of a lot of time with Evelyn too. Those two are so cute! I am so thankful they have each other nearby and I am so thankful my parents-in-law are so great at taking care of Audrey.
I guess we'll just have to do this more often. Oh darn. ;-)
After waving good-bye, Jeff & I finished packing and then made our way to.... the Sprint Store. Yeah. My phone was broken. I couldn't retrieve any photos or video off of it. So... time for an upgrade! Woohoo! I got a nice, slick iPhone 6 (whatever that means) with a "free" tablet! I'll take it! So I had fun playing with these two gadgets on the drive down to....
Sunny San Diego! (Actually, it was quite overcast... oh well).
Our first stop was figuring out a place to eat in Del Mar. We ended up at a sushi place just south of Del Mar Heights road since we came in from the east on that new freeway, the 52 I think? The lunch was good.
Next we headed off to Torrey Pines State Park for a little nature hike. I hadn't been back there since I was a kid. Now I'm thinking every time I visit my dad I'm going to want to venture over here - the views are BREATHTAKING!
WOW!
We went for a 6.5 mile walk. I'm still really in to getting my 10,000 steps per day using my FitBit. Plus, Cassie invites me to all kinds of challenges so I need to keep my steps up, even on vacation! (Plus, I just want to get fit and stay fit.)
After our hike, we drove down to our hotel - Paradise Point. It is in Mission Bay and on the way down, we got a bit of downpour. If you look at the picture above, you can see the clouds out in the ocean on the horizon dropping rain. Yeah, we got some of that. Once we got to the hotel, we checked in and looked around. Jeff and I immediately noticed how kid-friendly the whole place was. We kept talking about Audrey liking this or Audrey liking that or this is something we could do with Audrey. Hey, whose vacation was this anyway?! :)
We decided to go to dinner at one of the restaurants at the hotel called Tidal. We got somewhat dressed up (hey, I wore heels so you know I'm being fancy!) and ate outside and saw the sunset - romantic! The water guy recommended the pork cheeks so Jeff went with that recommendation. It sounded funny to me - I got the salmon wellington. The water guy did NOT steer us wrong! The pork cheeks were sooooo good! At that point in the meal, Jeff wanted to tip the water guy instead of our waiter. But then, as we were waiting for our dessert, the waiter came out and told us to come inside quick "it's starting to rain." At first, Jeff and I were like "huh?" but then a second later we felt drops. Good call waiter! You've earned back your tip! So we ate inside and it was cozy.
The next day, we had breakfast at the hotel too. We ate at the Barefoot Bar & Grill and sat outside again. It was just so pleasant - I love the smell of the bay! After breakfast we got ready to rent BIKES! Woohoo! We rented for two hours but were only gone for about an hour and a half. We biked around the bay and almost made it over to Belmont Park before we decided to turn around. It was a glorious day! I loved people watching as I glided past in my little rental beach cruiser. And again, we thought of Audrey. She'd love biking with us and there was even a playground halfway down the path that we could stop at.
After we returned the bikes, we rested for a little bit (Jeff was sore! He's out of shape when it comes to biking...). Then we headed over to Old Town. This is a fun little pocket of San Diego that preserves some of the early history. We walked up Old Town with our eyes set on the hill where Heritage Park stood. For Jeff's birthday last year, we went to Heritage Square in L.A. and in the past we've visited other neighborhoods with old homes (Carroll Avenue is one of my favorites in L.A.), so Heritage Park in San Diego was a must-see for us! We loved these colorful Victorian homes. Jeff liked one called "The Bushyhead" (haha!) but I think we both like the one pictured below. Such fun architecture and colors!
After Heritage Park, we headed back down to Old Town and looked in one of the museums. We found these ol' lads playing a little diddy when we followed a sign advertising real donkeys! I video taped this... for Audrey to see (surprised?).
Click to viewWe followed the path past the cute donkeys... actually, I think it was just one (hm...). Anyway, we saw antique cars, a blacksmith shop, and a lady making soap the old fashioned way. Then we went in to one of the museums and learned about the early cowboys of San Diego. It was actually pretty fascinating. We also found a shop with all kinds of Victorian knick knacks and clothes and books for sale - Jeff's aunts would have loved it in there!
Finally, we found ourselves at Casa de Reyes Mexican restaurant. Both Jeff & I remembered grabbing drinks and chips here with my parents, Jim & Cassie a while back so fond memories beckoned us to return! I remember the ceviche was delicious and I got a three enchilada meal and was tickled to see the girl sitting at the table right next to me order the same thing. Anyway...
After Old Town, we headed back to the hotel for a spell, just to unwind and rest a little. Then, I had my heart set on checking out a bar I had researched in the Gaslamp Quarter of downtown. So off we went again to visit the Analog Bar. I thought it looked so cool online but alas.... it didn't open until 5pm. We had dinner reseravations at Hotel Del Coronado for 6:30 so we didn't have time to do both. I was a little mopey but cheered up when I opened my eyes to take in all the sites of downtown!
I LOVE these old buildings! So much fun! We walked all the way down 5th Avenue and paused at the Tuscany Cafe and Wine bar for a drink. I had a glass of wine and Jeff had some unusual cocktail contraption! As we sat and people watched, it dawned on me that the Rolling Stones would be playing their BIG concert at Petco Park the next day. There were flags on the lightposts advertising the concert and middle aged men wearing Stones shirts pausing to snap pictures. Haha! We saw that several times as we walked and as we sat! We could have turned it into a drinking game - drink every time you see someone in a Stones shirt! We would have finished our drink a lot faster! I also noticed on our way back up 5th after stopping at a San Diego souvenier store to get Audrey a shirt (as in "My parents spent the weekend in San Diego and all I got was this shirt"), we passed by American Eagle Outfitter. Again, I noticed an amazing amount of middle-aged people both entering and exiting this store. Then I saw why ---- all their shirts on display were ROLLING STONES shirts! Great marketing, AEO, great marketing....
We had our SUPER fancy dinner that night at Hotel Del Coronado. Jeff wanted to eat at the same restaurant we had eaten at with my parents for mom's 50th birthday, which they spent at Hotel Del, and at which Jeff had the best lobster bisque. EVER. Alas, that restaurant turned out to be no more, which we realized after we had gotten there. Jeff thought he'd made reservations for the fanciest of the hotel restaurants and thought for sure that had to be the same one we had eaten at with my parents. Nope. Completely different and in a completely different location. Oh well... no big deal!
We had a great meal! I tried baby octopus! With my octopus was this weird looking pepper type thing. I held it up to Jeff and asked "What is this?" because it looked like it could be a stuffed jalapeno (and I was NOT going to eat THAT!). Just as the phrase left my mouth, our waiter popped up as cheery as a cartoon character and said merrily, "That's a caper berry!" ....Oh ok! Thanks...? It was so funny how he popped up and just answered my question! And the caper berry was tasty!
Other good news during the meal was that apparently our meal got delayed in the kitchen so the waiter came out and offered to pay for our glasses of wine we were planning to have with our meal. Sure! We'll take it! Truth: we didn't care nor could we tell that our food was being delayed! It was a lovely meal and a lovely evening with Jeff.
The next day, we slept in a bit and then got breakfast at the same restaurant we ate at the day before because we had hotel credit for breakfasts. After that, we went to the top of this random 60's style tower in the middle of the hotel complex. Unfortunately, there were a bunch of bars and wiring at the top so the view out wasn't that great for photos but still it was cool to climb to the top.
After that excurstion, we sat out on the beach reading. Then we leisurely packed our bags, checked out by 11, and headed back up north to Pomona. We grabbed lunch in downtown Pomona at Pizza, Beer, and Wings (dumb name but good food) and then headed out to Jeff's parents' house to be with family and see Audrey! We celebrated May birthdays and Mother's day with the family and had fun listening to Audrey recount all her adventures with her grandparents, which consisted of a lot of time with Evelyn too. Those two are so cute! I am so thankful they have each other nearby and I am so thankful my parents-in-law are so great at taking care of Audrey.
I guess we'll just have to do this more often. Oh darn. ;-)