We arrived Friday morning and stopped at this cute spot called Pizza e Birra for lunch, where we were the only customers. The owner was super friendly and put PBS kids on the TV for Valerie and chatted with us about San Diego. Then we dropped Rich at the conference and drove to the beach to hang out for an hour or two until we could check into the condo we were sharing with three other fellows on Mission Beach. Valerie snoozed in the car while I made a paranoid super-fast dash to one of the public beach bathrooms since I didn't want to wake her and haul her into the stall with me. Some sketchy-looking dude hanging out in his car in the parking lot had me freaked out, but fortunately no one kidnapped her during my quick pee run.
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| Balboa Park |
We had a whole afternoon to kill so then we headed over to Balboa Park, which was even prettier than I remembered it. We were last there in June of 2011 for some friends' wedding and the weather was a bit chilly and overcast. This time the sun was shining and all the landscaping and architecture in the park really sparkled in the light. We got to take the tram from the parking lot through the park which was a perfect adventure for Valerie. I hauled the stroller on and off the tram and around the park... in hindsight I totally did not need it. Valerie walked all around just fine.
We had a lovely afternoon at Balboa Park smelling the flowers, playing with palm fronds and splashing in fountains and then we headed back downtown to pick up Rich from the conference and go home to the condo. We walked down to the boardwalk with Elise and Alesandro and watched an absolutely stunning sunset over Mission Beach and grabbed some dinner at the patio at Draft right on the boardwalk. We all then called it an early night since it had been a long day with an early morning.
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| Mission Beach sunset Friday night |
Saturday they went back to the conference and Valerie and I found breakfast at Mission Beach Coffee Break - an avocado egg white bagel for me, and an acai bowl also for me because I got her to eat maybe 3 bites of it. Oh the joys of traveling with a 3-year-old.
We had a leisurely morning and went down to the beach in the afternoon, where we found a mom and an 11-year-old girl building a sandcastle, mostly alone on the vast stretch of sand. Valerie walked right up next to them and sat down to watch, without saying a word. The mom was friendly and welcomed us to join them though the 11-year-old did not look particularly thrilled.
We rejoined the group at the condo to freshen up and take in an even more brilliant sunset and then picked up some carryout from Sara's Mexican Food for dinner.
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| Saturday night |
Sunday, Mother's Day, the fellows all skipped the conference and we packed lunches and went to the San Diego Zoo. We planned to meet up with the other three, who arrived maybe 20 minutes after us, at the zoo, but then only crossed paths with them once headed opposite directions and never saw them again in spite of trying to coordinate our days. That was an epic fail, and they ended up buying lunch at the zoo since we had all the lunches with us. Oh well.
We had a fantastic day at the zoo just the three of us, got to ride the skyfari and the kangaroo bus, saw a show, the pandas, giraffes, elephants, flamingos, koalas, gorillas, polar bear, bonobos, hippo and I can't remember what else! That zoo is absolutely enormous. We were worn out from walking by the end and ready to sit down.
Rich's dad also happened to be in town for the conference and after the zoo we picked him up to join us for dinner. Jonathan had a friend with a boat in Carlsbad who invited us all to join him on the boat and for dinner so then we all drove up to Carlsbad for another pretty sunset on the water and dinner and cocktails at the Compass. We had a lot of fun meeting those new friends and riding on their boat and Valerie amazingly managed to last the whole long day in a pretty good mood.
Monday was the last day of the conference. We checked out of the condo, got the most outstanding brunch with delicious mimosas (and nutella chocolate milk!!) at crushed, then dropped Rich downtown and Valerie and I drove across the bridge to spend the afternoon on Coronado Island. We went to the park, walked along the bike path around the island, did some shopping and got ice cream. It was another gorgeous sunny day and we really enjoyed each other's company (especially after I bought her strawberry ice cream with sprinkles). I forgot to put sunblock on my shoulders and did get a bit fried.
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| view of San Diego from Coronado |
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| beautiful purple jacaranda trees blooming all over |
After we picked up Rich we stopped at another little park with a splash pad to burn some energy before our evening flight home. It really was the most idyllic day until we arrived to return the rental car and the employee pointed out some chipped paint on the front bumper which we are still sorting out five months later. (Long story short: Do Not rent from Thrifty/Dollar if you can avoid it!!! Total sketchy scam shenanigans on their part!!)
It was a wonderful weekend trip to one of my favorite California destinations. I just love that beautiful city!
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