Mother's Day weekend in San Diego

Rich and some of the biodesign fellows attended a urology conference in San Diego over Mother's Day weekend, so of course I thought it would be a great opportunity for Valerie and I to tag along and see the sights in San Diego. I am so glad we did!  It was a beautiful weekend in one of the prettiest cities there is.

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.

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.

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.

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.

view of San Diego from Coronado

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!

April visits from Opa and Tutu and Nana and Papa

The highlights in April were my birthday and visits from Opa and Tutu AND Nana and Papa, as well as the constant rain finally coming to an end.

Our awesome friends Elise, Veronique and Justin watched Valerie on my birthday so Rich and I could go out for a nice birthday dinner at Lure + Till in downtown Palo Alto. It was a wonderful delicious meal with excellent cocktails and perfect cool weather on the patio (under a heater). Very memorable.

a delicious chickpea appetizer at Lure + Till

dinner at Lure + Till

I also got to enjoy a fabulous birthday brunch with Elise and (the other) Liz at Local Union 271, my favorite brunch spot with the famous mimosa tree (six different 4 oz mimosas). Who could ask for anything more? It was a special treat to have dry, sunny and beautiful weather on my birthday, since it always rains in Cincinnati.

brunch at Local Union

The next weekend Opa and Tutu came to visit, and unfortunately the rain made its last, final appearance during (pretty much all of) their visit. Fortunately we did not let that get us down, and we still had a wonderful time. We spent time just hanging out at home and I made an admittedly outstanding garlic parmesan halibut with roasted asparagus for dinner. Their last day we had brunch at Bumble and drove up to Half Moon Bay and had a lovely wine tasting at Barterra Winery.  It was great fun as always and too short.

The weekend after that, Nana and Papa came to visit. They picked the perfect weekend to visit, with the spring sun finally coming out for good and gorgeous weather. We went for a picnic at Foothills with Oren's Hummus, and of course went to Stanford Shopping Center to spoil Valerie. She got a cupcake at Sprinkles, new shoes and bathing suits and a kitty in a purse, and was a rotten mess by the end of the day. It was of course wonderful as always to see them and too short.

Valerie also got her first haircut in April, at the age of 3 (whoops...) and she loved her swim lessons at the "frog slide pool" at the JCC. We were all happy to finally see spring and the return of sunshine!

California poppies, the state flower

Half Moon Bay

flowers in our garden

Labor Day weekend adventure Part 2 - Sonoma and Novato

We made it back to our hotel in Novato after our hike at Muir Beach and Valerie crashed hard. She didn't even walk most of the hike but it still wore her out! Rich and I ordered some late evening room service before they closed at 10 and enjoyed it on our little hotel balcony before we crashed too.

We had a lovely breakfast by the hotel pool on Sunday morning and then headed to Sonoma, about 20 miles away. Our first stop was at Train Town, which was Valerie's dream destination. We rode the train through the park, and it stopped halfway through at a little miniature town with goats and alpacas for the kids to feed and some little buildings to walk through. By noon it was hot, hot, hot and getting hotter in the sun. The train tracks went mostly through the shade, though, so the ride was still pleasant. Valerie loved that train.  It was probably the best train ride she's been on, and she has been on a few train rides in her day! The Cincinnati Zoo, Hogle Zoo, Danny the Dragon at Happy Hollow, EnterTrainment Junction, and Lemos Farm all come to mind, but this was such a nice ride, with waterfalls, tunnels, the stop halfway through, pretty scenery and lots of shade. And a real steam engine at the front with the conductor blowing the whistle!

Train Town!

She also got to ride the carousel, the flying airplanes and the ferris wheel, which was fun for all three of us. We were the only ones on it for a bit and we got to go zooming around several times at top speed. I can't remember the last time I rode a ferris wheel! I'm glad we got to ride it after we missed out on the one at the St. Cecilia Festival in Cincinnati because of thunderstorms.

she never figured out how to make her plane "take off" but still enjoyed the airplane ride

Once we had used up our ride tickets we headed over to Hopmonk Tavern a mile down the road for a free live show and lunch in their beer garden. It was so nice in the shady beer garden, although it did still get quite roasty in the 90ish degree heat by the end. We enjoyed their delicious beers and huge lunches of beet salad and sweet potato fries (me), a chicken naan sandwich and fries (Rich) and chicken fingers for Valerie. The live musician played Old MacDonald along with other chill songs so Valerie and I had to get up and dance a bit after we stuffed ourselves, and then we waddled to the car to make the 20-mile drive back to the hotel for a nap.

Valerie crashed from about 5-8 pm so we found what appeared to be the only place open late in Novato on Sunday nights for dinner, Moylan's Brewery. We had a flight of seven different beers and were impressed by how good they were.

Basically, we drove to Sonoma, one of the best wine regions in the world, to drink lots of beer.

They had crayons for Valerie to color so she was pretty well behaved for her late night dinner out at a brewery. 

so cute all wrapped up in her towel

That was the end of our Sunday, and Monday we got up for the hotel breakfast and then a quick dip in the pool and hot tub before we headed back south over the Golden Gate. We were relieved to find much less traffic on the way back, and decided to stop at Nick's Crispy Tacos in downtown SF for end-of-vacation lunch, or, brunch, because they had bottomless mimosas. Score!!!!!! The best thing in life for only $15!

I loved this place.  It had a really cool vibe with red walls and chandeliers all around the bar, extremely delicious mexican food (my huevos rancheros were the bomb), and most importantly, fantastic, ice cold refreshing mimosas to complete my vacation happiness. Rich had a horchata because he is a responsible dad and driver and I adore him oh so much. :)
We ordered a bean and cheese burrito for Valerie which she refused to touch, and then it was time to go back to reality, to unpacking, cleaning up the house, applying for jobs and catching up on laundry (for me) and biodesigning and weighing all his food (Rich).

All in all, a great family vacation success! I can't wait for our next weekend adventure here in pricey but beautiful California.