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

Nana visit and the Superbowl

We were so excited to kick off February with a quick visit from Nana, who we miss so much! She flew in on Thursday night and Valerie and I went to pick her up (and give Daddy a night to himself) and then to Pacific Catch for dinner, just us girls. It was a pretty late dinner for Valerie, I think we got there at 8 or 8:15. She was starving, and our server kindly brought us some goldfish and edamame to snack on while we waited for our food. Valerie scarfed the goldfish and a few edamame and asked for more, but we managed to hold her off.

Fish sticks are one of her favorite dinners at home, so we ordered the kids' fish 'n chips for her. Naturally, she wanted nothing to do with the fried fish. She went straight for the steamed broccoli and gobbled most of it up. What kid bypasses fried fish and sweet potato fries (both of which she loves) and goes straight for steamed broccoli??? Sometimes I wonder how she is my child. But hey, no complaints from me!! I can never predict what she will eat on any given day. There's no end to the surprises.

We had a delicious salmon sandwich, ahi tuna poke and coconut shrimp, and then the macadamia nut brownie with coconut ice cream for dessert. And vanilla ice cream for Valerie, of course. She was soooo happy to have Nana here to see her!

Friday morning Nana took Valerie to Target and Kohl's for new shoes while I squeezed in a workout, and then we took her to school for her nap so Mom and I could get lunch at Oren's Hummus. We lucked out again with a beautiful sunny afternoon to sit outside and roll around in hummus and pitas, and it was so nice to have time to catch up just the two of us.

Nana very generously offered to stay home with Valerie that night so Rich and I could go out to dinner just the two of us. We considered this our date night for Valentine's Day since we were going to be in Tahoe with a group on the actual day. We went to Scratch in Mountain View for cocktails and dinner and it was wonderful. The truffle mushroom pizza lived up to the hype, and I had a hard time choosing what to order from all the lovely vegetarian options. I ended up going with brussels sprouts and a salad and Rich had the lobster pot pie. The truffle pizza and cocktails, and of course the company, were the highlights in the end. I shouldn't have ordered the brussels sprouts; let me not forget that this is not Boca. I have to learn to stop trying to get brussels sprouts other places.

Saturday morning we made delicious lemon curd pancakes with raspberry syrup and mimosas for breakfast, and then we all ventured out to Half Moon Bay and Pescadero for the day. We stopped at Lemos Farm for Valerie to take a pony ride, and then for lunch at Romesco Bistro & Tapas, where we ate some of the most beautifully presented tapas I have ever seen. The shrimp came lit on fire and every plate was an absolutely dazzling display of color.

lemon curd pancakes with raspberry syrup and mimosas... mmmm!

riding the pony at Lemos Farm

crab stuffed avocado at Romesco Bistro

crab stuffed piquillo peppers

Pescadero State Beach

pretty but so cold!

we found a little wood hideout on the beach

 Then we made our way to Pescadero Beach. It was quite chilly in the wind. The sun was shining down and felt nice further inland, but in the cold wind coming off the water I could barely stand the chill. We hung out on the beach as long as we could stand it and then headed back up to Half Moon Bay for dinner on the patio at Half Moon Bay Brewing Co. We were so looking forward to enjoying their outdoor patio under heat lamps! Unfortunately, they had recently nailed all the heat lamps down so people would stop hoarding them around one table, and since we could only sit close to one heat lamp, only one or two of us would be warm. We had to move inside. On the bright side, they sat us next to the fish tank so Valerie got to watch the clownfish swim around while we waited for dinner, and dinner was delicious.

We had such a great visit with Nana and took her back to the airport the next morning.

That day was the Superbowl live from Santa Clara, just a few minutes away. We drove north, away from Santa Clara and up to San Francisco to watch the Broncos defeat the Panthers with biodesign friends. Alesandro and Christina hosted at their sweet pad in the Mission, streamed the game on their projector and grilled burgers and hot dogs, and also demonstrated their voice-controlled Alexa device for us, which was entertaining. Justin and Aly brought Doritos, and I made guacamole and made the earth-shaking discovery that Doritos and guacamole are amazing together. We had a lot of fun watching the game, the commercials and the halftime show, which I especially loved as a Coldplay fan. The night was perfectly topped off with Bi-rite ice cream. A great end to a great weekend!