While we don't want to leave sunny San Diego, we know it is time to come home. We are exhausted and missing our doggies (oh, and friends and family too!). We thought about having them FedEx-ed to us, but that just wouldn't work out logically or legally.
Our last few days here have been so fun and relaxing. We hear it's just about 70 degrees, sunny and low humidity year round. When I think about the upcoming Georgia summer, I am envious. So, let's catch up shall we? Let's see, on my last post I told you it was a gloomy cloudy day in San Diego. We drove around for a bit and checked out Coronado Island. It was gorgeous even on a gloomy day. We walked on the (cold) beach for a while and saw the famous Hotel del Coronado in the distance. I hear this island is where the Wizard of Oz was written, with the Hotel being the inspiration for Oz. I can see why, that place looks amazing.
So, after freezing our feet off, we got back in the car and headed to Old Town and grabbed some lunch at the Casa Guadalajara. Another suggestion from the awesome Katie B. Probably the BEST Mexican food I've ever eaten. It's a close tie between that and Los Hermanos back in Tucker. I got a chicken chimichanga and they basically had to roll me outta there. Mmmmm. Sooo good. The best part, though, was the conversation at the table behind me. One of the guys (who was Mexican) was trying to describe every show that's on television to his friends in broken Spanglish. Hilarious!!! Imagine a Cheech and Chong accent saying: "Yeah, you know that show Lie to Me? It's like this guy, and he can tell when you're lyyying." Or, describing Heroes, "I like it when they use their super powers, but other than dat, ees really confusing." My favorite was his take on Lost: "At de first episode, there was dees plane crash, and everybody leeved. I mean, c'mon...eets a Plane crash!!! Dats when I stopped watching". This guys should have his own show.
After lunch we headed back to the hotel. Went and bought Ben a shirt for our photo shoot, then got some tasty tasty Margaritas. The town seemed like a ghost town compared to the night before! Seems spring break was over, or everyone was too hungover to come back out. Here's a few pics from our jaunt around town.
Came back and made an early night of it. And, while on a trip to get ice from a few floors down, I slipped on the marble stairs and totally busted my you-know-what! I have bad luck with stairs lately and after my fall back in January in which I really bruised my tailbone, I instictivley turned slightly and let the cheek take the blunt force:) Ouch. Now it is completely black and blue, but at least I can still walk.
Our early night turned into a late late morning. I think we woke up around noon or so. That hotel bed was so comfy. Wandered down to Richard Walker's pancake house and had an incredible breakfast. Then we headed over to Mission Beach to catch a few rays. First we had to check out the roller coaster at the park there. We were the only one's on it so we got the front row. It was old and a little rickety, but fun nonetheless. Walked down the beach afterwards and watched some surfers trying to catch waves...none were successful. So we wandered back to the boardwalk and stopped into an outdoor bar to watch some more surfers trying to catch fake waves on a wave simulator. Pretty cool. After getting a little sun, we headed back to the hotel to wash up for our "end of the trip" photoshoot!!!
When we were planning this trip, I thought it would be a cool idea to hire a local San Diego photographer to take some portraits of us on the beach. Sort of an anniversary present to ourselves:) I found Kim Seidl online and her work was just awesome. And when we met her, we found out she is just an awesome person as well! She came and picked us up at the hotel (door to door service!) and drove us up to La Jolla (which I embarrassingly found out is pronounced La Hoya). This place is incredible. We caught it right at 6pm, when the sun was setting. Beautiful.
It was really strange being on the other side of the lens, But Kim made us comfortable and I'm sure we got some great pics. I should be receiving those soon!
I'm so sad to be leaving, but we are ready to be home. This was absolutely the trip of a lifetime and we throughly enjoyed every moment. If you are thinking of an adventure to take and have a week or more to do so, I highly recommend doing this. Here's some highlights, recommendations and things we would have done differently.
Where we stayed:
Seattle- Hotel Max (great!)
San Francisco- Parc 55 (good, but watch the extra fees they add on!)
Big Sur- Big Sur Cabins and Campground (quiet and relaxing, not very scenic though)
Ragged Point Lodge (amazing in every way)
LA/Santa Monica: Sheraton (rip off!)
Ocean View Inn (our room had no view, and was a little smelly)
San Diego: Gaslamp Plaza Suites (great location and sooo comfortable)
Our favorites:
Hotel: Hotel Max (I'm a little biased because it's totally a photographer's dream hotel)
Big City: Close tie between Seattle and San Francisco
Area: Big Sur Coast for sure!!! This was our favorite part of the trip hands down.
Restaurant: Casa Guadalajara (Old Town San Diego)
Airline: Our Virgin Atlantic trip from Seattle to SF (US and American were awful)
Things we wish we had known:
-Almost all hotels in big cities have valet only parking. Some are reasonable, some are ridiculous! We paid between $20 and $44 (SF) a night to park our car! It adds up quickly.
-How cold California can be! When you imagine the Pacific Coast, you don't really think it ever gets cold. We packed 3 times as much summer clothes as we did fall clothes. Got a little stinky wearing the same long sleeves and jackets over and over! We didn't even wear our bathing suits once!
-How expensive food would be. When planning out our budget we thought we would have plenty. And we even skipped a few meals and ate at Denny's a few times (which is even way more expensive than back home). We totally went over budget, but it's ok.
Things we might have done differently:
-Booked direct flights!!!! Even though it cost a little more to fly Delta, I would love to have gone back and just bitten the bullet with it. Changing planes is a pain in my bruised butt!!
-While there's really not much else we would have changed, I think we would have taken the 2 days we spent in LA and driven to either Las Vegas or Joshua Tree. Although we would have missed going to my crazy show and missed seeing my old high school buds which was so fun. I think a drive through the desert would have been an awesome photo adventure and a great time. Maybe next trip.
The Best Thing:
The best thing about our trip is how it brought us closer. I think sometimes a relationship needs a little something to give it a boost, and it totally did. It's been 2 years, and a lifetime to go. I'm so happy I get to call my best friend my "husband". :)
Til next time! Auf Wiedersehen!
1 comment:
lookint forward to seeing your photoshoot pics. Welcome home.
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