I "heart" S D

After many months of being stuck within the borders of Illinois, I was finally able to get away for a long weekend.  The CFO left Thursday morning to attend a conference in San Diego and I flew out Saturday morning to meet her.  

I much prefer to see snow out the window of an airplane than in our yard!

The CFO was presenting research with one of her co-workers on Saturday morning, so I was on my own to do as I please.  The UGA/FL football game was scheduled to start shortly after my arrival, so I hurriedly picked up our rental car, swung through the In-N-Out Burger drive thru for a tasty lunch and high tailed it to the hotel.  I missed the first 8 minutes of the football game, but was able to watch the remainder of the game while enjoying a burger and fries.  I hope there wasn't anyone staying in the adjacent rooms during the game, as I did a little bit of my usual yelling at the TV when my Dawgs tried to give away the game in the third quarter.  Luckily, they were able to hang on for the win!

I wish this company would expand to the midwest, their burgers are so good!  We probably would have never stopped here if a friend of mine hadn't suggested it.  Now we are addicted and look for them when ever we are on the left coast.

On Sunday morning, we got in the rental car and headed north along the Pacific Coast Highway to La Jolla.  We ate a delicious breakfast on the porch of the Brockton Villa Restaurant that overlooks the bay.  This has become one of our favorite spots and we have gone there for breakfast all 3 times that we have been in the area.  The CFO loves their fresh squeezed orange juice and the sweet bread basket and I always order their “Coast Toast” French toast.

The CFO enjoying the views of La Jolla

 

After we ate, we drove to the glider port north of La Jolla, hoping to watch hand gliders jump off the cliff and fly out over the ocean.  I guess that we got there too early, as there wasn't a glider to be seen.  We decided to continue north and ended up stopping in Encinitas to browse some stores and check out the beach.  While on our way to the beach, we found a modern house for sale that we both liked.  However, we were quickly disappointed when I found the listing on my phone… the  price was $2.8 million.  Even with the income from the rentable attached guest house, it would be difficult to come up with the $11,000 per month estimated mortgage.  Ouch!  Not to mention that if I’m going to spend 2.8 million on a house, I would hope that it would be on some acreage, not a postage stamp lot (albeit a postage stamp that was 1 block away from the beach!).

In case you are interested, here is the link with more photos:  House

One of the shop owners that we talked to told us that there was an art festival further north in Carlsbad, so we continued along the PCH until we found the festival.  Even though the festival covered at least 10-15 blocks, we didn’t find anything that caught our eye… it was more of a random stuff that we could live without show than an art show. After that, we headed back towards San Diego, stopping at In-N-Out for lunch (two days in a row for me!) and a few small stores along the way.

Of course I had to take a photo of a miata with a surf board riding shotgun.

 

On Monday morning we ate breakfast on the roof of the hotel before heading west across the bay bridge to Coronado Island.  Unfortunately, the morning started out a little cool and overcast (yet still better than Illinois weather!)

The view from the breakfast terrace on top of our hotel.

We spent the morning on Coronado walking along the beach and sitting on a bench while naval ships sailed in and out of the bay.  It is interesting to see the naval base where my dad was stationed when he was in the navy...  We also roamed around the shops at the Hotel Del Coronado, a place that the CFO would like to stay, but doesn't fit our current budget.  They have some beach front villas with fire pits on patios that overlook the beach and she thinks that would be a nice place to spend a few days… keep dreaming I say!  We spent the rest of the day roaming the island and downtown San Diego.

The CFO all bundled up in front of the Hotel Del Coronado.

We flew back home at noon on Tuesday, arriving home around 8pm… leaving just enough time to go to Moe’s for “Two Taco Tuesday” before they closed for the night.  Then it was back to work on Wednesday… it was a quick trip, but well worth it. 

While we were out roaming the stores in San Diego, I kept seeing this shirt: 

 

 

After seeing it a few times, I pointed to it and told the CFO that she needed this shirt.  She looked at me funny for a second and then it clicked... while the SD implied San Diego, my initials just happen to be S.D. too...  Sadly, she still didn't buy one...