Ugh for May Gray

This spring our ASCOA conference was held in San Diego, so of course I headed out a few days early to play a little. My friend Amy was also kind enough to fly out for the weekend. As I flew into California and started walking around, my heart just felt at home in the West. Such a comforting, good feeling.

Little did I know that Amy was having flight drama, with a cancelled flight and no more direct flights that night. Luckily, she was able to find a connection in LA. She even met an Australian world traveller on her flight to make up for the hassle. Dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory made us wonder if our server was from Texas or had an alternate lifestyle. After dinner, we encountered some interesting folk walking around the Gaslamp Quarter. Fun part of town.

Saturday started with a yummy breakfast at the Broken Yolk Cafe, followed by a major shopping spree at Horton Plaza. I'm not a big shopper, so I tend to buy a lot all at once instead of a little at a time.

For lunch at California Crepes, I ate the best guacamole and salsa I've had in a long time. Mexican food is not the best in the East. After exhausting our pocketbooks, we returned to the Hard Rock hotel where we stayed and tried to go to the pool to soak up the sun that had peeked out between the clouds. I seriously thought we stepped into MTV Spring Break. There were people everywhere and not an empty chair to lay out on. After standing there awkwardly for a moment, we returned to our room.

That evening I was able to try Pink Berry, which my cousin Jenni always raved about when she lived in Cali. It was rather delicious.

After Amy got a haircut, we took the trolley to Old Town for a little Mexican Food. We got to the stop and got off, but couldn't see Old Town, so we jumped back on the trolley. Unfortunately it was the last stop, so the trolley went back the other way. We had to ride down a stop (which was in a kind of scary area) and back before finally making it there. Old Town is adorable, though, so it was worth it.

The next morning we took the early ferry to Coronado...

...entertained by the little girl pointing out the banana boat. Her friend wouldn't let dad take the size sticker off her pants because it was pink.

Walking off the ferry, we discovered that there had been a race across the bridge to Coronado that morning and the place was crowded with runners. After a healthy breakfast of cupcakes (chocolate cheesecake with chocolate chips) and bagel sandwiches, we set off to walk to the other side of the island.

One nice gentleman set off his car alarm when we stopped to take pictures of flowers. Nice, dude. At least the pics turned out. ;)

We arrived at the Hotel Del Coronado, but unfortunately the gray fog didn't burn off like it had the day before. We walked around the shops and drank some hot cocoa just waiting for some sunshine but it never came.

We decided to sit a while on the beach anyway before heading back. I'm die hard when it comes to tanning. ;) Thanks for coming to play that weekend, Amy!