A Taste of San Diego

Doug has had his nose to the grindstone for I-don't-know-how-long planning/organizing an "all-hands" (team-building/business ed conference) for work. Many long hours. Lots and lots going on. They decided to do it in San Diego, so, lucky me, I got to go to San Diego with him for 36 hours. I just got home. And it was great. Why only 36 hours? Well, I've never left the kids overnight before and it seemed like all I could do and ask of a friend who watched them (I'm sure she would have been willing to take them for a longer amount of time, so it was just me). Anyway. The trip. What a breath of fresh air it was.

We dropped the boys off at Angela's Saturday around 8AM and caught our flight out of the Springs airport. Nice and convenient. It was a direct flight, just 2 hours. The flight was great even though Doug and I didn't get to sit by each other. We both had single seats and he was directly behind me (it was two seats on one side, one seat on the other). I popped in my earplugs, perused my People and Entertainment Weekly magazines, sipped a Coke and enjoyed a mini-sandwich that was provided (shocking! I know).

We landed in San Diego and walked out into the lovely ocean breeze. I said something to Doug about the ocean feeling like home. He responded that the ocean feels like vacation to him. Maybe I need a house on the ocean?? Aaaah. Wouldn't that be the life.

We checked into our ridiculous bilevel suite that Doug got for the week (I guess the company got a couple of these suites as part of the deal for booking the conference with them and his boss told Doug to take one) and were greeted by a tray of chocolate dipped strawberries and a bottle of sparkling cider (we're celebrating our 10th anniversary next weekend and the woman who helped Doug coordinate things at the hotel caught wind of that). There was a living and dining area downstairs and a large bedroom and huge bathroom with a ginormous jetted tub upstairs. I realized some people live in that sort of luxury all the time. Can they possibly appreciate it as much as we did?

We grabbed some divine pad thai at a restaurant across the street from the hotel and headed over to Coronado Island, just 10 minutes over the bay. Cute little island. Some fun shops. Beautiful water, lots of weddings going on. We had dinner at a little pizza joint out on the patio and followed that up with some ice cream that nearly rivaled Maggie Moo's (almost).

Back at the hotel we chilled, read our books and fell asleep, no kidding, by 9PM. Bliss.

We awoke to heinous rap music on the clock radio alarm at 6AM, left by the previous tenant I assume. But I managed to fall back asleep until 8:30 while Doug did some work downstairs. How long has it been since I slept til 8:30? I can't even remember.

We got some breakfast and just sort of puttered around. I'd have to be at the airport by 1:30, so there wasn't a lot of time to really do something. So, what to do? We headed to Trader Joe's! I stocked up on some chicken nuggets for the boys (their insulated bags are awesome) and some much needed cereal bars and candies. Doug commented to me while we were shopping, "This place just makes you happy, doesn't it?" as I pushed my cart through the store with a dreamy, satisified smile. Indeed.

We grabbed some lunch and then off we went to the airport. My flight home was smooth, lovely to have time to myself to read a good book! I got home to the boys in time to put them to bed. They were cute and happy to see me. Happy. They were so well-cared for by Angela. She is such a gem. Bode told me a few times that he missed us while we were gone. We read a few stories, sang a few songs and they both passed out immediately. I'm sure they've been going hard the past two days.

I felt like I was gone longer than a few hours. I'm surprisingly refreshed by this quick trip and hope to use it as the positive momentum I need.