California Dreaming

The travels of Sara and Anthony continue...

After our trip to Europe we had one weekend of downtime (which we enjoyed doing very little) and then the travels started back up:
- We made a quick weekend trip to Davenport, IA, for a bridal shower (for Sara's cousin's fiancee) and an Engelmann family picnic-brunch...where the food was amazing and seconds or thirds are encouraged.
- We then flew out to San Diego Monday night where Sara attended a work conference and I worked from the hotel room (I worked really remotely last week). We then stayed through the weekend for a little extra vacation time.
- In July we are headed to Michigan to spend some time with my side of the family (Doudts, Brooks, and Zollars). Later in the month we've got several friends visiting Chicago
- In August we are headed to Boston with the Engelmann's for an Oktoberfest party (this will be our second time attending the great Jim and Julie Oktoberfest extravaganza!). From Boston, Sara and I then fly to Iceland for a week. But, we're getting ahead of ourselves...

Southern California - The first thing that stands out to me about San Diego (other than the great food) was the amazing weather. 70 and sunny with no humidity. It's warm in the sunshine and breezy and comfortable in the shade. The other odd weather bit was that every morning started cloudy, by noon or 1pm the skies cleared to a bright sunny day, and then the clouds rolled back in by 6pm. This meant beautiful days but no great sunsets. We were there for 6 days and the weather was the same every day.

Tuesday through Thursday was filled with typical work days for me (although since I was working on Eastern time I was up way too early), while Sara was very busy with the conference and all the prep, setup, managing, and tear-down that comes with it. Sara was thiiiiiis close to meeting Arianna Huffington (of Huffington Post fame) and getting a book signed, but Arianna had to leave for a flight (Sara should be getting a signed book in the mail though). We also had the fortunate coincidence of being in San Diego at the same time as Gina Behrman who was in town for a different conference. So after staying with Gina in Paris a couple weeks back we got to see and hang out with her again in San Diego...crazy!

On Friday we mostly just relaxed by the pool and took naps. A much needed day of nothingness. In the evening, we headed to the Hotel Del Coronado for a walk on the beach and a fantastic dinner at the Sheerwater restaurant - we had great food all week long (seafood, steaks, sushi, and Ghirardelli!).

Saturday we rented a car and drove up the coast to La Jolla (pronounced HOY-ya, although I kept jokingly saying La Holla and ended up confusing myself) and spent some time on the beach. After walking around some of the La Jolla cliffs we drove down to the Mission Bay area to check out some of its beaches.  Finally, as the sun (and now clouds) was beginning to set we headed to Sunset Cliffs, CA, for some beautiful views of the Pacific.

* Special thanks to Allie Hartnett for all the San Diego/Southern California trip ideas.



More photos at my Flickr account.