San Diego

This last week I got to spend a glorious few days in beautiful San Diego with some great friends. It was a fantastic end to the summer before the school year, or new jobs, or reality begins. Wednesday morning Dave picked me up, which was so nice of him... the drive to Courtney's was filled with mildly awkward conversation; you know, that "we're kind of friends, but I'm really friends with your girlfriend, and she's really the only thing we have in common" kind of thing. Only a limited number of awkward silences. We arrived at Court's where I discovered her bag was indeed NOT bigger than mine, hence I won the prize for the Largest and Most Unnecessary Packing Job Ever. It was a great drive to San Diego (save for the time when my ears started itching from the ridiculously loud subs in the back of Dave's Scion), no traffic and great conversation. We stopped at the Rainbows store in San Clemente on our way down and took a picture with the ginormous Rainbow sandal out in front of the store. After purchasing our "Limited Edition" Rainbows, we drove the final leg of the trip to Jason's house in SD. We watched The Life Aquatic (an incredible movie... I'd recommend it to anyone) that afternoon before Dave and Court left for their Radiohead concert. Jason and I drove around SD for a little while... Coronado is beautiful, and I decided I want to live there. Or in the Hotel del Coronado. I'd be fine with either. We had some Little Caesar's for dinner (oh, childhood memories) and watched The Darjeeling Limited (another incredible movie) until Dave and Court got home from the concert. Thursday was our check-off list day: the Buffalo Exchange for some fantastic thrift-store finds, ran our toes through the sand at the beach, a stop at Kansas City BBQ (where the 'sleazy bar scene' from Top Gun was filmed) for some photos, and some drinks at the Shakespeare Pub (which just happens to have one of the best views in all of SD). It was a pretty great day. After we got home we got ready for bed and watched Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. So good. Friday we slept in, lounged around, took some photos with the pirate ship in the backyard, and finally made our way out the door to get some lunch before we dropped Jason off at the airport. On our way back to the freeway we drove through the Gaslamp Quarter District which I discovered was the part of SD I had been looking for the whole time without knowing it: brick buildings, outdoor restaurant seating, and an overall romantic feeling as we drove through the area. I'd love to go back there again. Driving home we stopped at the Ripcurl Outlet so Dave could get a new wetsuit, SONIC for some delicious drinks and snacks, and the Disney Outlet that had some pretty fantastic pirate costumes. As we drove into Simi Valley the sun was setting and it was one of the most beautiful sunsets I've seen in awhile... a plethora of clouds and gorgeous colors just taking over the sky. What an incredible end to a wonderful trip.