post the sixty-fourth, 2013

we planned to go somewhere warm in the wintertime, and yeah, winter is technically over, but it snowed at home while we were away, so there is that. a long-time friend generously gave us buddy passes. in case you aren't familiar with buddy passes, they allow you to fly free anywhere the airline (in this case, southwest) goes. we thought we'd be driving to florida, but suddenly, the possibilities were wide open.

4 of the 6 of us required 2 flights each, for a total of 4 flights, to arrive. the remaining 2 of us (which included the 1 of me), through a collaboration of karma and circumstance, required 6 flights. upon arrival, we were cranky and cankled.

a start like that would make any vacation seem good in comparison, and when you add that we haven't been on vacation in like 16 years, there really wasn't any way we would have a bad time in any location. THEN, add to all THAT that the location we'd selected was san diego -- !!! (never having been there before, we didn't know what to expect, but that place is... well, it's simply wonderful.)

there is so much to do that you could pack many weeks and not do it all. and, i don't mean a handful of fun things and a ton of lame things. i mean, there are tons and tons of really fun things to do. each day, i got up early to run, and each day, we had breakfast at this fantastico little italian coffee shop called pappalecco. for lunches, we ate a ton of ice cream and other nonsense.

first day: nashville to panama city to houston to dallas to austin to phoenix to san diego

second day: visited coronado island beach, drank the best pina coladas EVAH, visited mission beach (part of our party were surfing but we couldn't find them to mock them), had cucumber margarita happy hour by the pool, ate at a rather lame fish place, went to sunset cliffs to watch the sun sink behind a lousy cloudbank (still super because we'd never been there)

third day: walked around balboa park, visited the USS midway, had dinner with the generous friend who made the trip possible (at her house which means she had to cook and clean, so... is that really a thank-you? hmmm.)

fourth day: visited safari park, orfila winery, and the mothership road runner shoe store, and had great mexican dinner in old town

fifth day: took a hornblower harbor tour, strolled around little italy, ate a magnificent supper at a place called spaghetteria, went back to the hotel and got hammered

sixth day: got up early to catch the airport shuttle which left earlier than it was supposed to, caught the next shuttle, got to airport in plenty of time... to wait on our delayed flight. three hours later, got on a plane and came directly back - no stops!

and, on the seventh day - we slept in!