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Tuesday, October 10, 2006
West Coast Delay.
Jason and I (along with my parents, who are still there) spent the this past weekend plus a few days visiting my brother and his wife in California.Robert has been living on base at Camp Pendleton on and off for the past several years, but this was my first trip to the west coast and I was pretty enamored with it. I loved that I could see mountains in one direction and the ocean in the other. It was beautiful, even though it was a little weird to see mountains (or hills or whatever they call them out there) that weren't green and covered in forest. I also loved that the freeway seemed to run right along the ocean forever. I totally get why he bought a Jeep when he first moved out there.
We ate, a lot. The highlight, besides the baked ziti dinner that mom fixed on Saturday night, was sushi from Hanna, Robert and Ashley's favorite sushi bar. We drove around the base, which is ginormous, and bowled a game at the alley they have there. We met some of my brother's friends, and their adorable kids. Irvine Improv to see stand up. We saw San Clemente and Del Mar and San Onofre, and I'm still not clear whether they're actually different towns, or just little neighborhoods in one big town. Either way, it was all very pretty, and laid back, and quaint. We visited San Diego, too, but I was a little less impressed with the actual city. I suspect its because I chose the wrong area to visit, at the wrong time of day.
Robert took me to the Rainbow Sandals store, which appears to be where flip flops are born. I have to say that there's something a little spectacular about a store full of nothing but flip flops. He bought me the sandals he's been promising (and I've been nagging about) for years, and they were totally worth waiting for. I've been wearing them nonstop ever since.
Ashley took us to the beach at San Onofre, where we watched people surfing in October, and a couple of guys surf fishing. There were picnic pavilions with fire pits all along the beach, and I was terribly jealous that they had a place like that within almost walking distance.
On Sunday, we went to Bernardo Winery, an old winery outside of San Diego. It was very rustic and cute, and had a little shopping village along with the tasting room and picnic pavilion. Mom, Jason, Ashley and I all tasted wine while Robert and Dad wandered. It tickled Jason and me that Mom and Ashley actually had fun tasting the wine. Ashley fell in love with their Moscato, and I was pretty taken with one of their estate grown reds. We brought home a bottle of their Cab and a bottle of their Gewurztraminer, but the highlight of the trip was getting to taste their 1952 unfiltered Port. Holy. cow. I have never considered spending $75 on a bottle of wine before, but I gave it actual, serious thought and am still regretting not bringing it back a little bit. Of course, like Jason pointed out: If we had it, we'd never open it, which is probably true.
It was really nice getting to see the whole family at once, and getting to see where Robert and Ashley have been living. I'm pretty jealous of their house, and that they get to live someplace so pretty.
My boss and her husband were in San Diego at the same time, for a business conference that Larry was attending. They were staying at the Hotel del Coronado, so we stopped by to crash the conference's opening party on Sunday night before we caught our flight home. The hotel was amazing and definitely worth visiting.
The red eye home was unremarkable, except to say that sleeping on a plane is pretty awful. I did manage to get hung up at security. I had tucked a bottle of medicine in my backpack without even thinking about it, and had been carrying it around with me all day, hidden in a side pocket. They asked me at the security entrance if I had an liquid that I needed to get rid of, and I said no, sure that I didn't. The x-ray machine said otherwise, and I wound up having to sit in the Bad Person Chair while they poked through my bag to find the offending substance.
We made it home Monday morning in time to sleep till noon and lounge around in our pajamas all day. I think I'm still partly in vacation mode, and not at all happy about being back at work, and in a flat, oceanless city.
Posted at 12:58 PM ::