Jewel Of The Sea

I’ve been blogging Peppermint’s trip to San Diego after-the-fact.  They left back on Monday.  I wasn’t on the computer much when they were here, plus I thought it was wise to NOT broadcast the fact that they were on a trip away from home.  I don’t blog my own trips until afterwards.  I take lots of photos and notes while on the trips, as to not forget anything.  I think it’s safer this way.

On Saturday 7/21, Todd got up early because he was volunteering at the American Cancer Society’s Bark for Life.  I didn’t go this year because we have guests staying with us.  Here’s the recap from last year’s event, which Todd also volunteered at.  I also got up early on Saturday so that I can run 3 miles before everyone was up.  I ran outside every morning when Peppermint was here.  My Mile-A-Day for July is fully intact and I hope to finish with 50 miles of running.

We had lunch at Rubios.  They liked the fish tacos the last time they were here in 2009, so I thought they’d want to go again.  Look at that, inadvertent Todd Shot!
 

After lunch, we headed up to Legoland and dropped Tom & Nicholas off.  I believe Legoland is the whole reason why Nicholas wanted to come to San Diego this year, LOL.  He deemed it his favorite out of everything we did.  Then Peppermint and I went over to shop at the Carlsbad Premium Outlets.  We covered almost all the stores.  We went to the Adidas store and I got a pair of running capris with pink stripes down the side of the leg, they're cute.  (Wore it the next day for my run.)  I think neon is really in right now.

I also got a pink Clima Lite running shirt.  Peppermint got Tom two shirts.  When we got up there, they told us it was buy 2 items and get the 3rd free, so we had to go back and pick our third item.  I got a running tank top and I ended up loving that more than my two original items I picked, LOL.  Three Adidas clothing for $60 isn’t half bad.  We also were in the Polo Store, Banana Republic, and the Gap the most. 

Playing with scarves at the Polo store.


Stopped in the Coach store and admired all the purses.  Peppermint got caramel hot chocolate at Harry & David as a gift for Todd.  Around 5pm Tom called and said they were ready to be picked up, so we drove down to pick them up. 

Todd was already home from Bark For Life when we got home.  He made a delicious dinner of Pan Seared Chicken (recipe from America’s Test Kitchen that we love). 


I made the Crunchy Asian Broccoli Slaw.


But I think what everyone was most excited about was the homemade Salted Caramel Ice Cream! We made it for the first time last summer and love it so much.  Homemade ice cream is the best!  Before we came home, Todd had already done the stove part of the recipe.  So after dinner, he took the refrigerated concoction out and poured it into the ice cream maker.  I do believe we were all very enthralled, especially Nicholas.


After 20 minutes, we had ice cream!


It was still quite soft, but we all could not wait to get a taste.  Then we packed it away into a glass container and put it into the freezer to get it more frozen.

The ice cream machine might be our best purchase of last year.  Either that or our Canon T2i.  It’s close!  :)


On to Sunday 7/22.  Todd got up early and did his 35 mile bike ride.  I ran a couple of miles.  Then we got ready to leave for La Jolla.  La Jolla (pronounced “la hoya”) is San Diego’s “Jewel By The Sea”.  We went to lunch at Burger Lounge, by Tom’s request.  They liked it last time they were here.  See a theme here?  If they liked it last time, they probably want to go again.  :)


Todd and I shared a salad and a burger.  We tried to share food while they were visiting us, because boy we ate good. 




A rare instance of smiling for the camera.  I think I broke them down after four days, ha ha!


Coincidentally, Tom’s brother Ed flew into SD for a business trip, so he met up with us at Burger Lounge as well.

After lunch, we walked down to La Jolla Cove.  It was cloudy so the view wasn’t quite as spectacular as it normally is.  But it was nice to not have the sun beat down on us.


I’ve never seen this beach so crowded with people before.




Ah, part of the reason for the visit to La Jolla was to see the seals.


We made up a story in which the big dark male one has a bunch of concubine seals and baby seals.  Here he was, shouting at his clan.




Funny how they all lay on the edge of the rock.


Peppermint took a photo of us on the way to the beach.


And finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for.  Nicholas dipping his feet into the Pacific Ocean.


I think it was colder than expected.  But I’ve come to expect cold water after living here for 13 years, LOL.


A forced smile for the camera.  I was like the substitute “mommarazi”, by the way.


Like a real paparazi, Todd climbed onto a rock to take photos of us.




I enjoyed dipping my feet into the water and cold sand.  Look at my flip flop tan, LOL.  I got that just from the few days they visited us.


Sometimes rogue waves would come smashing into the sand, extra high!




And if you weren’t looking, you just might get wetter than you had planned.  :p


We walked over to the “Children’s Pool” but the seals no longer hang out over there after the spring pupping season.  Although last time they were here in July also and there were a ton of seals over there.  Hmm.


Stay tuned for the 2nd half of the day, plus the last day of touring around town with our guests before they left.