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San Diego, California

Last weekend I went on the ultimate Girl Vacation; Andrea &  I went to the beach.  And then we went to the beach some more, and again, and one more time just to be safe.  People, it was heaven!

San Diego is touted as one of the most desirable places to live, and while I’ve been there several times this was by far the most relaxing trip and just what my proverbial doctor ordered–good, old fashioned Beach Time.  And Mexican food.  And then more beach.

Andrea & I found some fantastically cannot-pass-it-up tickets ($140 round trip, over a 3-day weekend).  A million thanks to Chris and Dianne for letting us stay in their beautiful home and commandeer their car for the weekend.  They absolutely made this trip happen, thank you so much guys!!  It should also be noted, that while we did not plan this trip to crash Holly & Sean’s wedding, it was discussed several times.  And we only half-jokingly talked about whether or not we could determine the site based on her very discreetly kept blog posts.  And if the fates had aligned and we had determined said location, I cannot guarantee that the beach would have been forgotten and dresses donned for the occasion.  Just sayin’.

La Jolla, California

Andrea and I spent two days lounging on La Jolla beach.  The water was warm, the sun was perfect (not too hot, not too bright, delightfully warm) and the only real problem was that the beach was packed.  Granted, it’s La Jolla Beach on a holiday weekend, so that was to be expected.  I was perfectly content reading my book and listening to the waves.

We also stopped at La Jolla Cove to check out the cliffs, which are fabulous.  I’d love to go scuba diving down there, go exploring all the caves and coves and everything.

Spending all day at the beach makes one hungry!  You know how that old saying goes, “When in San Diego, eat Mexican food!”  If that’s the case, Andrea and I were excellent San Diegans!  Burritos and tacos and spicy shrimp cocktail–mmmm, it was absolutely delectable!

Coronado Island, California

It seems that I am constantly adding new favorite places to my list of favorite places.  First it was Salt Flats, then the Hidden Canyon of Secrets…one would think I’d added enough favorites for one month! Well, dear Internet, there is another added to that list.  Coronado Island is just off the coast of San Diego and has this incredible small-town feel with absolutely gorgeous beaches.  Also, you may recognize this.

Hotel del Coronado dominates the western beach and is an absolutely stunning building.  Andrea & I decided to rent beach cruiser bicycles from the hotel and cruise around the island.  This is by far the best decision we made the entire trip.  For $12 dollars we saw quite a bit of the island; the beautiful homes, a dozen churches and more small-town diners and deli’s than I can count.

We biked down to the Coronado Boathouse and Marina and admired all the boats, we drove past a gorgeous golf course, past the naval base and through so many side streets I have lost track of our route completely.

Andrea & I spent the rest of the day lounging on the beach, reading, playing in the ocean, more lounging, more reading, more ocean, and repeat.  It was delightful.  We ate lunch at a fantastic little 50′s diner called Clayton’s which served the best BLT and Oreo Shake I’ve ever had.

Now, lest you think that this entire trip was all beachy fun and giggles…I did end up with a bit of serious discomfort.  I didn’t get sunburned at all, thank heaven’s, but what I did get is even worse.

Sand flea bites.

That’s right, you heard me, sand. flea. bites.  Sand fleas aren’t actually fleas, they are like evil mosquito’s from hell who live on beached seaweed.  They were all over the tide-line on Coronado, and while we hung out considerably farther inland, I did skip walk through their nests several times on my way from my beach towel to the ocean.  Those suckers are viscious!  It’s not like I stood there for 30 minutes to give them ample time to gnaw on my feet, I just picked my way around the piles of seaweed.  On Tuesday morning I had red rashes all over both of my feet that itched like crazy.  At first I thought it was just a sunburn, so I smothered my feet in aloe vera and tried not to scratch.  I failed.  I didn’t think scratching a sunburn was a bad thing–too bad it wasn’t a burn.  By Wednesday I had nasty white bumps and red rashes and was in quite a bit of pain.  I started Googling what could have possibly happened and came up with sand fleas.  A quick consultation with Dr. Google had me terrified I was going to catch malaria and die.  It was horrible.  Thankfully, after a day or two they went away, but ugh.  Sand flea bites…gross!

Ok, now that the sand flea infestation description is over, shall we return to the beach?  Okay.

Ahhhh, that’s more like it.  I will be returning to San Diego as often as I possibly can–the beach time is just too good to let lapse.  Who wants to come with me?

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