San Diego
At the end of June I had the opportunity to visit San Diego for the first time with my best friend. We were there for a wedding of an old high school friend of mine, but we got to make it into a quick, fun girls trip.It was so interesting going to dry, city, San Diego after visiting lush, mountainous Seattle not long before. It wasn't what I expected, but it was still pretty, at least downtown where there were more trees! It made me miss Texas and the warmer personalities you usually run into in the south. I definitely almost got hit by a car (WHILE HOLDING MY BABY!!!) twice as a pedestrian. People didn't smile at you when you passed by, and the waiters almost seemed confused when I greeted them with "Good Mornings," or "How are you?". It was a completely different world over there, but I wanted to make the most of my time and be intentional with every West-coaster I came across instead of assuming my impressions of rudeness into everyone I encountered.That change of mind frame made my time much more relaxing and also made me treat it as an opportunity to live missionally, and love those that I crossed paths with with something as simple as a smile if the opportunity allowed.
Food
The day we got to town, we got checked into our cute guesthouse Airbnb and then headed to dinner. We tried a local favorite, Taste of Thai and it did not disappoint.The next day we toured around and took in all the sights. We ate breakfast at our Airbnb and found lunch at another must-try; Hodad's. The burgers were as big as your face and so delicious. I'm not a big red-meat eater, so I can be picky about burgers, and this one was up to standard for sure!
After walking around downtown San Diego some more, we stopped for some ice cream at a Ghirardelli shop.
The next day, we again enjoyed a small breakfast at the guesthouse before we headed off for more sightseeing and food. We visited The Donut Bar and picked up some treats to continue breakfast at the beach in La Jolla. Out of the ones we bought separately and together, I had some of the cake batter, Nutella, blueberry cheesecake and fried Oreo donuts. They tasted amazing! I hope to go back one day and try some more flavors. To go with our delicious donuts we picked up some equally delicious Better Buzz Coffee. (Texas- we need one of these ASAP please).
While in La Jolla we stopped at The Cottage for brunch were I tried a pesto shrimp pasta that was so delicious. Dinner was taken care of that night at the wedding, so we were off the hook!
Our last day we had plenty of leftovers for our breakfast and lunch. To conclude our time, we found the cutest and luckily most delicious little pizza shop on the way to the airport called Pizza e Barre.
Sights
Our tourism started the second day we got to the city. We drove to Balboa park and ride the shuttle to the Japanese Friendship Garden. It smelled so good, I couldn't get enough! We enjoyed walking the entire garden and soaking up the sun.
The next day we went to La Jolla and found an entry to a beach off of a neighborhood. It was a cloudy, cooler, drizzly morning, which was perfect to me. The beach felt cool and the vibe was impeccable. I wish we'd gotten to go again when it was sunnier our but we didn't have the time!
After going to the beach, Josie and I hit up a tattoo shop the cashier at Hodad's told us about. Being the adventurous spirits we are, we figured why not document our adventure with BFF tattoos?!? So we went to Adams Ave Tattoo where we got similarly placed, absolutely adorable floral tattoos.
Our last day, we went to Old Town San Diego and window shopped around the stores there. It reminded me almost exactly of San Antonio, Texas, just minus the River Walk.