The End of My Vacation

My long awaited and anticipated vacation has come to an end. It was fabulous! I really didn't want to come home. There were so many good things about this vacation that I don't really know where to start... One of my favorite things about it was that I spent 6 days straight with Jason. Not just see him every day, but 24 hours per day for 6 days straight. That was really cool. So here's a brief synapsis of the vacation:

Friday
Flew from Grand Rapids to Minneapolis to San Diego.
Picked up rental car. Had several hours to kill before we could check into hotel. Drove to Anthony's restaurant where we enjoyed a couple of pitchers of a local micro-brew. Got to the awesome hotel. Gawked at the view, the pool, the bay, the palm trees. Jason's friend Todd and his friend Jake got to the hotel to freshen up. (They drove from Colorado. They weren't staying with us tho. We got the big ol' king sized bed to ourselves. ;) It was huge.) Went to La Jolla to meet up with the bride and groom. And to meet them, in my case. They were having a dinner for family and friends on the beach. My first view of the ocean was at night. Big awesome sounding waves! Went back to hotel. We were starving so we went out to dinner. Had barbeque at Kansas City Barbeque. It was awesome. Also it's where a scene from Top Gun was filmed. Check it out at http://www.kcbbq.net/ Went back to the hotel. Passed out from being so tired.

Saturday
Got up at, oh, 7am California time - 10am Michigan time. Made some coffee, took showers, waited patiently for stuff around town to open for the day. We had breakfast in Seaport Village. When the shops opened at 10, we went shopping. That was fun! http://www.spvillage.com/ Lots of money later, we went back to the hotel. Swam in the pool for a while and layed in the sun. We met up with Todd and Jake for a late lunch and margaritas at a restaurant in Mission Beach. It was right on the ocean, we sat on the top and overlooked the surfers. :) http://www.canesbarandgrill.com/ After some fabulous mexican and margaritas we headed to the beach. We got a case of beer and hung out on Mission Beach.
http://www.sandiego.gov/lifeguards/beaches/mb.shtml
http://gothere.com/MissionBeach/
After the sun set on the ocean, we headed out to a couple of clubs in Pacific Beach. No photos there though, we left the camera in the car. :) It was lots of fun though! Dinner, drinking, dancing. What more could you ask for?! We had dinner at pacific beach bar & grill. More mexican! They had the BEST guacamole!!!! http://www.pbbarandgrill.com/grill_home.htm
Then dancing at a club, Margarita Rocks. http://www.margaritarocks.com/pb/ If you check out the pictures on the site you can see why the boys liked this club! We finally made it back to the hotel and passed out.

Sunday
We woke up at 8am, REALLY hung over, when the roomservice lady rang the doorbell. (Yes, she rang the doorbell. The door actually had a doorbell in the middle of it!) So she woke us up. Breakfast was yummy. And it only cost like $60. Total bargin. Geez. Around 9:45am I was in the midst of a nice hot shower when Jason knocked on the door. Honey, the wedding is at 11am. We need to leave in 15 minutes. WHAT?! Needless to say, we rushed to get ready. So much for doing my hair and make up. We made it to the wedding. It was beautiful. It was on Mission Bay at a marina. They had sailboats in the background. Really pretty. They served a lunch for everyone since it was so early. It was mexican! Fresh corn tortillas, real fresh guacamole, YUM. We left right after they cut the cake to go back to the hotel. We took a hangover nap. That was fabulous! We stayed at the hotel that night. No partying. Not much drinking. Ordered Pizza Hut from roomservice. The best $20 pepperoni pizza ever! ;) We went to bed pretty early - 11pm California time (2am Michigan).

Monday
Got up around 7:30. Had some coffee. Took showers. Relaxed for a while until it was time to go to the zoo. Went to San Diego Zoo. That was really cool! http://www.sandiegozoo.org/ We spent 4-5 hours wandering around. Took a bus tour, ate lunch, drank some beer while watching monkeys play. I took so many pictures that Jason's battery went dead on his digital camera and had to buy a disposable camera for $13! Finally went back to the hotel. Changed clothes, drank a couple beers. Walked to the restaurant that I was taking Jason out to dinner at. http://www.thefishmarket.com/ It was a seafood place just down the street from our hotel. Jason had swordfish. I had, take a guess... chicken. They had two chicken choices on the menu. About a hundred different seafood choices and two chickens. It was yummy though. We sat at a table on their deck, which was right over the water on the San Diego Bay. No windows, no screens, just a railing and the ocean air. (Which did have a slightly fishy smell to it) That was cool. Much cooler than the crappy decks we have in Michigan that people love to sit on overlooking little dirty lakes. ;) They had an awesome chocolate mousse that I had to have for dessert too. YUM. After dinner we had drinks at the lounge at the top of the Hyatt hotel. http://manchestergrand.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/entertainment/lounges/index.jsp It's on the 40th floor and has windows in every direction so you can see the ocean, the city, and mexico! It actually rained for about 30 seconds when we were there. We saw lightning storms over much of the city too. That was really neat. Went back to the hotel. Went to bed.

Tuesday
Got up at 7:30. Had coffee, took showers. Turned in the rental car. Went to airport. Had a drink to toast goodbye to San Diego, the ocean, and palm trees. Flew to Detroit. Had a 3 hour layover. Had dinner at the Budweiser Bar in the airport. Flew back to Grand Rapids airport. Picked up luggage. Found the truck in the parking lot. Drove home. Started missing the palm trees and the fishy ocean air. Got home - Tigger was estatic! Petted the cat for a while, fed the turtles. Went to bed at 1am Michigan time. Missed the big King sized hotel bed and the fluffy pillows and the down comforter. The end of a busy, but fabulous vacation!