Kelly attended the annual DAC conference in San Diego this week and I tagged along to keep him company in between working. We had my sweet friend (and card camp regular) Danielle, stay with the kids while we went to California. I left my camera (this happened the LAST time I went to California in February!), so Lindsey listened to my telephone instructions on how to ship the camera to me via my PC FedEx account. Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of half of the trip, but I was happy when my camera was eventually delivered to our hotel room, and snapped some images to remember the remainder of our exciting getaway trip.
On Tuesday night, there was a huge celebration party put on by one of the big companies sponsoring the Design Automation Conference and we took a pedicab to the event, where we had a great time watching a live Saturday Night Fever type of band, and watched a very entertaining American Idol type of event, with employees from some of the other companies. Each company was doing its part to try to wine and dine everyone. The night before, we were invited to a wine tasting party at another club called Candella's by another company. I thought it would be strange, but Kelly reminded me that the wine tasting was just an excuse for the networking. The host was happy to see Kelly and supplied us with Diet Cokes and plenty of mouthwatering hors d'oeuvres. Our friendly Turkish pedicab driver, Ali, looked very well toned from my perspective.
We stayed at the San Diego Marriott Hotel and Marina, which was luxurious and comfortable.
Here is one of the lobby seating areas near the South Tower where we stayed. I wish I had gotten a picture of the lime green chairs on the North Tower side. They were so cool looking.
We stayed in this same hotel a couple of years ago with the kids, so I looked forward to a trip back, knowing how much I would enjoy the accommodations.
This view of the downtown area was taken from our room on the 22nd floor.
This view was taken from the hallway, just outside our door, looking on the other side of the hotel from the previous picture posted.
Kelly popped in to see me when I was dining in one of the restaurants for lunch, after he had just given a presentation during lunch. It was nice that he checked in with me. I headed to the pool shortly afterwards.
This was on our 22nd floor right in front of the elevators. I have a cute picture of the kids while waiting for an elevator from our previous visit here. I will look for the picture and post it later. This is why I posed for a pic here so I could show the same carpet, etc., from our last stay.
I had some time the day I flew home to take our quirky rental car, an HHR, to sightsee a bit, and took my Tom Tom to lead me to the lovely San Diego temple. What a beautiful structure.
After quickly snapping some close-up photos of the temple, I drove to the other side of the interstate to enjoy lunch at California Pizza Kitchen, and thought this angle from the restaurant parking lot with the temple nearby was worth snapping a shot of too.
This was a bit blurry, but I enjoyed seeing the address and entrance and wanted to remember it, even though the address was posted in the main lobby at the Marriott on a plaque that said "churches."
On the way out from my brief drive-by viewing, there were two young teenagers strolling nearby, so I asked one of them to take a shot with me standing in front of the temple.
I had a great view from my seat at the bar at California Pizza Kitchen during the busy lunch hour. My friend, Adele, and I have eaten at one of these in Austin, but I didn't like what I had ordered that well. I gave it a second chance and had an incredible new item on the menu called a Greek Salad that had a thin layer of hummus beneath the lettuce and other toppings. It was superb. A guy named Peter came up and sat by me and ordered a pizza and talked to me about how he had signed up to meet his soul mate on eHarmony.com. He was a crack-up. He told me of a scenic drive I could take, and drew a map for me to the beach.
Well, I found the beach. But I'm positive that this is not the beach that he intended for me to find.
Here's what I hiked down! It was a long way down to the beach, and I enjoyed the workout. But it turned out that this beach was filled with naked men, very tanned, and very proud of themselves. Needless to say, I only stayed down on the beach for a few minutes, then hiked back up. It was some place called Black's Beach or something near Torrey Pines gliding port. It was absolutely beautiful, but I felt very awkward and couldn't wait to get back into my car at the top of the cliff.
Ahh...back to the hotel, where clothing isn't optional. It was a bit too chilly to hang out at the pool every day, but it warmed up to the upper sixties on Wednesday and I lounged out in my swimsuit in a recliner, poolside, for a couple of hours, but was too cold to take the plunge into the water. I was content to just be there, relaxing and soaking in the surroundings. Kelly and I had a fantastic time, and wish we'd stayed longer. We certainly plan to go there again.
On Tuesday night, there was a huge celebration party put on by one of the big companies sponsoring the Design Automation Conference and we took a pedicab to the event, where we had a great time watching a live Saturday Night Fever type of band, and watched a very entertaining American Idol type of event, with employees from some of the other companies. Each company was doing its part to try to wine and dine everyone. The night before, we were invited to a wine tasting party at another club called Candella's by another company. I thought it would be strange, but Kelly reminded me that the wine tasting was just an excuse for the networking. The host was happy to see Kelly and supplied us with Diet Cokes and plenty of mouthwatering hors d'oeuvres. Our friendly Turkish pedicab driver, Ali, looked very well toned from my perspective.
We stayed at the San Diego Marriott Hotel and Marina, which was luxurious and comfortable.
Here is one of the lobby seating areas near the South Tower where we stayed. I wish I had gotten a picture of the lime green chairs on the North Tower side. They were so cool looking.
We stayed in this same hotel a couple of years ago with the kids, so I looked forward to a trip back, knowing how much I would enjoy the accommodations.
This view of the downtown area was taken from our room on the 22nd floor.
This view was taken from the hallway, just outside our door, looking on the other side of the hotel from the previous picture posted.
Kelly popped in to see me when I was dining in one of the restaurants for lunch, after he had just given a presentation during lunch. It was nice that he checked in with me. I headed to the pool shortly afterwards.
This was on our 22nd floor right in front of the elevators. I have a cute picture of the kids while waiting for an elevator from our previous visit here. I will look for the picture and post it later. This is why I posed for a pic here so I could show the same carpet, etc., from our last stay.
I had some time the day I flew home to take our quirky rental car, an HHR, to sightsee a bit, and took my Tom Tom to lead me to the lovely San Diego temple. What a beautiful structure.
After quickly snapping some close-up photos of the temple, I drove to the other side of the interstate to enjoy lunch at California Pizza Kitchen, and thought this angle from the restaurant parking lot with the temple nearby was worth snapping a shot of too.
This was a bit blurry, but I enjoyed seeing the address and entrance and wanted to remember it, even though the address was posted in the main lobby at the Marriott on a plaque that said "churches."
On the way out from my brief drive-by viewing, there were two young teenagers strolling nearby, so I asked one of them to take a shot with me standing in front of the temple.
I had a great view from my seat at the bar at California Pizza Kitchen during the busy lunch hour. My friend, Adele, and I have eaten at one of these in Austin, but I didn't like what I had ordered that well. I gave it a second chance and had an incredible new item on the menu called a Greek Salad that had a thin layer of hummus beneath the lettuce and other toppings. It was superb. A guy named Peter came up and sat by me and ordered a pizza and talked to me about how he had signed up to meet his soul mate on eHarmony.com. He was a crack-up. He told me of a scenic drive I could take, and drew a map for me to the beach.
Well, I found the beach. But I'm positive that this is not the beach that he intended for me to find.
Here's what I hiked down! It was a long way down to the beach, and I enjoyed the workout. But it turned out that this beach was filled with naked men, very tanned, and very proud of themselves. Needless to say, I only stayed down on the beach for a few minutes, then hiked back up. It was some place called Black's Beach or something near Torrey Pines gliding port. It was absolutely beautiful, but I felt very awkward and couldn't wait to get back into my car at the top of the cliff.
Ahh...back to the hotel, where clothing isn't optional. It was a bit too chilly to hang out at the pool every day, but it warmed up to the upper sixties on Wednesday and I lounged out in my swimsuit in a recliner, poolside, for a couple of hours, but was too cold to take the plunge into the water. I was content to just be there, relaxing and soaking in the surroundings. Kelly and I had a fantastic time, and wish we'd stayed longer. We certainly plan to go there again.
Comments
California is so lush and green.
I learned pretty quick which beaches NOT to take my boys to.
Beautiful pictures of the temple. That temple was the first one I ever toured, just before the dedication.
Too bad you were in CA during June gloom, it's so funny that June is one of the colder months in Southern Cal! Sounds like a fab trip without the kids.