San Diego.

It's probably really cliché & annoying to talk about how our trip was perfect & how we're so happy, but guess what? Our trip was perfect. And we're so happy.

(Except I guess that I'm feeling as a big as a house & Baby Boy is probably going to weigh 27 pounds at birth. I think that maneuvering is going to get increasingly & quickly more difficult.)

It felt like we were in San Diego for a month; the kind of totally fulfilling vacation (do we call it a vacation? Mike was technically working every day) where we did everything we wanted to do, took advantage of lots of things around us, came away with fun discoveries & left totally relaxed - if only a bit overfed (this morning we had oatmeal for breakfast) & a little tired (we had a few nights of not quite enough sleep after getting back to our hotel late). It was a perfect last flying trip before life totally changes in 8 weeks. No more airplanes for me. I'm officially grounded as of August 1.

I took a lot of photos on my real camera, & I'll post those soon, but I like these, too! Just quick little snippets of our week, & it doesn't hurt my back to carry my iPhone.

Briefly:

Mike & I were going over everything that we did while driving (in Mike's ridiculous looking rental car) yesterday. We packed in a lot, without anything feeling really packed in at all. On Wednesday, we had one of the greatest lunches ever at Blue Water Fish Market (thank you, Food Network, for amazing recommendations everywhere we travel). We tried to go back. We wanted to go back. It just didn't work out, but it's on our San Diego short list from here on out. My fresh Alaskan Halibut sandwich with avocado made me so happy. It was fish perfection.

(Semi related side note: The man I married would barely eat fish. In fairness, this was likely due to limited exposure growing up. But now, he loves good seafood, & I love that he's seen the light.)

We went to Comic Con, thanks to our producer-friend Jenson (forever-friend of Mike's - whose first name is also Mike - who goes by Jenson by all the boys, but Michael by others - it's very confusing to figure out what I should call him exactly) who gave us professional passes to get in. My name was Hector Arce for the evening. Comic Con! Me?! Kind of an indescribable experience, & I suppose something that I'll really probably only do once in my lifetime. A comic book convention. Lots of comic tattoos (Captain America, anyone?), lots of mustaches, & plenty of middle-aged men who likely had other things to do which would have been a much better use of their time & resources. But so interesting to go & observe. We had diner in the Gas Lamp District afterwards at La Puerta with Jenson & finally went to sleep around 2am EDT. Tired. 

I took advantage of the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale. Twice (in two different locations)!! Mike had meetings, so I had to keep myself occupied, & Nordstrom is the perfect place to do such a thing. Favorite find: Hue jean leggings for $21 that are oh-so-comfortable & cute (they'll be a good post-partum choice I think). On a related note, I explored Fashion Valley Mall, & after trying several maybe for later things on at Anthropologie I got a little freaked out thinking about the uncertainty of the condition of my body in a few months (especially the ever-changing nature of it - from pregnancy, to post-partum, to the demands of breastfeeding). Complicated. C'est la vie.

I walked all the way down Pacific Beach & Mission Beach. If I lived there, I'd most certainly invest in a beach cruiser.

We watched the sunset in La Jolla before having dinner with friends Sarah Jayne & Michael-Mike-Jenson at George's on the Cove. Beautiful!

I got to spend half of a day with friend Missy & her girls. Brunch at Swami's Cafe (yum!) & time on the beach. Loved it. 

We ate a Phil's BBQ (we liked, not loved it), made the mandatory trip to In 'n Out for a quick lunch (I quietly protest their over-use of iceburg lettuce), & had brunch on our last day at The Mission - where I had what was certainly the best French Toast of my life. 

We spent an evening on Coronado Island where we shared gelato (pistachio & chocolate - my favorite combination), wandered on the beach & dreamed about weekend getaways there in the future.

We saw Inception - & then talked about it all the way home.

Did I mention that it was mostly cloudy all week? And cool. We had spots of sun in the afternoons, but I happily wore pants every day, got goosebumps several times & never broke a sweat. It was refreshing & perfect. 

Thanks to Mike's frequent travels, we flew first class back to New York last night. This made me & my big belly so much happier. Frequent bottles of water & lots of wiggle room meant that nothing swelled up like so many people warned, & I even got some sleep. 

When we arrived at 11pm last night, & it was a cool 90˚ (!!), with traffic backed up all the way to EWR. Classic, but we're (mostly, kind of) happy to be home. 

I guess that wasn't very brief.