Where's the Beach?

In light of my recent trip to San Diego ( Part 1  and  Part 2 ) I thought it'd be fun to do a Lesson's Learned kind of run down for Fun Facts Friday . Sunset at Mission Beach I think every time I travel I learn something new, better ways to make, or things to not pack. How to take fewer pairs of shoes, pack lighter, more efficient. Then there are things I totally forget that I had previously learned. Cold water should be a given - when you don't have a room fridge, you suddenly realize how much you miss something so simple.  Flip flops are comfortable, but not when you're hiking the San Diego Zoo, Mission Beach, the Gaslamp District, or any other entire city area for that matter.  Sticking with the same color scheme is a big win. Fewer shoes, fewer accessories. Win win. Cardigans of varying weights are a girl's best friend when traveling.  Pack extra chapstick, always pack extra. Zip loc baggies are great to have on hand. Oat...

Saturday morning was originally supposed to have included a run at Mission Beach. Instead, we chose to take the morning slower then got in a 4 mile run on the same path near the hotel we ran Wednesday. Honestly, 4 was all I had the heart for. Definitely felt very fatigued. We ended up going to the San Diego Zoo before going to Mission Beach. It worked out perfectly really. Kristin from Stuftmama and I had been planning to meet up somehow, some way on Saturday. And it ended up that the Zoo worked out great. It was fun for her cute cute cute twin boys and it we had plenty of time to visit.  Jason and I got there about an hour before we were supposed to meet up with Kristin, so we took the opportunity to take a walk around Balboa Park, or part of it anyway. It's such a beautiful area with so much to see.      We met up with Kristin and her boys and headed into the Zoo. They needed to take a potty break, so we decided to just meet up at the Panda exh...

As I mentioned, Tuesday morning we flew out really early (6:30 am) to head to San Diego for the Social Fresh West conference. It was my first California trip and first social media conference. The flights were mostly uneventful other than the first leg having an obnoxiously annoying couple behind us who bickered, complained, argued the entire time. Thank goodness it was the short leg of the trip! The 2-hour time difference meant that we landed in CA at only 10:30 am, that gave us a good deal of time to check out the city on our first day. After checking into the hotel (Doubletree Mission Valley was awesome by the way), we got on the cleanest train I've ever been on and headed to the Gaslamp District. We wandered around until the hunger overtook us. We stopped at Barelymash , a place I had found searching around online. They had veggie friendly fair, cold beer, and an outdoor patio. That's all we needed.  We got their Pretzels n' Dip platter with amazing bread made ...