We just got back from California where we spent Valentine’s Day celebrating the wedding of R’s friend, Don Handfield, to his lovely bride, Tressa DiFiglia. We left Dulles on Wednesday, 2/13/08 and didn’t get to San Diego until about 12am West Coast time because our fight was delayed due to the icy conditions. When we got there it was rainy and cold. After a minor snafu with our hotel room, we found some late night fast food and settled in for the night. Thursday, Valentine’s Day was the day of the wedding and it was still rainy and chilly. We were hoping the sun would come out by 6pm in time for the ceremony. The wedding ceremony and reception were beautiful.

Friday we woke up to a beautiful sunny day, took a long walk on the beach, ate fish tacos and margaritas, explored a few towns down 101 and walked around Coronado. We stopped at a Mexican place in Coronado and shared the shrimp ceviche in the photo - yum That evening, we returned to the bride’s family home and hung out with their friends and family.

Since we were booked to fly out of San Diego on the red eye Saturday evening, we woke up, checked out of our hotel, and decided to explore as many beaches as possible before our flight. We had brunch at a cute little place in Encinitas that was packed with locals. I love how in California - you can ask for avocado on almost anything and it is no problem at all! I was also AMAZED at the 60-70 degree weather in San Diego and the large number of people out on the beach in February! As a Washington DC - lifer, it was such a cool thing to see. A few other cool things/places we learned about and explored were: Carlsbad, Encinitas, Solana Beach, Del Mar, Pacific Beach, Mission Beach, Ocean Beach, Coronado, the Ocean Palms Beach Resort, The Vine - Wine Bar & Cafe (our last meal in CA), the Green Flash (we tried but didn’t see it).

Now we’re back in icy snowy NoVa - dreamin’ about California weather.