Vacation Part 2: San Diego

After five days in Colorado, we boarded another Southwest flight (more kids) and headed for our second favorite place on earth: San Diego!



Besides having gorgeous weather all.the.time, beautiful beaches, and a very fun, laid-back vibe, San Diego is also home to some delicious food and beer. So naturally we're obsessed.



We rented a sweet ride, too.

It was suuuper windy in the backseat (especially on the highway, which is mostly how we got around) so I decided to channel Audrey Hepburn to keep my hair presentable.

Or something.

Anyway, we had three days to cram a lot of fun and food (and beer). We got right down to brass tacks.

I was super excited to offer what I believe is my first actual contribution to vacation plans. Like, ever. Yep, I'm the girl who usually shows up with a suitcase and that's about it. Anyway, Picky Palate posted an Instagram photo of this awesome looking meal at this place called Hash House a go go. We dropped by for breakfast! 

And ate maybe 1/3 of the portions. 

It was totally delicious though, and would be still be a great meal if you want to share plates. Ha. 

We spent one day in Coronado Beach.

I highly recommend it.

In addition to being gorgeous, there was a fantastic little beach town with cute shops and restaurants and such. We had perfect weather, so we strolled around before parking ourselves on the (free) beach to enjoy the sunshine and surf.


We also stopped by the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

We hit up the actual zoo last year, and which was amazing, and I'm not a zoo person. We got Groupons for the safari ride, and it was pretty cool. We all agreed that the full price for the particular ride we did (it was the trolley car thing, with lots of people and a tour guide driver) would have felt like too much, but the discount we got made the price just right for what we got to see and enjoy.

Chad and Liz had a fancy date night planned, so Dan and I dropped them off and went to La Jolla Cove to hang out with my favorite San Diego locals...

Seals! 

Seriously, I could watch these guys for hours. We almost did.

Nearby to La Jolla, we also hit up Torrey Pines very briefly. Apparently the state reserve is really cool, but we only had time for some scenic driving and photo ops.

And this awesome dude. What could be cooler ?! 

One of our last stops was the Gaslamp District, which is apparently a thing. It was another really neat stretch of cool shops and restaurants. I guess it's kinda touristy? But we enjoyed it anyway.

Oh, and anyone wondering--some of our favorite San Diego beer included Lost Abbey/Port Brewing, Alpine Brew Company, Green Flash, and Stone Brewing Company (we visited Stone last year, but didn't go back this year).

Green Flash Tasting Room

Lost Abbey/Port Tasting Room (duh)

Food recommendations must include Hash House, as well as Pizza Port in Ocean Beach, and Spike Africa in downtown San Diego. Yum!

Vacation Part 1: Colorado

As promised! I'm gonna break this up into two parts because a) I have a lot of pictures and it'll be easier to read this way, and b) I didn't really take pictures in Schroon, so while it was beautiful and relaxing and lovely, I don't have a ton to say. So the second part will be San Diego.



After about 40 minutes of utter panic at the lines for baggage check and security, we boarded a nice early flight to Denver. We flew Southwest, and, holy moly! I guess that's what families fly. So many kids.



(And remember, I'm a teacher. I like kids. But holy crap.)



Upon landing, we were bewildered to find flat.flat.flat land. Aren't we in the Rockies?!



Turns out, the Rockies are to the west. To the east? Plains. Bizarro.

Anyways, we did lots of fun things in Colorado. We drove through Rocky Mountain National Park and saw some beautiful mountains.

Traveling Buddy! 

I was nearly accosted by a chipmunk,

Which, as it turns out, was the least exciting of our animal sightings. Throughout the trip we saw hoary marmots, a moose, an elk, and Dan saw a prairie dog. He was thrilled.

Moose!

We also went rock climbing and whitewater rafting (sorry, no photos--we were too busy pretending to be extreme). The rafting was super awesome, we did an intermediate route (Level 3-4, for anyone who knows what that means) but we all agreed that we would have done something more challenging and exciting. Apparently the best rafting is in late May/early June, so I'm scheming to dash out to Denver for some rafting as soon as school lets out.



Or something like that.

We also did one hike in Rocky Mountain National Park. Because we were already struggling with the change in altitude, we decided to tackle a fairly short, easy hike (especially in comparison to last year's Half Dome Hike in Yosemite). We did an in-and-back to Jewel Lake.

The first "lookout." 

A ptarmigan! 

Other Traveling Buddy, pointing the way. 

I mean, seriously.

 Our destination was lovely, but it started raining on us halfway through the hike (we learned that Rocky Mountain weather changes at the drop of the hat) so we were quite chilly. We tried to enjoy the view anyway.

It wasn't hard to enjoy. 

Elk! 

Garden of the Gods, in Colorado Springs, was astonishingly breathtaking. We'd already seen lots of cool rocks, and I wasn't expecting to be wowed, but it was pretty awesome. Just, you know, enormous slabs of rock, sticking straight up into the air.

Oh yeah, and they're red.

Pretty sweet.

Of course, we also did our fair share of brewery hunting and beer tasting. The boys weren't thrilled with the selection (apparently the huge influx of microbreweries in Colorado leads to a lower quality standard?) but I thought it was fun.

Denver also has this really cool little pocket called LoDo (Lower Downtown) that's basically several blocks of shops, restaurants, etc. We found a fantastic Mexican restaurant, where Liz went into spasms about the tacos and I tried mole for the first time. Yum. Times infinity.



After five days in Colorado, we were psyched to head to San Diego for the remaining three!

On Being an "Innie"

Enjoy this little musing while I continue to upload and organize vacation photos! (Also, I need to collect the good pictures from our friends with the real camera. Ha.)



This morning a friend posted this article from the Huffington Post on being an introvert. It was not the first article I've seen--in fact, there seems to be an influx of information about the elusive introvert.



Google "introvert" and you'll see definitions, personality quizzes, and articles like the one linked above. Introverts are becoming "cool."



This strikes me as insane.



On my brief hunt of the interwebs for more about introverts, I came across this, which describes my feelings on the sudden surge of introvert popularity very well.



I'm, without a shadow of a doubt, an introvert. I used to be debilitatingly shy; now I just value my quiet time and need some solitude to recharge my batteries.



Now, here's the thing: I'm outgoing and friendly, I love my friends and spend a lot of time with people. I have no problem speaking in front of a large audience, and I'm totally functional at big social events. Heck, we even host a couple of them each year.



But, introvert as ideal? Perish the thought!



See, as the second article points out, there are plenty of upsides to being an extrovert. My extremely extroverted husband and I balance each other out well, and I can totally see the benefits of his natural tendency toward people.



Where I value deep connections and meaningful conversations, I really struggle to make good, lasting friendships because it's very difficult for me to leap that chasm between introducing-myself-to-a-stranger and actually discussing things that are important to me. Dan? He makes friends at the drop of a hat. That small talk is incredibly useful in forging a path from acquaintance to actual friend.



I have no problem talking about my skill set or job qualifications (in fact, I think I interview pretty well) because it's performance me. But once I've got the job? I really hate asking for letters of recommendation or networking my way to a better job. It's that leap from professional to personal that is really difficult for introverts. That doesn't mean that Dan is a cutthroat guy who takes advantage of people in the workplace; quite the contrary. But he's perfectly capable of networking in a very positive way.



And all that quiet time for meditation and reflection is great...until it's the middle of the school year and I don't have two seconds to put together for quiet me time. Or the converse, where all those deep thoughts and solitude during break spiral me downward until I get lost inside my own head. My extroverted husband can settle in for hours of his favorite TV show and not waste a brain cell worrying about that email he sent last week that wasn't worded quite right (alright, that might be because he's a better writer than I am). He can also take endlessly busy days in stride without stressing at all.



All this to say, I'm comfortable with who I am as an introvert. But, it's certainly not the be-all-end-all, and I think there's something inherently twisted in saying that one personality type is "better" or "cooler" than any other. We need all kinds of people to make the world work.



What do you think? Would you call yourself an "innie" or an "outie"? Sometimes I'm jealous of people who are genuinely refreshed by spending time with others! Parties where I don't know anyone are completely exhausting to me.

Home...at last!

Sorry for the HUGE lapse in posting. As previously mentioned, I had a lovely, long, adventurous vacation. Complete with a totally unplanned family emergency at the end.


(Don't worry, everyone's alive and well.)



But now we're back!



I promise to do a full vacation recap soon, and then we'll return to our regularly scheduled programming (i.e., random life bits with occasional recipes or projects thrown in for good measure. You know it's why you keep coming back!).



For now, enjoy a couple of my favorite shots from my trusty iPhone.

Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes Scenic Drive

Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs

Lost Abbey/Port Brewing Company

Astonished Liz, at Hash House (most ginormous breakfast ever)

Beach Bum, Coronado Beach

Seals!! At La Jolla Cove. Legit obsessed. 

More coming soon! 

Colorado, San Diego, Adirondacks, oh my!

Top four reasons I'm excited for our upcoming vacation (to, you guessed it, all THREE destinations above. What?!):



4. I don't have to make the bed when we sleep in a hotel. Score!



3. We are going to try lots of fun new restaurants and breweries, in addition to making some easy peasy meals in our hotel suite's kitchen.



2. We're traveling with our besties (did I really just use that word?), Chad and Liz. Which automatically means it'll be fun, because we manage to enjoy ourselves pretty much no matter what. (One of our favorite traveling memories was a totally spontaneous night in Rome, where almost nothing went according to plan).

1. We'll get to see the Rocky Mountains. And the Pacific. I mean, seriously.

Source

#1 Reason Why I'm Not Excited About Vacation:



I have to leave my baby Lily behind.

Womp womp.



Don't worry, she'll be in the loving care of Sister, who pretends not to like her but I think actually adores my little rascal.



Tally ho! Where are you vacationing this summer?