Southern California

The night before our trip started was Valentine's Day.  We had our traditional meal for Valentines of waffles since we are "wafflely wedded" and exchanged cards.  We both mentioned in our cards that we are excited for this upcoming trip but it is a little bittersweet to us as well since it is closing a chapter on our adventures as just the two of us but opening another completely new adventure.  This was a sentiment that we returned to several times through the trip with thoughts like-- this is so much easier without a toddler in tow or wouldn't this be a little more exciting seen through the eyes' of a child.

We opted to fly out of Manhattan on this trip and our flight wasn't until 10:45am so we had some time to finish last minute items around the house before our short drive to the airport.  Let's recount all the ways flying out of Manhattan is wonderful-- free parking, not having to drive 2 hours or get a hotel room, short security lines, if a gate change suddenly happens you just have to run 50 feet to the other gate, shorter boarding times, usually there are a few empty seats and flight attendants take mercy on very tall people who can't stand up on small planes and get them a seat to themselves, and no long lines taxiing waiting for clearance from the tower since that plane is the only plane and therefore top priority.  

We flew into Dallas first and had a 4 hour layover.  Plenty of time to grab some BBQ and sit and read.  I also watched a few fascinating shows on the CNN travel channel while Arthur sat quietly listening to podcasts.  We arrived in San Diego about 5pm.  We hopped on the shuttle bus to the rental car center which wisked us along Harbor Drive with views of palm trees, marinas, and the ocean-- not a bad first impression of San Diego.  We picked up our rental car for the week and headed out on our own to brave the wilds of California freeways.  At this point we will revisit the glories of technology and GPS.  For free, on a device which is almost standard issue these days, are maps that give you verbal directions to drive to almost any address.  There are also hints about how soon your turn is coming or which lane to be in at a given time.  While I am the first person to say that everyone needs to be able to navigate using a map instead of a talking box and refuse to GPS in most situations it is certainly a lifesaver in an unfamiliar city.  It navigated us around congestion during rush hours, pointed us towards the nearest gas station when needed, and even provided some information about the amount of available parking in an area.  Prior to Google Maps would it even be possible to find most AirBNB locations since side streets are not marked on even the best city maps.  Now I even know which house on the block and have a street view photo of it.  

Our activities Saturday evening were all about the prep work for our stay.  Our first, and possibly most random, was to find the closest Macy's store and ask the sales associate for a discounted museum pass.  I thought this was a shot in the dark but the lady was more than happy to help and had the passes on hand.  During February, San Diego has museum month so most of the museums in town are half price admission with the pass that can be picked up at Macy's.  I won't even get into how handy the internet is when researching trip planning but this was a tip that I wouldn't have found otherwise.  For dinner we broke our rule of no chain restaurants and ate at Buffalo Wild Wings since it was in the same mall-- sometimes you just have to take the easy route.  Our final stop was a grocery store to pick up breakfast and sack lunch items to have on hand for the week.  After all of our stops were made we settled in at our AirBNB for the night.  Our place for the week was probably a garage that had been converted into a nice, cozy guest house that was just perfect for us.  The two hour time difference had taken a toll and we headed to bed about 8pm.