san diego
if you follow me on social media, you already know i spent last weekend in san diego with my mom and sister in law. my mom had been planning to take elizabeth on a trip for a little while because she does so much for my brother and if ANYONE needs a fun vacay, its elizabeth. mom asked if i wanted to come and i told her it probably wasn't the best time for me... then three days before they were about to leave the FOMO set in and i couldn't fathom missing out on a city i had never been to. i decided to go on tuesday and we left for san diego on friday.
the older i get, the more i get to know myself. i've realized that i really enjoy trips more than i enjoy stuff. i couldn't tell you what i got for christmas three years ago, but i'll never forget our trip to new york this year that we got instead of gifts. don't get me wrong, gifts have always been very high on my love languages....BUT quality time is #1 (if you don't know about love languages, you can learn more here. take a quiz and find out what yours is!) and if cancer teaches you anything, it teaches you whats important...
i have the literal greatest husband in the world and he told me to take the trip. so we left at the crack of dawn on friday and thanks to the GLORIOUS time change, we landed in cali at 10am. we grabbed our rental car and headed to lunch. being the typical green personality i am, i had outlined each day's activities because i was with two blues and i knew that shit was NOT going to get done with them (if you are wondering what on earth i am talking about, the color personality quiz is here ... it will change your life..ps. can you tell I'm a psych major?) we started with lunch at coasterra and the food and view was amazzzzzzzing plus it was close to the airport!
after lunch we got all checked in at the pendry ...we spent at least an hour just walking around it and taking pics. IT. IS. TO. DIE. FOR. but really the only thing you need to know is that they have a champagne vending machine. do you honestly need anything else?
i could literally make a whole blog on the hotel. it was a FEAST for the eyes. its like walking around in paris and just thinking "yes. yep. absolutely yes to that." just flawless design and SO inspiring. one of my favorite things was the juice they have in the lobby. each day they give you a code phrase and your take your juice to the bar with the code phrase (like "take me out tonight!") and then they add your favorite liquor to the juice FO FREEEEEEE.
next up was the cat cafe...yep, a coffee shop where you play with adoptable cats. great concept! gotta love people thinking outside the box. outside the box was kind of a trend in san diego. everything was such eye candy. it didn't seem like anyone just used builder grade anything. everything was extra. so much attention to aesthetics. places that are cool in knoxville would just be normal in san diego.
when we saw it getting close to 5, we headed to polite provisions (huge shoutout to thehollyday for this amazing rec. ps. follow her travel blog because its amazing.) mom and i went for the "layover in paris" drink (absinthe, grapefruit juice, pamplemousse, rosé, sparkling water, blackberries, and raspberries. it was just as delicious as it sounds. this place was ADORABLE and those taps are for cocktails, not beers. JUST YES.
we left and headed to starlite (another thehollyday rec!) for dinner. dinner was great! i had the mac and cheese. the atmosphere was just as great as the food! loved this spot. per san diego usual, lots of extra attention to detail in the design.
so saturday morning, we started off with coffee and vegan donuts at dark horse coffee roasters. truth be told, this was one of my favorite "meals."
details: sold out zara metallic blazer // forever 21 tee // rag and bone jeans
after breakfast we headed to the farmers market in little italy and then jumped in the car to hit the coastline. we did ocean beach, pacific beach, and la jolla.
this was SUCH a great day. i think traveling cali's coastline might be one of my favorite things to do. i loved ocean beach! pacific beach was not really my jam and had WAYYYYYY too many people. la jolla was really pretty and it doesn't get much better than being able to sit directly beside wild sea lions (who needs sea world and the zoo?!?!) we had lunch in la jolla at the lot which is a restaurant and also a movie theatre (weird, right? except also really outside the box and i love that)..my food actually kind of sucked but i think i ordered the wrong thing. i left lunch and grabbed a green juice down the street. we ended the day on sunset cliffs with a bottle of chandon. i would say it was a perfect ending except during the last pics we were taking on the cliffs a lady sitting behind elizabeth said "excuse me, you're blocking the sun!" y'all. my inner redneck about came out. i wanted to say "then stand your ass up! and what makes you more important than her!?" but i bit my tongue and opted for "i thought the sun was for everyone. huh? guess its just for some people." as elizabeth basically RAN away...haha!
DYING to get this photo to this cute couple.
after sunset we ate a great dinner at the hotel (in provisions) and headed to bed because whale watching was early the next morning...and y'all. whale watching was sooooo much fun. i'm usually really anti touristy things. but the boat was not very crowded and it was SO COOL. we saw 3 grey whales, sea lions, and tons of pacific white-sided dolphins. the grey whales are headed down to have their babies in the san ignacio lagoon on mexico's baja peninsula. its a SEVEN THOUSAND MILE trek (longest mammal migration on earth) for them to go from alaska to baja. they follow the coastline about 3-4 miles out and this time of the year is a great time to see them heading south. the whale tours hadn't seen any heading north yet. dying to go to the lagoon next because the whales swim up to the boats and show off their babies basically begging for you to pet them (SIGN ME UP!)..if you love animals, do the whale watching in san diego. we did the flagship whale watching cruise and i would highly recommend it. they have an indoor area if you are cold, they sell drinks, alcohol, food, and motion sickness medicine on board. there was plenty of room for everyone and i never felt crowded. i also really appreciated their respect for the whales. at one point they felt like too many boats were crowding the whales and they turned the boat around and headed a different direction. the dolphins would swim toward the boat when they saw us. i LOVED that.
after the whale tour we got some matcha at holy matcha and y'all. OH MY GOSH. what i would do for a spot like this in knoxville. it's like a coffee shop but only matcha. and if you're like "what the hell is matcha?!" its the green tea leaves that are ground into a powder. its then whisked into hot water. this way you get all the benefits of the leaves because you are consuming them! you can read the health benefits here. the benefits are NUTTTTTS you guys. i've been slightly addicted to match for a year or two.
last, but not least, we took the bridge over to coronado. the houses there were ADORABLE. i could totally live there! we ended our trip with dinner in little italy. our dinner was mediocre. but the trip was fantastic! thanks so much to my mom for making it happen and for my sweet hubs for keeping the kids so i could go!
