Over the past several weeks, I had the good fortune of getting to see my dear little sister twice. Her company sent her out for a work conference two weeks ago. She arrived Monday afternoon and left Friday morning, which meant we could hang out in the evenings and Aunt Ali got to meet little Reggie for the first time. During the work trip, we had burritos on the boardwalk in Mission Beach, checked out Grant Hotel and Bareback Grill downtown in Gas Lamp, enjoyed dinner at George’s in La Jolla and watched the sun set at Windan’Sea Beach. I thought I was doing a pretty good job of selling Ali on moving out West to join me, but alas, she believes San Diego is too crowded. The little country bumpkin needs more wide-open spaces.
The weekend visit afforded us time to be a little more social. I introduced Ali to surfing/laying on a surfboard in the ocean and catching some rays. She discovered how painful it is to put on a wetsuit and get the soft rack and surfboard on my little Crossfire. However, we weren’t attacked by a great white shark, which was a great success considering we were out in the water near the exact one year anniversary of the fatal attack that occurred at Fletcher Cove just up the street in Solana Beach. Ali and I also did a La Jolla Kayak tour, which was pretty cool. We got up close and personal with some sea lions and leopard sharks and managed not to flip our kayak once, despite paddling out against some good-sized waves. We made another trip to our favorite La Jolla yogurt spot, Yogi Topi, made several fabulous meals ourselves (including fresh guacamole), and experienced Su Casa for the first time.
Perhaps the highlight of the trip was seeing Ali’s reaction to Pacific Beach, aka PB. Although there are a lot of fun things to do in PB, such as shop at Wahine’s where we both bolstered our wardrobes affordably, the drunken day crowds get old quick. After enjoying some beverages with friends during the day on Saturday and heading back Sunday to shop again and get an acai bowl, Ali noted how obnoxious the Sunday afternoon crowd on Garnett Street was. Amen, sister.
All in all two great trips and I was quite depressed the first couple days of this week without Ali in San Diego with me.
