SOCAL So Cool

What a whirlwind weekend we had! Georgia put in 5 hours at the learning center on Saturday, and then we hopped in the rental and wound our way south to San Diego, to the truly one-of-a-kind home of the Albagdadi-Roberts clan. Louisiana transplants Talal and Robin, and 12 year old daughter Ella greeted us with open arms, as they stashed the cleaning supplies, and tossed the stage-design models from the guest bed. We were absolutely privileged to be able to bunk in Robin's design studio! Their 19"teens" bungalow is an architectural wonder, having been "modernized" by the previous owner sometime in the 1950's. (I don't care what Robin says, I ADORE their kitchen countertops!) I only wish the guy had left the original river stone fireplace intact. Tragic, that. After getting a tour of the digs, we headed out to a terrific little burger joint. It was a pretty hip, happening place! But the sight of hipsters with babies made me squirm. (as I know Emily would have done as well!) After downing a rather obscenely large amount of garlic fries and red meat, we sauntered across the street to a row of groovy shops hawking retro wares. We digested while we knocked about, rummaging through ancient fur coats and a few pairs of lusciously soft, orange leather 1950's ladies heels. From Nordstrom no less. Size 6. Darn! (sorry Maggie and Emily!) Back at the house, we lounged around on the couch and caught up, gossiped,(yeah, we were talking about *YOU*) and finally began yawning. As we turned in I drifted off with the sound of the furnace kicking on, and thoughts of Community Dark Roast waiting in the morning. You can take us out of Louisiana....but you can't NEVER drain the Community Dark Roast from our veins!

Sunday morning we had a lovely breakfast in the back garden, then headed out to OB (Ocean Beach) and the oh-so-cool home of the sagacious Christina Low and Noelle Perini. Chrissy is another crony from my LSU days, who used to ride us around campus smoking camels in her ancient Karmaan Ghia. (I loved that car.) She moved to CA and became a non-smoking, Subaru-driving, half-marathoner. Go figure. We walked down to the Pacific ocean from their bungalow, took off our shoes, wandered down to the pier while dodging enormous, freaky, completely astounding strands of giant kelp. There were a few tide pools to be investigated,  with anemone and sea glass bits swooshing around as waves washed over them. We collected some interesting specimens, and then headed back to clean up and find lunch. I just have two words for you: Calamari. Taco. Oh, and a third: Delish. After downing our tacos in a quiet little park in University Heights, Robin made good on her promise to get us to the World Famous San Diego Zoo! Georgia grabbed a map, and set off. Her one *must-see*? The elephants. Our path was set for Africa, but when we got there, all the pachyderms had been unceremoniously parked in their cages so the keepers could fill up the hay troughs! Undeterred, we found a couple of enormous concrete elephants who were willing to take some staged photos with us. Next up: the sky gondola! Georgia was incredibly excited about riding the swinging car of death back to the entrance, where we made a round of the petting zoo, and then hit up the gift shop. Leaving the animals behind, we drove out to South Park and snagged some ice cream at The Daily Scoop. Mmmm. It was time to hit the road back to Chino after that. We loaded up our bags, and Robin being the good mom she is, mapped out a better route than the one we rode in on, and packed us some snacks for the trip.

Intentions to post this last night went by the wayside. Sleep took over. Georgia slept really well, and didn't wake up until nearly 7:00! It was so great for us to take that mini-vacation. She got some needed fresh air and exercise, and I got some fun adult conversation! I did notice that Georgia seemed to struggle more than usual with her word-retrieval. It could have just been that she was in an unfamiliar situation. I'll talk to Jill about that today. This promises to be a week jam-packed with information, but I'll try to pass on what I can each day before passing out!
Peace~