My youngest sister, Katy, recently ended her engagement and her wedding date was approaching. She asked me and our other sister, Kelly, if we wanted to go away for the weekend with her to go have some fun on what was supposed to be the wedding day—I asked if she was paying (she was) so I said yes!
We looked at places in Palm Springs, Santa Barbara, and San Diego. I’m sure you can guess by the title of this post that we chose San Diego (although, Kimpton Goodland in Santa Barbara I’m still comin’ for ya!). We’ve been going down to SD since I was born, but we’ve never been just the three of us.
Our Hotel
Katy booked us a night at Kimpton Palomar, a downtown San Diego hotel that we had never been before. We normally stay in Old Town, but since Katy wanted to party it up, the Downtown/Gaslamp District was more our speed. I wanted to do something special for Katy so I contacted the hotel and let them know why we were coming down there. When we arrived it was a surprise: we had been upgraded to a suite and there were chocolates, margaritas, flowers, and a really nice card from the staff waiting for Katy in the room (BIG shout out to Karlee!!!! Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!).
Shopping
I’ve recently become obsessed with Sunset Magazine. And last month’s issue had a small article about this shop called Gold Leaf in the South Park neighborhood of San Diego. I showed it to the girls and we drove over there. Oh goodness, it was soooo cute. If I were to open a shop, it would be just like this place: home goods, jewelry, knick knacks, kids’ stuff, purses, etc. And the area it’s in was super cool—I wish we had walked around more, but we were anxious to check in to the hotel.
Old Town is always a stop for us. There’s so many little shops to wander around in Old Town. This time we found a root beer shop and the girls each got a root beer float (but made with cream soda, yumm!).
The Whaley House is recognized as the most haunted house in the US. We’ve been visiting there for ages. Nothing spooky has ever happened to us, but we have captured some orbs in photos (if you believe that kind of stuff).
Stuffing Our Faces
You have to eat at Cafe Coyote in Old Town. It’s the one where the ladies make the tortillas right out in front. And they have really good margaritas! They’ve also been on the Travel Channel for their fried ice cream.
For our afternoon drink, we went to Half Door Brewing Company, it’s right by Petco Park. Chris and I have been there a couple of times and we love it! I was upset that they didn’t have my favorite: their Gimmick Ale (White Chocolate, Peanut Butter Golden Milk Stout), but their pretzels are sooooo good.
We asked the bartender at Half Door for dinner recommendations and she told us about Bottega Americano which is a couple blocks south of Half Door. It’s an Italian restaurant/marketplace that was pretty swanky (we were asked if we had a reservation…).
Katy was obsessed with two things on this trip: Going to the “Ryan Gosling Bathroom” and a place called Donut Bar. The Gos’ bathroom is located in Bang Bang, a bar with treacherous stairs (and a very cute bouncer). Donut Bar is a scrumptious donut shop that is also a bar (ingenious, right?). I only got one donut: a maple bourbon glazed. Kelly and Katy both bought like ten donuts each!
For lunch on Sunday morning, we went to Kansas City Barbeque by Seaport Village. Fun Fact: a few scenes from “Top Gun” were filmed there. Don’t ask me which ones, because I’ve never seen that movie!!! I know, I know…
All-in-all a successful girls trip! Katy had a good time (btw, I’m still looking for someone to buy her wedding dress…) and it was nice to have some sister time since Kelly is planning on moving to Florida later this week (I’m not getting into that right now, let’s just say I can’t wait to see my therapist next week). In other news, my tube tying and wound tunnel revision surgery has been scheduled for May (!!) and Chris found a new job much closer to home that he started today! 🙂 Be prepared people: They are adding an Express Lane to the 405 between the 605 and 73. It’s going to get worse before it gets better 😉 My backyard project is also coming along, I’ll have to do another post about it. I’m also tackling a cosmetic redo of our bathroom and Kelly’s room (we’re moving Piper in there once Kelly is gone), so keep your eyes peeled for that post!
xx, Christine
