San Diego with Laverne

Wednesday, November 7th, was Laverne (Laura) and my first day in the big city. The weather was cloudy and a bit cooler than I hoped, although we both wore flip-flops anyway. :)

After we checked into the hotel, we walked across Harbor Drive to a restaurant on the bay (Anthony's - but not the same Anthony's as we have in Olympia) for a late lunch, early dinner. Thankfully, we were able to order off the lunch menu. We both ordered different tropical drinks and ate seafood. After eating, we thought we'd plan our night. Because it was still very early, we decided to kick back a little in the room and took a very short cat nap.

We did some research online for interesting places to go and learned of a roof-top bar with sand on the floor at the W Hotel that we wanted to find. We walked to Gaslamp Quarter - an area in downtown San Diego filled with hotels, restaurants, bars and shops. We walked around, bought some postcards in a little store, got some water and orange dream and then went into House of Blues. The bar wasn't very busy, so we shopped in the store and asked the guy there where the W Hotel was. He asked his manager and we finally got a definite answer with directions. It was closer to our hotel and only a few blocks from where we were.

We were escorted in the doors of a very chic, hip hotel that was lit like a dance bar. The entire place was dark except for mood lighting including blue lights. Our escort, Brandon, led us up to the second floor where we walked past the hotel pool with an image projected onto the bottom of it. Past the pool we were led up another flight of stairs onto a roof-top called The Beach. The bar was at the far end, through the sand. Yep, there was sand on the 'floor' so I just had to take off my flip-flops and enjoy it. From the bar looking back at the hotel we saw another projected image, this time a changing video, on the side of the hotel, that seemed to change with the music. There was a fire pit, swings, benches along the edges of the sand floor and heat lamps. We thought it was so cool!

We got there about 9pm and there weren't very many people there. We ordered two silk panties and $30 later, were sitting on a bench watching the video with our feet in the sand. People kept coming and a little after 11pm, the place was packed. We decided to pace ourselves and head back to our hotel since I still have two and a half days of work here and we better save up for Thursday and Friday nights!

We got to bed a little after midnight - 3am Indiana time.

Second Night in San Diego
After a day of sessions, I went to the conference’s networking event and met a few colleagues from other colleges, ate some great food and had a drink. Laura came back with her sister and nephew and then joined me at the networking event. Laura, Jill and I were the last ones to leave.

Laura and I went up to the room and I showed her some of the YouTube videos I’d seen in presentations like a fabulous piano solo by the YES piano player, the Schmirnoff Tea Partay and we searched for the IKEA opening in Minnesota. We ended up watching Paul Potts singing for Britain’s Got Talent. Wow! His voice makes the hairs on my arms stand up and brought me to tears. We watched (Donnie Osmond dance) and sang to White and Nerdy a couple of times and also listened to Slam Door.

Finally, at a little after 10pm, we headed out to the W. We got there, ordered Sprites and settled in. We met a large group of people that were there for a conference and were staying at the W. They were Greg, Greg, Ken, Ken’s wife, and Mike along with others I didn’t meet. Then we met a group of 21 and 22 year olds – two of whom (Shawn and Valerie) were celebrating their 21st birthday so we helped them celebrate! Other friends there were Ashley, Barrett, Cody, Grant, and Kelly. Somehow time flew and we left a little after 1am. We got to bed a little after 2am and I set the alarm so I could get up for the conference the next day… I had a great time!

Friday in the Big City
The conference sessions ended about 5pm. On the way to the elevators, we were all complaining, again, about all of the train noise in our rooms at night. Everyone but Jeff had been woken up every night to the sound of train whistles. Jeff invited Jane, Rachel and I to check out his bay-view room in an hour – at 6pm. I took the shortest nap ever (10 minutes), changed clothes for dinner and dancing and waited for Laura to get back from Sea World and dinner with her sister, brother-in-law and nephew. We took our bottle of Orange Dream over to Jeff’s at about 6:30pm. The five of us finished off the bottle and then decided to get some dinner. We took a cab to Gaslamp Quarter and had dinner at Jimmy Love’s. Both Rachel and Jane got pizzas while Jeff and I split a Shrimp Fettuccine.

After dinner we walked to The Bitter End – a three story club with a dance floor in the basement, bar and pool on the main floor and a bar and lounge on the 2nd floor. What a cool place! The dance floor was dark and they had a smoke machine. The music wasn’t any of our favorite, so we went back to Jimmy Love’s to check out the band that was setting up when we left. We got there and went right onto the dance floor. We danced about three songs before the band took a break. During the break, we decided to walk to the W. It was amazing how packed the W was just compared to Thursday night. Too packed for me and it was getting late, so we headed back to our hotel. We went to our rooms about 12:30am. Another fabulous night!!! (It's really no wonder Laura and I like going out together - we always have a lot of fun together!)

Last Day in San Diego
Saturday morning Laura and I got up about 8:15am to the first sunny morning since we’d gotten there. We got ready and packed our suitcase. I decided not to go to the morning session and have breakfast with Laura instead. We split the cinnamon French toast (YUM), scrambled eggs and ham. We finished eating just before 10:30 when she had to catch the shuttle to the airport. I hugged my friend goodbye and went into the conference. I listened to the rest of that session while sitting near Jeff. He, Jane and Rachel were all there, along with Jill.

After the conference, I finished packing and checked out of my room. I ran into Jane, Rachel and Jeff in the lobby. Jane and Rachel were going shopping and Jeff wanted to get something to eat. I went with him to Anthony’s across the street and we talked while he ate his coconut shrimp. He had an hour and a half before catching his shuttle, so we grabbed a cab to Coronado Is. We sat on the beach soaking up the glorious sun while sitting in the sand (and watching a bull-dozer move piles of seaweed on the beach.) We had to catch a cab at 2pm so Jeff could catch his shuttle. He caught the shuttle to the airport and I did a little souvenir shopping.

I then went to the deli down the street (where Casey, Rachel, Jane, Jeff and I ate lunch the day before.) I ordered a turkey sandwich and sat in the sun outside. I spent as much time as I could in the sun until I had to get my bags and catch the 3:30 shuttle. I got to the airport and checked in only to find out that my flight was delayed an hour and a half. So, I had 2-1/2 hours to kill. I wish for that kind of time most days, but when I get it I don’t know what to do with it! I read my book in the sun until I thought I should get inside (and my eyes wouldn’t stay open anymore.) I ate the other half of sandwich for dinner and now am trying to document my San Diego trip before the memories fade.

Someone I admire said something I really like “Memories are the best gift someone can give.” Thanks Laura and my new friends for the memories!