Doing All The Things in San Diego

When MJ's brother (plus girlfriend) and sister (plus cousin) came to town, I knew that we would go wine tasting. I was tasked with organizing that, and we planned it for the day of MJ's Birthday. By the time they showed up, we also knew that we would spend their first day here, exploring downtown San Diego. Those were the only solid plans, but by the time they left we did so much that we made up for at least part of 2020 lock down in one week. We did all the things! I was exhausted, but it was also a lot of fun. 

We got a late start on explore downtown day because six people. It's hard to get that many individuals up, and out of the house, or really anywhere quickly. We didn't make it downtown until later than I anticipated, and we ended up staying way longer than I thought we would. We took the trolley there, which I hadn't done in a long time, so that was cool. While looking for a place to eat, we passed Izola Bakery, which will lower down the best tasting flaky butter flavored croissants you've ever tasted from a window in a basket. We didn't plan on doing a tour, they just invited us in, and it was pretty neat to see the kitchen where this amazing bread comes from. We enjoyed the croissants. Then we ate a late lunch, rode bird scooters, and walked the coastline to Little Italy. We put our name on the list for one place, got drinks at another, then went back to the original place for food and drinks. I don't think we left there in our Uber until well after 10pm. All together we walked about 6.77 miles for the day. 

 

MJ and I have been wine tasting in Temecula before, but we usually hit one or two wineries max and go up and back in the same day or we get a hotel room for a night or two. Either way, we've never done the full on multiple winery tastings on a tour bus experience, so I was so very excited for that. It took a lot of research to figure out the best plan, and in the end it was worth the money to go with Grapeline Wine Tours and let them handle all of the details. Covid has made things a little more complicated, and I didn't want to have to deal with all the reservations they require now and coordinating our visits. We also wanted to get picked up from San Diego. We showed up, we got on the bus, and the rest of the day was an extremely fun wine infused blur. The driver took us where we needed to go, and told us to get moving when it was time to leave. We got to visit four wineries, and lunch was included at the 3rd winery. At the first two wineries we got 6 and 5 tastings. The last two, they just filled 'er up the entire time we were there. The bus started out pretty quiet at 9:30 am, but were were all pretty hype by the time we left our second winery. It was an all day thing, but it's crazy how fast the time went. We didn't get back until about 6:00pm.

I still don't know who's idea it was to do the ATV riding. I'm not that much a thrill seeker, so I was not interested in going, but MJ insisted. He really wanted me to go and so I went. We had to get up at around 4 something. An early start time is necessary to beat the desert heat, and Ocotillo is about an hour away.  Getting six people out of the house is even harder when it's that early. Nobody really bothered to read the confirmation email until that morning. We bought a case of water bottles for wine tasting so we had that, but we had no plan for breakfast, no snacks to take with us, and I had no idea what I was supposed to wear. We stopped at a gas station for some extremely overpriced snacks to tide us over, but nobody actually had any breakfast because most of the fast food places didn't open until six. There is nothing in Ocotillo but a gas station, one other ATV place, trailer homes, and the desert. It took a little while to do paperwork and get everyone helmets and goggles, and then we hit the dirt around 7:30 am. I kind of wanted to drive, but there were some scary hills, and I have a fear of tipping over. I was too afraid to get behind the wheel, so I let MJ drive the whole time. All of us were just covered in dirt. You could just see it all over us. Sometimes I even ended up crunching on it in my mouth. I have never been so dirty in my life! That early start hit me hard, but it was a lot of fun. I'm glad I went. 

I went down for a nap after that. Like a baby. I slept while MJ and the gang went to ride jet ski's. MJ was planning to ride as well, but he's done it before so he gave up his reservation to one of the others who didn't get a spot. By the time they came back I'd done laundry and had a nice nap, but I don't know how they functioned for the rest of the day. And we were up pretty late that night. 

The running inside joke for the week all started when MJ's brother got suckered into buying a CD from an up and coming rapper down in Pacific Beach. MJ's sister ran away with it and for the rest of the time we a record company start up, you know, just out doing some amazing team building activities. We really packed in a lot during those five days. We had a very full house, but everyone got along well and it was a pretty great group of people to hang with. Everyone was chill and just down for a good time. We spent time outside enjoying the backyard, and even got in some time in the jacuzzi. The out of towners were truly on vacation, but I felt like I was too. MJ is such a great guy and so deserving of a special celebration for his 40th birthday. He's not really into parties, so having family here to celebrate and do fun outings with was just the thing. It was so cool that they came all this way for him. His brother's birthday was the day before his, so it was perfect.

I had a blast, but I also felt like I wanted to sleep for a week after they left! The world is opening up again, and I really enjoyed being out in the city I love so much. We went to vineyards, the desert, and the ocean, all within 1.5 hours from where we live. San Diego has really does everything! Except affordable housing prices. 

I was not planning to make a video, but by the end of night one I was itching to film stuff. I don't know what it is with me. I've always been that person with a camera in hand since I was a kid. Photos used to be fine, but lately I want video. I definitely end up with less photos because of it, but it's been so cool being able to preserve some of my experiences in this new way. I was doing this kind of thing well before social media and I don't get much in the way of views on any of it, so it's most definitely not about that. I genuinely love documenting my adventures and having it to look back on. It's just something I feel compelled to do. 

Click here for the link to the video on YouTube

PS: I finally sat down and figured out how to fix my blog thumbnails in the "you might also like" section beneath each post, and hopefully it stays that way. I re-loaded my blog theme into blogger and then painstakingly cut all the code from the last ten posts (which is when the problem started) along with all the text and then pasted it back in along with the pictures. I think it happened because I posted a YouTube embed at the beginning of a few posts and it confused my code. Or something??? Anyway. I'm glad I was able to figure it out and didn't need to buy a new blog theme because I'm a-okay with the one I have.