My Birthday!!!

This past weekend Matt and I had two very special visitors in town...Heather & Katharine! They decided to attempt a visit to CA so that H. could see her sister's new baby boy, and so that K. could enjoy a nice break from the freezing cold Chicago winter (sorry to disappoint, Kath). Coincidentally the weekend also fell in line with my birthday. We had a nice girls' weekend planned, and frankly couldn't remember the last time we had done this!

On Friday evening I got to meet the new baby and then after picking up Kath from the airport, we headed into Old Town to eat Old Town Mexican Cafe (which was a HUGE disappointment, by the way). Plenty of girl talk ensued. Saturday was spent power-walking in Balboa Park, a lucious brunch at Hash House a Go Go, a quick trip to La Jolla cove to view the CA seals, a shopping trip to a cute boutique (we all left with purchases), a lovely French dinner at Blue Boheme, and an evening capped off with a wine tasting at Jake's on 6th in our neighborhood.

From 2009 C's Birthday

H's Mocha at Hash House

From 2009 C's Birthday

Screwing around at Hash House

From 2009 C's Birthday

Our HUGE b'fast quesadilla (adorned with spaghetti)

From 2009 C's Birthday

Looking out over La Jolla Cove

From 2009 C's Birthday

Dinner at Blue Boheme

On Sunday morning we did our usual Coronado beach run with "the Syd" and introduced both girls to the Cali dog beaches. We followed that up with a stop at the Hillcrest Farmer's Market where we all enjoyed some custom-made cookies (my favorite is the rosemary savory cookie, made with extra virgin olive oil in place of butter...YUM!). After dropping H. off at the airport, Kath and I stopped at Seaport Village for a little holiday browsing and then went to the theatre to see "The Twilight Saga: New Moon." Two words...holy hotness! Edward Cullen is my new love ;-)

All in all, a lovely weekend to catch up with good friends. Thanks for helping me to ring in a great birthday, girls!

Morocco & more...

My apologies...I've been negligent in updating my blog. I'd really like to get our Christmas tree up before updating here. Please stand by...I'll be back soon with a recap of our Morocco trip & my visit with Katharine and Heather for my birthday this past weekend.

Morocco Slideshow

Review to follow...

Photo shoot!

I know the majority of my readers don't give a rat's booty about what's going on with Bandit, but a special friend has requested an update on "the Bandito" as he is affectionately referred. On Saturday afternoon, he posed for a photo session, lounging in his usual spot on the living room couch...

Happy Veterans Day!

In honor of those who served during wartime, Matt and I both had the day off of work to celebrate. We took some time to do something we've been interested in doing for a while...kayaking in La Jolla Cove! We disembarked from the shore and immediately headed for leopard shark alley. We didn't see them right away, so we continued on our 2-hour trek. We saw some cute CA seals resting on the rocks and took a peak at some of the many caves along the shore (but weren't allowed to go in without a guide). On our way back to the launch site we also saw a small sting-ray, a skate, and approximately 25 leopard sharks! These 5 feet-long bottom feeders were awesome, swimming about 4 feet below our kayak! As usual, we snapped some photos...

(Where are all of those supposed seals???)(There they are!!!)

(The cave inlet...too cool, huh?) (And some kayakers that had their Golden Retriever on board!)