The one about San Diego

Mike and I ran away to San Diego together last weekend. “How could it be??!” you ask. Well a few months ago I started to get the itch, and I really wanted a weekend away with my lover. I started thinking about our 5year anniversary and how we got married over Memorial Day weekend. That’s not a good time to try to get away together and we didn’t really think that through when we planned it. How do you get a babysitter that weekend? It’s really more of a family type of holiday.  So I thought, why not celebrate the anniversary of getting engaged? Mike proposed on the beach of Coronodo Island, across from San Diego, California. It was no accident that he chose that spot.  He knew he wanted it to be a place where we would come back to visit over and over again.

So a plan was hatched and I started talking to my mom and sister about one of them possibly coming to stay with the boys while were away.  The problem with that, is that I don’t get to spend time with them- and that’s a hard pill to swallow.

Luckily, we stumbled into the information that Decker’s teacher and her husband do over-nights! Yay! She teaches in the baby room and has known Decker his whole life and her husband teaches in the 3 year old, which is right next door to Reed’s class. The fact that Reed knows everyone in that building because he’s a social bull (the more manly version of ‘social butterfly’ and more accurate description of my child).

So we arranged to pay them to bring our boys home after school Friday and stay the weekend. The greatest part is that while we missed them dearly, we didn’t worry at all.  Jessie and Nick were so entirely capable of handling our two terrorists. Not only that but they planned fun activities, took them to dinner, the science museum and drug the bouncehouse out to the backyard for them to enjoy during the sunny afternoons.

As soon as I got on the plane, I felt tension melt away from my muscles. My body relaxed in a way that I haven’t felt in, I don’t even remember when.

I smiled- but it felt as if my whole body was smiling. I knew all the way through that I was going to totally enjoy myself.  

Our room at the W was great- the enormous chalk board on the wall above the desk was a fun little perk. The only drawback was the lack of hot tub, they had an ourdoor pool that was nice, but too chilly for the evening hours.

We were staying right downtown so it was a piece of cake to walk down to Sea Port Village, the Gaslamp Quarter, and the awesome outdoor mall. My favorite? The bebe store! And more specifically, the bebe store SALE! I was in and out of the dressing room- they have amazing clothes that I love.  No matter what I try on, everything there looks great.  I walked out with 4 shirts- One short sleeve, one long sleeve, and two have only one sleeve.

We also ordered a large 3 piece photo wall art for the dining room, ate an amazing Indian Dinner of tiki masala, happy hour cocktails led to meeting up with a girl that we hung out with at that same bar 5 years ago (a great story itself), and enjoyed an AUTHENTIC Thai couples massage.

That needs some elaboration.

An authentic Thai massage, is not your average massage. First of all, we entered the room and I noticed the tables were twice the size of a normal massage table. I thought, wow, that’s going to make it hard for them to do their job- leaning way over like that. Secondly, the masseuse hands us each a pair of “Thai Pants” to wear. The illustrated instructions were hanging on the wall. We strip, tie on our Thai pants and prostrate.

It was immediately obvious why the massage table was so roomy. It was made for two. I’ve got my face in the hole and I feel her jump up on the table with me. “Well,” I thought to myself, “here we go. Might as well go all in, I’m already anteed up.”

The most difficult part was trying not to laugh. There were some points that I thought, “this is really happening to me.” She crawls onto me- on all fours so that her legs were on my legs and from knee to toes she was massaging my calves and lower legs. Her hands were working on my back.  If I could assign one word to a Thai massage, it would be “Multitasking” because there was always something going on in a couple different places. “Interactive” would also be pretty accurate.  She was pushing and pulling on my limbs to get me to stretch while she stuck a hand or foot into a muscle to massage it (the pants were very handy)- she was climbing all over the place, standing, squatting, moving all around to get each area. The grand finale was me doing a backbend over-top of her with her knees in my back.

When the women left, and we were alone, Mike’s face looked like Christmas morning. He wanted to go back every day (though we didn’t.)

Saturday was a 6 mile run along the coast and through town after a breakfast at Ron Walker’s Pancake House (A+!) and then lunch at pizza by the slice at the mall. I wanted Thai, Mike wanted fine Italian so we thought we could “tide ourselves over” till we decided on a better restaurant. We were looking out the window and Mike commented on how much the scenery changed from the day before- it was the people. Friday the crowds were all attractive faces, nice clothes and nice bodies. Saturday it was like they unlocked the cages and left them open overnight. Anyway, just an observance. One of those mysteries that make you scratch your head a little and then move on.

I happen to notice the guy two tables behind Mike. From the back, he looked like someone we knew- from the side profile, I was almost certain so I called out, “Jeremy??”

He turns around.

Mike turns around.

He jumps up.

Mike jumps up.

They start hugging- hugs all around for everyone and a whole lot of, “what are you doing here!!” and “I can’t believe this! What a coincidence!”

We had a great visit with him and got to catch up on his family (two kiddos as well) and our friends in Salt Lake.
Jeremy and Mike were great friends (are?) you know what distance and time will do. It was great to see him. The boys used to swim together every day, both runners and lovers of pizza.  We had many meals with Jeremy, including Mike and I’s first date at the Bayou in Salt Lake. I remember Mike telling me later that Jeremy had commented to him after first meeting me, that it was good that I didn’t have fat arms. Hehe. I guess I agree?

We had the driver take us to Coronado Island and we took our pictures on the beach- it was cloudy and chilly but we enjoyed the sentiment. After Mike proposed to me 5 years ago, it started to rain so we ducked into a wine store on the main street and bought our first bottle of wine as an engaged couple.  The same wine store was there and offering wine tastings, so we settled into our space in the tasting room and thoroughly enjoyed the sage cheese that they paired with the whites. I’m not a fan of white wine, but that cheese could sway me!

After a stop at cold stone for ice-cream we hopped the ferry and watched the dazzling lights of the San Diego skyline illuminate the night sky.

By the next morning, my feet were screaming at me. I felt like the guy in that song that walked five thousand miles… so after breakfast I took a dip in the pool and spent my last 20 San Diegan minutes kicking around the water in my bikini at 9am.

Our flight left at 11am but we didn’t get home until 7pm (changed planes and time zones during the trip)

We were happy to spend a weekend looking into each other’s eyes- focused on ourselves and concentrating on love.  We were able to run together, eat together and… stuff.  It was just wonderful and special to escape, but we were sure happy to scoop our little guys up and feel their bodies in our arms again!