San Diego weekend

I’m finally getting around to reporting on our lovely weekend in San Diego at the beginning of December. I’m usually not one for following the travel guides word-for-word, but we did take some cues from a Frommer’s suggested itinerary, did some rearranging, and it worked out well. Here’s a quick recap:

On Saturday, we took in a number of San Diego highlights: Hillcrest for window shopping and brunch (at Bread & Cie, where I had an amazing turkey pesto sandwich); Old Town, full of historical buildings; Coronado, where the famous hotel and beach are; and Balboa Park, which was hosting a holiday celebration called December Nights. We finished off the evening with dinner at Fiddler’s Green, a cozy restaurant on Shelter Island, near our hotel, Humphrey’s Half Moon Inn & Suites, a tropical themed hotel that really makes you feel you’re on a lush secluded island (photo of the hotel pool above). And with the warm, sunny weather all weekend, we kept thinking, this is December? It was great.

The next morning we had brunch at Bali Hai Restaurant. The food was all right, but the tiki atmosphere and bay view are the draw here, which we love. (The photo here is of Thom, toasting with champagne. Cheers!) Then the afternoon was all about Legoland, about a half-hour drive north of San Diego. We had a great time being kids, looking at all the Lego models and riding the tame but still fun roller coasters. One of the highlights of Legoland are the miniature versions of a number of cities, all made of Lego. A few of the displays have motorized pieces; I took video of two of them with my digital camera, and decided I would try to use iMovie to put them together, which was pretty easy. (Gee, I sound like the Mac guy in those Apple ads.) This is my first attempt at iMovie, so it’s pretty short and rudimentary, but check it out if you like:

The rest of my photos are up on Flickr. See you, San Diego!