San Diego jaunt - the other parts

It wasn't all food and cocktails in San Diego, weirdly enough.  I know, I know - travel based around what we can eat and drink is a common thing for us, but in this instance I built in one other activity (which was sort of food related, but not a real culinary experience).  Not to mention the train trips!

The train to and from San Diego is a lovely experience through a nice swath of the southern half of the route.  Rolling through the LA

and its suburbs and into Orange County is not especially scenic as you head to San Diego, but then you hit San Juan Capistrano,

and the coast after that, and it's lovely.  There was a thick haziness to the day along the coast, and that gave the sun a dreamy, ghostly quality over the ocean. 

It's a three-hour trip, and I dozed and read next to Conrad.

The Santa Fe Depot,

San Diego's train station, is located very conveniently downtown, and our hotel was a short few blocks away.  We got to our room, unpacked, then headed to the second floor terrace bar for an afternoon drink. 

The hotel was nice enough, but I don't think I'd stay again.  What they called a suite was a large corner room with seating,

and that meant when Conrad was snoring up a storm each night, I couldn't escape to a sofa bed or other room.  Other than the spacious bathroom, where I set up a bed on the floor with couch cushions.  It actually wasn't too bad a night of sleep in there.  But I shouldn't have had to sleep in there.  Shame on me for not looking at the photos of the room more closely when I booked it.  Ah well.  The views from the room were not much,

and the club room was really only available for breakfast.  It wasn't an inexpensive stay, and I didn't feel it was entirely worth it beyond a very convenient location.  Lesson learned for the next trip down there!

On Thursday we did a morning walk,

had breakfast, then got ourselves ready to take the trolley a few stops away to the Old Town San Diego stop.  I had booked us spots on a walking tour of the historic area.  Tacos, tombstones, and tequila made up the tagline for the tour promo, and I thought it would be fun.  It was!  The weather was warmer and sunnier than we had expected, and I wish I had brought along a tshirt or very light layers.  But we had caps and sunglasses and sunscreen, so that was fine.  We ended up being with 8 other people who were all together as part of a corporate retreat.  They were nice enough, though.  And we did like Benedict, our tour guide.

The tour focused on some of the buildings

in the state historical park

as well as nearby structures,

like the beautiful 100-year old church. 

Benedict had great details to share, like stories about the old cemetery

and why there are grave markers in the street (they paved over the cemetery rather than relocate bodies). 

There were also stops for tacos at two places (both of them fine enough, but neither taco was a fish one, which is something San Diego is known for) with accompanying margaritas (the tacos were far far better), street corn at another place (also fine), and a churro (also fine).  I liked the tour and the information, I thought the food part was alright but unexceptional.  We had a great time of it, though, well worth it.

We poked in a shop or two after that, and then it was back to the hotel to relax and get ready for dinner.  The next morning we had a walk,

got breakfast, packed, and then it was the reverse train trip home. 

A short getaway, but a really lovely one.  I'm glad I got to give Conrad that gift. 

the conference that was

I'm going to do one conference post to collect thoughts and photos on the time there that I haven't yet posted.  It's already a few days behind me, and, honestly?  I'm glad it's behind me.  There was a lot of contentious stuff in meetings, and I had to say some things that have probably ruffled some feathers.  Certainly, I can think of one or more people I essentially will not be speaking to any longer.

Happy thoughts, though, Peter.  Let's do this.

A nice train trip down to San Diego from Los Angeles.  I rode in comfort

and had the ocean side view on my trip. 

The hotel was then an easy walk from the train station.  Once I got to my room, well, whoa! 

Big suite.  No view to speak of, but come on, a pool table? 

Wow.  I wish I had had meetings in my suite (it had a small conference room), but at least I had folks over for drinks and snacks and chat a few times.

I didn't take a lot of photos during the conference, I realized.  Just wasn't in the mood for it, maybe?  But I did get good morning walks every day with Amy, or Sam, or both. 

I snuck Conrad in

to see the opening session with Lessa interviewing Trevor Noah,

and I got some photos with folks like Loida and Peter,

Sam,

Cindy,

and Andrew and Janice then. 

A really great turnout for that session!

There were a few other events and opportunities to get shots with folks.  There I am with Bill. 

There I am with Matt. 

There I am with Matt again but in a different setting. 

There's Conrad on a hotel balcony at a reception. 

There's a view from that same deck. 

There's me on that deck.

After that, I mostly only took occasional photos at dinner.  We had a nice enough meal but weird experience (a fire eater?  photos at the table then offered for sale?) at a place called Salvatore's.  Good cocktail, though! 

We had an underwhelming dinner at Juniper & Ivy

(interesting menu, but the dishes were less than we hoped, and the service was lagging).  We had a nice meal of pasta

at Cesarina punctuated a little too frequently by the planes low overhead coming into the airport.  We had a decent meal

with Peter and Matt at Barbusa (and another good cocktail:  the Italian Love Affair),

and then came back to the room to toast Peter with Champagne.  A lovely, affectionate end to our time there.

And then it was Wednesday and the drive home.

So then, the conference is done, and hooray for that.  May the ones next year be better.  Based on this one, though, I'm inclined to skip going to Minneapolis at least.