What a Weekend

I love four day weekends. I know, it's a bold proclamation, and I should be commended for the brave issues I take stances on. I also love pizza and Michael Phelps and kittens.

The weather was fall-down perfect this weekend. No marine layer, no haze, just bright blue sky, clean, post-rain air, even 80 degree temps on Monday! In February! S and I decided to cruise down to the beach on Sunday...along with half of San Diego County. We drove around and around before we found some street parking near the Stone Steps. It was a zoo at Beacons and Carlsbad and all the best beach haunts. Seriously, you would think it had been sleeting for two straight months the way we all frantically scrambled to the ocean like desperate prisoners. But there is something to be said about freshly-washed beach air. Soooo good for you.

I cooked S some migas on Valentine's morning, he liked them a lot, I thought they were just OK, but they were hearty and a good excuse to eat sour cream. We watched a bit of the Daytona 500, but eventually got too distracted by the sunshine so that's when we wandered over to the beach. S continues to play with our fancy new camera, taking ugly pictures of me sitting on driftwood, and seagulls staring at him. I swear they have brains like humans, they have something going on behind their eyes like they are plotting an attack. If they had weapons other than their own doo-doo, they would destroy us all.

We continued our weekend 101 cruising by heading down to the Cardiff Seaside Market, the greatest grocery store ever. It's so expensive, but they have so many beautiful things. Their produce is gorgeous, the meat, seafood, and deli is amazing, the beer section is huge and local and crafty, and their flower section at the front makes me cluelessly stop and block the entrance to the store every time because I'm freaking out and yelling at S to "smell this!!! look at this rose!! I can't stand it!!!" This is the market at which we always buy beer and exotic cheeses when we're camping across the street. It's a tradition, and it felt odd to be there during a non-camping time.

After procuring our Entenmanns (I had a powerful hankering for an afternoon donut), Heineken, and two kinds of cheeses (Italian Pepperjack and Idiazabal), we headed back to the homestead. We set our chairs into the sunshine and drank beer shandys (thank you Dr. M for introducing us to that particular joy), a mix of Heineken and ginger ale, ate olives, cheese, and crackers. S took more pictures, mostly of a bee collecting pollen from the flowers in our iceplant, and I said, for the fourteenth time since we got the camera "I need to learn how to use that thing..."

Then we got all gussied up like grownups and went out to dinner at a relatively new restaurant in E-town called Barracuda. They had a lot of seafood on the menu, but also lamb, beef, duck, and various nice-restauranty foods. S had the most perfect roast duck ever. It was so tender, not fatty at all, just rich and perfect. I had underwhelming but good halibut. It was a really nice meal, great service, good ambiance, I would definitely go back!

The rest of the weekend was filled with other delights: a fun but fruitless shopping excursion with my mom, watching S paint my beautiful bookcase, Olympic celebrations, and hours going through boxes of stuff in my parents' garage. I found some hilarious mementos from high school and college that were absolute gems. I don't know how to decide what to keep and what to toss!

Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day wherever you are!