San Diego (Sans Rohan!)

Last week I presented a poster at a conference (Mechanisms & Models of Cancer) at the prestigious Salk Institute.  It was a really cool conference, albeit long.  It was 8am-10pm every night from Wednesday through Saturday, but VERY informative and lots of great science being done.

The best part, is since TGEN was paying for my ticket and hotel, we got Heather & John to watch Rohan and Mara was able to come and stay the weekend with me!  It's been a while since we've done something like that, and especially since we needed a break after finally getting the house, Mara's busy schedule, and just needing a break from the heat. We definitely got a break from the heat. It was ~110°F in Phoenix, and the first couple days in San Diego, it never got above 70°F!  We have been to San Diego a couple times, but there were things we still wanted to see.  We finally got to a rock gym we've seen before, Solid Rock Gym, near the airport.  We also got to fit in a couple runs.  I ran a couple times around my hotel in Del Mar, and Mara and I both got runs in around Torrey Pines park.  We both ran on the Broken Hill Trail, which ends at a breathtaking point!  Highly recommended!

Friday  night when Mara got in we hit up a cool restaurant called Crepes and Corks in Del Mar, then hit another place to relax by a fire pit at Zel's.  We had to head back fairly early since I had one more day at the conference...:(

Saturday., after my conference,  we hit up an AMAZING sushi place, Sushi Ota, in Del Mar.  The only way to say it, was it was awesome, period.  Afterwards we hit the boardwalk and saw some awesome ships and art along the way.  We've always driven by the boardwalk, but it was great to see close up!  We also hit up Little Italy area for some dessert before calling it a late night after walking several hours around town.

Sunday we got up early and hit a coffee shop before heading to the Gas Lamp district, and one more coffee shop...called The Village Coffee & Wine Bar.  Very good lunch there, then headed to Coronado Island and walked around Spreckels Park, and then the beach where we saw some pelicans diving and even some dolphins! One last stop before we headed to the airport was a stop at our favorite coffee shop in Pacific Beach...Cafe By The Bay.  A really cool end to our trip!

We have been working on the house little by little, and hope to have a little shindig for those who can make it!  :)

Dolphins at Coronado Beach: Bird diving (really just the first 3 seconds of video...the rest is waves and wind...):