san diegoooooo!

My cousin, whom I've actually never met, got married!

When I got the invite, I didn't really even consider going...until my sister put the seed of possibility into my head.  Then, after much deliberation (not to mention contorting of Mitch's work schedule to accommodate it) I decided to fly out with my sister Elika to San Diego for the wedding!

We initially tried to fly directly into San Diego, but due to an Alaska flight that went kaput, they rolled over a ton of passengers from Alaska...bumping us off.  SO, we instead flew into Las Vegas on a red-eye with an impromptu road trip thrown into the mix! 

Here we are....finally off to Vegas!

 See?  Proof we drove along the strip.  Which is pretty much all we saw in Vegas.

 Oh, except for the inside of Hash House a Go Go.

Where I was supposed to meet up with a friend, however I got the restaurant wrong and ended up in a different Hash House than her.  My bad!

Here's me with my NY Times recommended Chicken and Waffles.

It was ginormous!

 Do we look tired?  We were!

And...here's the "after" shot.

Seriously, I ate one waffle and maybe 3 bites of a chicken and took the rest to go.

I think this plate was made to feed 4 people!

 

Ahh...road trip.

This was my very first road trip.  As in, where I actually did the driving!

Can you tell I was nervous!

Plus, running on very little sleep, I was a tad worried about the 5 hour drive to San Diego, but fortunately we made it safe and sound!

 So, needless to say, when we got to San Diego, Elika and I were pooped!

We took a short nap at our hotel before picking up our Dad to do some sight seeing.

We happened upon Old Town San Diego...on the busiest weekend in the history of the area!

Yup, Cinco de Mayo weekend in Old Town= huge festivites & NO parking!

But we managed to squeeze into a spot (which turned out to NOT be a parking spot...you'll see the results of THAT fiasco later) and strolled around this little historic park.

 Where we bought ourselves a pretty authentic taco.

(Sombrero not included.)

Our taco. Which was pretty yummy!

 This cute little touristy town had a ton of fun shops like they did back in the day...with people dressed in costumes from that day, to boot!

We bought some yummy chocolate from this little shop.  :)

 And got ourselves some yummy root beer float from this shop. 

And then got back to our rental car to find this.

Yup, apparently our "parking spot" wasn't an official parking stall after all.

Grr....perfect ending to a LONG day.

 Oh, but this almost made up for it.

Yelp'd a yummy sushi place near by to console our tired souls.

 The next morning was the wedding day.

This was my very first time visiting the San Diego temple...and it was BEAUTIFUL!

 It was especially nice being able to spend some time with my Dad as well.

This was my very first trip without any kids...so to be able to relax and spend this time with my sister and Dad was so great!

I love this temple!

 Me in front of the temple...or, I guess more to the side of the temple.

Ah, and the wedding couple.

Weird to say, but this was my very first time meeting my cousin Kei!

 Here we are with my Auntie Midori and Dad.

Haven't seen my Auntie in years!

And it was so great to meet our cousin Kei!

She was a beautiful bride and looked so happy!

I love weddings!

 After the wedding, we had a little while before we had to go to the wedding luncheon and then reception, so I had to sneak in some fish tacos.

These weren't at any fancy place, but some chain restaurant in La Jolla...but they were still super yummy!

OH, and lucky duckies that we were...we stepped outside to discover a Sprinkle's Cupcakes (From Food Network's Cupcake Wars) right next door!!

Had myself a chocolate marshmallow cupcake from there.

The Verdict:  It was aaalright.  Nothing to toot any horns over, but I suppose the novelty of eating one of their cupcakes was worth it!

 So, after resting a bit, we drove out to the reception site.

A cute little barn in the country.

See the plates of sushi?

Elika and I cut them all up!

My plate of food.  I pretty much snacked the entire time, thank you very much.

 The wedding cake.  Purple was her theme color.

 The welcome table.

It was a really cute and simple reception...just like Kei and her new husband, I'm sure.

 So, after a whirlwind of a weekend, we are headed back home.

Here we are at San Diego airport...where there must be quite a lot of old folks because they have rocking chairs in the waiting room!

How fun is that?!

 Yea, we kinda got a kick out of it.

It was a super short but jam-packed trip for Elika and I.

And by the end of the 3 days, we were ready to go back home to our families and our own beds.  

I know I missed my kids...and I don't doubt that Mitch was anxious to release the parental reins back to me.  

Elika and I kept saying how after 3 days away from the kids and work (not for me since I don't work) and etc., we felt rejuvenated and ready to get back into the swing of things.

Which happened much earlier for me since we got home on Sunday and as soon as we landed I had to gather the kids together and head to church for 3 hours...but all-in-all, it was a great trip and I'm so glad I was able to go!

Thanks Mitch (and Dean) for watching the kids and letting us get away for a couple of days!!

To check out all the pictures I took from our trip, click HERE!