My (first) Summer Vacation

Last night I got back from a trip to San Diego with Chris, Missy and Lucie. They rented a house in Del Mar and were gracious enough to ask me to join them. I couldn't pass up spending time with my adorable niece or taking advantage of the one week that I actually wasn't traveling for work during the month of June. So I took the entire week off of work and enjoyed 4 days in Austin getting caught up on life - oil change, inspection, Buster's vet check up, etc.

And then I took off to (not so) sunny San Diego. Apparently 'June Gloom' is legit. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining at all! The temps were perfect and it was so nice not to sweat except when running. The house they rented was beautiful and had an amazing view of the beach. We were a 1/2 mile walk from town and I took advantage of walking everywhere. I was also pleased to find that the sun rose at 5am! This is a dream come true for me. Many of you know I think that Austin is too far west in the Central Time Zone. I hate that the sun never rises very early, even on the longest day of the year. So the early sunrise made for an early wake up for all of us.

I enjoyed sitting on the patio drinking coffee each morning, playing Scrabble (and winning our 'Scrabble off") with Chris, watching Lucie point to birds and airplanes as they flew by, taking long walks, pushing Lucie on the swings in the park, eating fresh seafood, drinking great local wines and running on the beach.

All in all it was a pretty ideal vacation. As always, I'm happy to come home and was glad to have one more day off in Austin before heading back to work (and California again) this week.

Suffice it to say I've done nothing new around the house. But I am meeting with a colleague's husband later this week to start plans for my dream patio (crushed granite, fence lined native plants, new deck steps) so maybe that will be next.

But for now I'll continue to smile when looking at pictures of Lucie petting goats, playing on the beach and the most adorable panda bear cub who was literally hanging over a tree limb when we were at the San Diego zoo.