Hi readers. Emmie here to blog about part II of our San Diego adventure which took place in Carlsbad, north of San Diego. Reference map below.
If you read the post about Parm's birthday, and you should have, then you would know that we, specifically Parm, were (Kerri) strugs when we arrived in Carlsbad around 3PM to see Katie's Uncle Dan and Aunt Lisa. So much so, that when we stopped to get Jack in the Box on the way there, Parm stayed in the car with her tiger cup she got at the zoo.We knew it was going to be an awesome weekend plus Monday when the following happened in the span of one hour:
- Dan and Lisa, after being regaled with stories of the previous night, responded "so then you'll be wanting some tequila shots or margaritas?"They were mocking us, but would have prepared them had we said yes. I liked them already. We also taught Dan and Lisa the lingo we started using to be ironic but unfortunately have recently started actually using like "legit" and "totes."
- Dan, an avid blog reader, immediately suggested we clean out the cooler upon unloading the car (reference the Yosemite post for more information). I have never been so satisfied in my life as when we were finished hosing that sucker down on the side of their house. This deserves a photo montage:
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| This was right before we found the moldy bread. Advice for our readers: never unload a smelly cooler when you are hungover. I'm surprised we didn't auto-vomit. |
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| If only this were a sandblaster |
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Parm gettin' up in thurrrr
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| Sheer joy |
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| San Diego nightlife may have beaten us the night before. But we showed this cooler who's boss. |
- Lisa had folded the toilet paper in the our guest room into a cute little point. It should also be noted that Lisa was vocal about toilet paper needing to roll from the top, and she asserts that it is a weird male gene floating around that causes men to put toilet paper on the roll such that it pulls from the bottom. She even carried a roll out into the kitchen to demonstrate appropriate technique. A woman who understands me.
- Lisa and Dan both suggested drinking some zip-fizz to help pump us up. Apparently, zip-fizz is a powder you mix with water, and it has a high level of B12, but very little caffeine. It helps give you energy without causing you to crash. And, Lisa and Dan claim, if you drink it before a night of drinking, it helps prevent hangovers. We intend to test that theory.
- They had balloons for Parm, a cake and enough flavors of ice cream to stock a Baskin Robbins. Very thoughtful!
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| Parm making her birthday wish. If I had to guess, it went something like this: "I want to be an Olympic gold medal winning ice skater and I want a lifetime supply of pre-mixed brownie batter." |
Once we were settled, Katie and I went on a quick run around the Carlsbad lagoon about a quarter mile from Dan and Lisa's house...after drinking pink lemonade zipp-fizz, of course. It was a dirt trail with no bikes, but full of people out walking and running. Everyone is so active in San Diego, probably because the weather is consistently GORGEOUS. When we returned, Lisa had whipped up a delicious pizza and salad for dinner.
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| NOMS! |
After dinner we headed down into Encinitas to a surf shop called Surfy Surfy where we heard some live music and they were handing out free beers...wahoo! We browsed and learned that this particular shop had many BRO DEALS
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| pronounced "BRAAA deals" on surfboards. Which may come in handy later...as you will read. |
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| Dan and the ladies checking out gear |
Next we traveled down the street to the alehouse to sample some local brewskis and watch the Tour de France. We concluded that the Tour de France is confusing and we don't really understand why there is a whole team of riders out there just meant to flank one person who they feel will ultimately win. What if you are on Lance's team, and you just decide that you want to blow by him for the win? Who's stopping you? Anywho, Parm's beer was hands down the ladies favorite, Shipyard smashed blueberry.
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| Uncle Dan and his favorite Colorado niece over 21 |
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We think the guy in the green behind Parm got stood up... He was very cute so we were close to offering to be his date(s)
We also learned what PETA really stands for.... |
Then we came home and had some more ice cream before bed. A solid day all around.
Day Two
We woke up to the smell of Uncle Dan's delicious egg creation, as well as William-Sonoma croissants, a staple at any McGuckin weekend breakfast.
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| More NOMS |
L
isa and Dan were quick to inform us that now that we'd had a power breakfast, we had no excuse for not standing up while surfing this afternoon on the beach. Lisa initially was not going to come with us, but we told her that we would have to put that on the blog. “Oh my gosh,” she exclaimed “Dan, they’re black blogging me!” Needless to say we convinced her to come and we used the blog as leverage for most of the rest of our trip. And we’ve been incorporating the term “black blog” whenever possible.
As we pull out of the driveway and head down the street with three surfboards strapped to the top of Dan and Lisa’s SUV, we hear what can only be described as farting noises. Lisa gives Dan “the look” from the passenger seat and says only “…honey…” But Dan assures us that while not acoustically desirable, the noises are just wind passing through the boards and it’s nothing to worry about. Not like last time. “Last time?” we ask.
Dan proceeds to explain that several years ago he had three boards strapped to the top of his car, and as he was going down the highway, he heard a noise. He looked in the rear view mirror, but didn’t see anything behind him on the road, so he figured the surfboards must still be securely fastened to the top. Upon second glance in the rear view mirror, he saw cars zig-zagging across the road behind him as if avoiding land mines. The surfboards had flown straight up in the air and were now landing on the highway behind him like birds shot out of the sky. Talk about defensive driving. No one and nothing was hurt. Except for the boards and maybe Dan’s pride.
We arrived at the beach just south of Swamie’s (as referenced in the famous Beach Boys song “Surfing USA.” I know, we are totes legit), parked the car, and Dan taught us how to carry the surfboards down to the beach. It wasn’t ten seconds after removing the surfboards from the top of the car, that Katie almost impaled me with hers while trying to turn around. Had I not ducked and covered into the street our next stop would have been the hospital. We were off to an awesome start.
Once on the beach, we liberally applied sun screen to our slowly browning Wisconsin skin, and coach Dan had us do some warm-ups and practice popping up on our boards. Check out that form!
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| Katie would call this "gooping up" I think that sounds gross. |
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| Aunt Lisa and her favorite Colorado niece over 21 years old |
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| Dan demonstrating proper form |
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BOOM!
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And in the water we went. Realizations:
1. Pacific waves in this area ARE NOT like east coast waves…they are huge and will mess you up.
2. Bikinis, while stylish and sexy, do not stay on well while surfing. You’re welcome fellow beach-goers and surfer dudes for the several free shows you received over our six or so hours on the beach.
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| Parm looking like a local. Hot pic right? |
3. Surfing is way harder than it looks. The hardest part is actually getting back out into the surf after riding a wave in and trying to prevent your surfboard from smacking you in the face. And paddling hard enough to actually catch waves. And getting up from your stomach into your stance. So, yeah, it’s hard.
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| Katie standing up...we got photo evidence! |
4. Surfing is also super fun, and “super totes legit!” We all managed to stand up on our boards at one point or another, though typically short-lived and often ending like this:
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| I was standing up a second before this pic was taken...gnarly wipeout. |
In fact, it was only shortly after this picture was taken that I fought the ocean, and the ocean beat me like rented mule (that was for you Mike and Mat.) Forty-five minutes into our surfing adventure, I had a GNARLY wipe out, even gnarlier than the picture above. I crawled up from the ocean floor, grabbed my board, and began wiping the water from my eyes. I was checking out the huge bruise forming on my hip and a cut on the back of my leg, when I heard a dude on shore just a few feet from me say, “whoa, that’s sick. You’ve gotta get that board out of the water.” It took me a minute to realize he was talking to me, but once I did, I looked up to find my surfboard like this:
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| It looks like it has a tongue. |
My response: “OH SH*T!”
As I sheepishly pulled my board ashore, Lisa checked to make sure I was ok, and then laughed so hard I thought she might wet her pants. Dan came in from the surf and proceeded to tell me he was in the market for a new surfboard anyway. They were very gracious about my expensive mistake, but needless to say I took a break for an hour or so to recover.
We continued surfing with our two remaining boards (I did surf one more time, but downgraded to boogie boarding for part of the afternoon), and we were joined mid-afternoon by Katie’s friends Mica and Ronnie who live up on Orange County. They told us all about their lives in Cali, and brought the word “ag” into our vocabulary. It is a synonym of the word “sick” so either used to describe something that is really good, or really bad. So those waves were “ag!”
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| Mika, Ronnie and us pre-sneak wave |
As the day went on, we built a sweet sand-trap to help block the tide from reaching our towels. Unfortunately, not a single one of us has an engineering degree, and a sneak wave came in from the side of our sand wall, absolutely soaking half of our stuff. We shrieked like sissies and threw anything electronic up onto the rocks. But never fear, shortly after Aunt Lisa and Uncle Dan arrived with tacos and quesadillas, and wouldn’t you know it, we had a sweet make-shift table on which to eat our lunch. You're welcome :)
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| Katie is really liking that taco |
After a quick drive home and some showers, we headed back to Pacific Beach, about twenty minutes from Dan and Lisa’s home, to meet up with one of Parm’s friends from high school and college, Gene. He is currently living in the area working as an engineer (good thing he wasn’t wearing a tie, right Katie ;) Parm and Gene got to catch-up during a little beach volleyball and talk about home and mutual friends. We forgot to take a picture while we were hanging out, but they sent us one from a restaurant after the fact because they wanted to make sure they made the blog!
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| Gene and crew |
Meanwhile, I discovered one of Gene’s friends, Tyler, was from Pittsburgh, more specifically my rival high school, Upper St. Clair. After putting our innate hatred aside and talking Pittsburgh sports for about 15 minutes, he informed me that Max Talbot of the Pittsburgh Penguins had been picked up by the Flyers. I hadn’t heard this news, and have had plans for about two years now to marry Max Talbot. This is such a well-known fact, that Katie and Parm were devastated FOR me. My new friend responded to my devastation as if I had told him I was marrying an ax-murderer. “Well you can’t marry him NOW. Whatever imaginary relationship you had with him, it’s over. He’s a Flyer.” He’s right. It's completely irreconcilable. He did tell me that there was a Pittsburgh bar just around the corner though, so I got a quick photo.
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| Black and Yellow |
We had planned to stop and get some dinner with Gene and friends, but it was getting late and not all of us had our IDs so we headed back and had some leftovers for dinner. It was an excellent day!
Day Three
The next morning, I had to take calls for my future position out in CA. I am ashamed to say, that I was exhausted from approximately one hour of real work. How the Emmie of two months ago would have snickered.
In the meantime, Katie and Parm went on a 10 mile or so bike ride that led them down to the beach. They came back sweaty and in spandex, so it is safe to assume that they had a good time and that the scenery was beautiful because all of San Diego was beautiful.
Lisa made us some delicious sandwiches for lunch and then we got prepped to go sea kayaking! Dan came home early from work around 2PM to take us- thanks Dan! We also black-blogged Lisa into coming again, because we love to hang out with her.
After loading two kayaks on top of the car and a brief stop at LabCorp (my arch nemesis) for Uncle Dan to get blood work, we arrived at La Jolla beach. Dan and Lisa helped us rent some additional kayaks, and Katie's cousin Lindsay joined us. Then we headed out into the waves.
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| Not a whole lot of paddling going on at this point. Mostly chatting. |
After watching several other first timers get knocked over trying to enter the surf, we were a little bit leary as we put on our life jackets. What if this is like the surfboard all over again? Lisa assured me that if we break a kayak then we are probably in big trouble because the only way that could happen is if we are dashed against rocks. Hmmmmmm, note to self, stay away from rocks.
We made it out into the ocean without incident and paddled down the La Jolla coast. We saw another kayaker stuck in a tide pool near a cave, we saw a very active seal, and we watched Uncle Dan attach his kayak to Katie's kayak and make her pull him back towards shore as if she were a sled dog. Very entertaining if you ask me.
The best part, however, was coming in. You can surf the waves on your kayak using the same concepts as surfing to catch waves with surfboards. We were much more successful at surfing with kayaks than actual surfing, it was very fun.
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Snacks and drinks after a successful kayaking mission. We made the "cowabunga" symbol as Katie is demonstrating a lot, alerting anyone who didn't already know that we are not from San Diego.
Then we picked up Lindsay's adorable dog Kingston (he looks like Chance from Homeward Bound) and it was time for delicious dinner at a Besta-Wan. Dan and Lisa love tequila, so as a thank you gift/sorry I broke your surfboard gift, we presented them with some new tequila. And we took a celebratory shot!
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Lessons Learned from Lisa and Dan:
- There is nothing zip-fizz won't cure
- Again, NEVER turn your back to the ocean!
- You can strap pretty much anything to the top of an SUV given proper determination
- Life is too short to drink bad tequila
- Dan and Lisa are legitimately totes legit! They not only could keep up with us, but we had to keep up with them.
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| Dan and Lisa, totally ag! |
Thank you, thank you, thank you for a wonderful few days in Carlsbad! We had so much fun and we love San Diego.
We did NOT want to leave the next morning. Apparently Hershey, their adorable doggie, did not want us to leave either because she plunked herself down over the garage door sensor.
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| More cute doggies! |
And off we went to Phoenix, but not before a long overdue stop and In-n-out for Parm's first experience. She ordered her burger "animal style" (with grilled onions) like a pro.
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| She was much more excited about this than Jack in the Box 72 hours before. |
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| Ordering it and eating it animal style |
Then we changed Snoop's air filter before crossing the desert. I offered to pay someone to lick that. Surprisingly, no one took me up on it.
And we were off to Phoenix to see the grandparents. Goodbye California! In the words of your ex-governor, "I'll be back."
