Flying by the Seat of Our Pants

This past week I was reunited with one of my closest friends, Jane Gray {it's a double name}, in San Diego, California.

The title of this post describes the approach we took at exploring her new stomping grounds. She and her husband Allan {also a close friend} moved to Escondido last year and will be living there for at least three more years until he is finished with seminary.

Before I entered into this baseball life, I preferred structure and boundaries... now that I've been "flying by the seat of my pants" for a few years now, I rather enjoy it... and I think it rubbed off on Jane Gray a little bit this week.

After two attempts at booking flights and then having to cancel because of unpredictable circumstances, the second one happened to be at the right time and I was able to fly from Scottsdale. We realized we had not seen each other in over a year... which didn't even feel right because of all the phone calls, facebook, and blogging of course.

San Diego was absolutely beautiful... I think because of where I'm from, anywhere coastal has a positive affect on me. But there were mountains too, so of course, I was in heaven.

We frequented the beach, hiked a beautiful trail, toured wineries, ran by the ocean and also in a 5k race, shopped 'till we dropped, ate amazing food, and explored just about everywhere within a 40 mile radius of San Diego. We were on vacation and we did whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted... life was good.

I'm going to divide this post into specific sections in attempts to tell about our vacay as simply as possible... because remember- we were all over the map this week. {That's what happens when you... {read the title}.

About the beaches...

They were much different from our white sandy beaches on the Gulf Coast... and I expected that. This 'aint my first rodeo in Southern California.

The sand was dark and the coast was rocky and mountainous... a beautiful backdrop for the dark blue water.

There were surfer dudes {and dudettes} everywhere and the water was so cold they had to wear wet suits.

You may also notice the cloudy day... Unfortunately I came during "May Gray" but the sun shone on us more than the clouds did. Clouds were actually kind of nice... something I haven't seen at all in the desert I've been living in.

The first day I arrived we took a little trip over to Coronado Island to a famous hotel on the beach.

Maybe I should call it a resort.

We toured the grounds, grabbed Starbucks, and window shopped.

Now about our hike...

This trail and beautiful view was only ten minutes from their apartment.

I took a lot of pictures... and Jane did too with her camera phone. {I don't normally pose like this when I take pictures... I think Jane just has this kind of effect on me} ;)

It was a great workout with some stunning views... you just can't beat that combination in my opinion.

The flowers were one of the highlights to me, of course.

Speaking of flowers, let's talk about the wineries...

I love touring wineries and my favorite thing about them is their flowers... and I may be the only person on the planet that thinks that way. I'm ok with that.

These were my favorites... How did you know?

Now onto the shopping...

We went to a huge mall with lots of nice stores, but our favorite place was this thrift store... notice the brand and price of these jeans... UNBELIEVABLE.

There were also no dressing rooms, obviously, so we improvised. You gotta do what you gotta do.

Now onto the food portion of the week...

One night we decided to lose the swimsuits, get dressed up and go downtown.

We ate at this charming Italian ristorante...

The food and the wine were divine... {Can you tell I love to rhyme...?}

On the first day I arrived, Jane took me to lunch at a charming little cafe in Del Mar. It was lovely!

Since I'm talking so much about food, I'll move onto our beautiful scenic runs.

We were casually running along the road near the beach {on Hwy 101} and looked to our right and then down...

It was breathtaking! {A photo does not do it justice}

You talk about a good distraction... It's amazing how hard I've been having to push myself on my runs and then on that day, it was a breeze... literally.

On Saturday, we ran a 5k through the San Diego zoo for the hospital she works at... It was benefitting liver transplant patients.  The animals didn't know what to think when all those people came running through!

I also want to show y'all their cute little home...

It is tiny and cozy apartment with a "homey" southern feel... and adorned with fresh flowers of course.

Sure, visiting San Diego and seeing all there was to see made up several highlights of my week there, but spending quality time with two of my closest friends was more special than anything we "did".

What's between these pictures is long talks over coffee, slumber parties in the living room, trying not to wet our pants over college pictures and videos we found... a lot of things that a photograph really can't show.

But I know you can take one look at these pictures and see how much fun we had together... We took the "go with the flow" approach to life this week and discovered how much you can do when you don't make plans and just fly by the seat of your pants.

It was the trip of a lifetime and about as "blog-worthy" as it gets!