We both were up unusually early this morning. It wasn’t even 7:30am! We decided to get an early start on our day, since we had a lot to do! I called my valentine, to wish him a wonderful day, thank him again for the gorgeous flowers, and thank him for the beautiful card I got yesterday. He’s really the sweetest husband in the world (at least I think so!).
Then, we got dressed and went to THE BIG KITCHEN for breakfast. I had been wanting to take Robin all week to meet Judy, the beauty, on duty, and I’m SO glad we went today and she finally got to meet Judy in person! Judy knows me by now, and always gives me a big hug when she sees me. She's SO sweet! I just love Judy, the beauty, on duty!
It was so much fun, as usual, and Robin loved it. She had an omelette and I had the grilled cheese with tuna, which is my new favorite dish there. We were totally stuffed when we left, and we headed the 12 miles to Ocean Beach.
When we got there we parked all the way down by the beach in a free parking lot and then proceeded to walk all the way down Newport Avenue going in and out of every boutique, antique shop, and antique mall. We browsed, we tried on, we oogled, we drooled, we picked up, we put down, we bought, we resisted buying.
Four hours later we were finally totally exhausted and decided we were done. We had done a LOT of damage. I bought two vintage rhinestone pins, a cigar box purse with a great jeweled handle and to greeting cards (I am going to decoupage the box, because right now it’s just a plain cigar box, but the shape is really cute and it only cost $8)!
One of the pins is a three-petal flower of black metal completely covered with clear rhinestones. The other is a crescent-shaped green rhinestone pin. They’re both gorgeous and were both very reasonable.
We went to a Valentine’s Day Soiree at VIGNETTES, which is my favorite store in all of Ocean Beach – probably in all of San Diego! Every display there is a feast for the eyes and the people who run the place are SO nice and helpful. They had all kinds of chocolates, heart-shaped brownies, champagne and lots of gorgeous and festive Valentine’s Day decorations.
Robin bought some jewelry – a 10k gold ring with jade surrounded by pearls, a pair of sterling silver earrings, and a sterling and amber pendant. As you can see, she likes the real stuff, while I’m only interested in the costume stuff.
I also bought a box of pierced earrings (about 100 pairs) for $11.40. There are at least 30 pairs in there that I will definitely wear. The rest are “maybes” or “definite nos”, and will be used for crafts. I did REALLY good on that!
When we were done, we walked all the way down to the water, along the pier, and then got back in the car to go to Coronado Island. We stopped at a cute Italian restaurant to eat, but they were fully booked (Valentine’s Day), so we sat at the bar.
I’ve sat at the bar at this great French Restaurant, La Rivage, in Manhattan and it’s really a fun experience. You actually get better service sitting at the bar than you do at a table!
We each had an Appletini and lobster bisque and then Robin had heart-shaped lobster ravioli with sun-dried tomatoes and asparagus and I had four cheese risotto. Both were exquisite! Our meal was fantastic, the company was fun (we were talking with other people at the bar, and the bartender), and then we were stuffed and completely drained of energy.
I drove by the Hotel Del Coronado to show Robin, but we were both too tired to get out and go inside! We drove home the 10 miles to the apartment and were inside by 7:00pm. When we got inside Robin started packing and I looked through all my earrings. Robin got involved and was helping me find the match to each pair. It was really fun!
Then, we went online to print out her boarding pass, so she’d have one less thing to do tomorrow morning at the airport.
I can’t believe this week has flown by so quickly. We had so many great adventures, and it was so much fun. I’m sorry she’s leaving, but I guess all good things must come to an end. At least I’ll be back in NY in about 8 weeks!
I just found out that my friend Artie will be in San Diego on business in two weeks, and we’ll be getting together on Monday, March 3rd. It will be so good to see another old friend. It’s just what I need to get me through these last 8 weeks before I come home!