One time we got to stay in a really fancy hotel!

For the past two years Nathan has had the amazing opportunity to attend the ESRI Conference, in San Diego. 

The first year, I stayed home in Michigan with Marley. 

It was a little depressing but at least I didn't REALLY know what I was missing.

This year, me and Isi joined him. 

Marley stayed with her cousins in Utah. 

It was so awesome!

Nathan flew into San Diego from Michigan.

Isi and I flew in from Utah.

Nathan's flight got in just an hour before ours. 

We ate at the airport, cause we were hungry and weren't sure how close food would be once we got to our hotel.

We also walked all over the airport because we were early for our hotel check-in. 

I wish we would have just caught the bus and went straight to the hotel and asked if we could check in early. Chances are we probably could have and we could have eaten way better/yummier food, too. 

We had Mc Donald's at the airport. Eh.

The bus was an adventure. 

I totally doubted Nathan's -taking the bus- planning skills. 

He knew right where to go to catch the right bus.

There was even a stowing area on the bus for luggage, just like he said there would be. 

The bus was our best option since we had not planned on, nor wanted to bring the car seat.

The flight would only allow a stroller OR a car seat for free.

And I REALLY wanted the stroller.

I kept saying, "maybe we should just bring the car seat and get a shuttle."

Nathan kept saying, "No, it will be fine. There is a bus."

SO glad we didn't pay for the car seat and a shuttle.

I just held Isi in my arms on the bus and it was prefect.

Only problem was, we weren't exactly sure where to get off. 

We ended up getting off 4 -ish blocks south and west too early. 

But, guess what, it turned out perfect because we had the stroller and we were able to see what was around town. Only awkward part was we were dragging our luggage...but, it wasn't too bad with just two little roller bags.

And it really wasn't a problem because we were in San Diego BABY!

I have to say....I LOVE THAT PLACE!

Sadly, I don't know how, but I've lost some of the pictures we took. 

I think my memory card swallowed them. 

But, here's what I have. 

We stayed in the Palomar-Kimpton Hotel.

source
House of Blues, right next door, on the left.

Here is the front door.

Come on in....

That's a revolving door! So cool!

One day, while Nathan was at the conference I decided Isi and I would go to the art gallery in the hotel. I walked in and it was not really a gallery but a hallway. The "gallery" is just on the other side of this wall. Starts at the square, blue painting and ends at the wall on the left of this picture. 

I walked in with the stroller and had to back out.  

Every piece looked pretty much like that blue square painting on the right....only they were different colors. 

I thought that as I have gotten older I have become more appreciative of art.

I guess there is some art I still don't understand. 

Beautiful.

Creative.

But, I don't understand it.

Every afternoon they had ice cold, delicious beverages in the lobby.

 I think the one on the left is iced tea. The one in the middle is a melon fruitade, which was good but I'm not a melon lover. And the one on the right is fresh squeezed lemonade!

So yummy!

Here's our room! Well, our bedroom and bathroom. 

We had a livingroom too and there was a crib in there for Isi, but those pictures are gone. :(

 This room was AWESOME! 

Floor to ceiling windows behind me, taking the picture.

Huge, gorgeous drapes too.

 Nathan is now facing the bathroom and the open door behind him led to the living room.

 Peek a boo!

 We soon found that Isabelle had a diaper blow out going on.

Nathan is very calmly saying, "Put the camera down and go get the diapers!"

 Too bad they are already in that little bag right by the towel on the floor.

 Bath in the sink!

watch out for the cleavage...my bad.

 Clean baby!

 Closet included complimentary animal print robes!
What MORE could we ask for!?!?

 Ready to hit the town. Oh! This is a picture in the front room!

 We found an awesome "convenience" store a few blocks away from our hotel.

It was like a mini Walmart. It had everything! And it was all discounted. Most things were a dollar. 

We got a stain stick (the blow out), a bag of Lindor chocolates (yummy!), some snacks and drinks and deo for Nate's B.O. He forgot his deoderant. ;-)

We got Quiznos for dinner and took it back to the hotel.

It was wonderful!

We left the hotel every morning around 8 and grabbed breakfast sandwiches at Subway.

Warm and healthy....and CHEAP!!!!

We then walked Nathan to the convention center.

From there Nathan of course went inside for all the technology and mapping his heart could desire.

Isi and I walked ALL OVER!!!

The first day we walked all over the outside of the convention center. We sat on the backside on the second floor for a while, looking at Coronado and watching boats and people. 

We saw a running boot camp. 

Overweight people running in a line along the boardwalk. Trainers running along side. The back person had to sprint to the front. You could tell they were dreading being the back person. 

It looked like torture.

They were all wearing matching shirts too. 

No, it was not The Biggest Loser.

I wish it was because I'd love to see Bob!

Every day we met Nathan for lunch. 

The first day we ate at Nicky Rottens or Sloppy Joey's. 

They are right next door to each other and owned by the same person so you can order from either menu. 

Inside they are also connected, toward the back on the first floor. 

We ate on the second floor. 

It was SO good!

no pictures :(

I can't remember the name of this place but it was a Mexican place.
It was yummy!
We were seated in a raised booth and this adorable little chandelier was above our table.

This is what I call the boardwalk. It's actually a concrete sidewalk along the water. 

But, boardwalk sounds better.

We walked up and down this three out of the five days. 

The weather was just SO perfect!

If I lived in San Diego I'd walk on this everyday....and maybe eventually work up to running. 

I love the sun!

There was an itty bitty kite in the sky. 

It wasn't too far up, but far enough that I think most people didn't even know it was there. 

I think it was probably the size of my palm.

Maybe a little bigger...the size of a grown man's palm.

Had a tail, probably about a foot long?

Nobody was flying it.

It took me quite awhile to figure out what it was connected to.

Finally found the sun's glint on the fishing line it was connected to and then followed the glint to a lamp post right at the water's edge.

The fishing line was not tied there...it was a loop or hoop.

Like someone slid it over the top of the lamp post...but that was in no way possible.

This little kite was a mystery to me.

Is it a nautical technique to gauge the wind?

Why so tiny?

Why was it there?

Who put it there?

It was awesome!

It was there only one day.

That little mysterious kite brought a smile to my face.

Maybe it was there, just for ME?

This is Embarcadero Marina Park. 

It is near Seaport Village along the boardwalk.

I loved sitting in this park and nursing Isi. 

I'm a public yet well covered nurser. 

Sorry if that offends anybody.

I sat on a bench and watched that kite master.

I watched people.

There were skaters, and readers, and walkers, and kids, and teenagers, and families, and a preschool class out for a walk.

There were also musicians.

There was a saxaphone player that I couldn't see, but I could hear. 

He was SO good. 

He played EVERYTHING from Billy Joel to Black Eyed Peas to St. Elmo's Fire to tv show theme songs like LA Law and Cheers and The Fact of Life!

I totally found him and put a couple bucks in his case.

He was SO SO good!

Watched this guy for a long time too. 

He was good.

I wanted to put money in his can but, everyone that did, he thanked by TOTALLY embarrassing them by making them dance with him. 

But, he was impressive so I waited until someone else was getting embarrassed and then I hurried and put money and kept walking. 

He was funny and clever.

Anyway.

It was beautiful and so fun!

One day is family day at the conference.

So, we walked all over the convention center inside.

It's amazing how the convention center transforms for each event there.

This is the only event I've been to I can just imagine what Comic Con is like. 

I'd LOVE to go to that one year!

GIS people analyze a lot of satellite images so in one of the hallways there was a game...Where in the world?

It was cool but seemed IMPOSSIBLE to me.

I'm sure these two people got them ALL right.

This was the 

Below is when I wished Marley was there.

She would have gotten a kick out of that remote controlled dog driving a car!

This is at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was loud in there.

Isi looks so funny and cute and little in these.

We'd randomly see these little smart cars.

I guess you buy a membership of something and you can look online and see where the nearest one is, jump in, drive it to your meeting and park anywhere on the street for free.

Seems like a good idea if you work downtown.

Can you see Nate & Isi in this picture?

The last night of the conference they have a huge party in Balboa Park.

You get a wrist band and several venues (which are mostly museums) served food. 

There is entertainment all over outside.

Again, I thought I got more pictures of this...but maybe not...or they got swallowed.

They had big charter buses constantly going form the convention center to Balboa park but we decided to walk from our hotel.

It was about mile and a half and I was like, Yea! Lets do it!

Turned out it was mostly uphill.

And we left later than planned so we were walking as fast as we could. 

We had the stroller.

The venues were SO crowded we could hardly get the stroller around.

But we weren't the only ones with strollers so I didn't feel like a total idiot.

If ever we go again with a baby.

We'll take the bus and use the baby bjorn.

Each venue had a different type of food, Mediterranean, Cajun, Mexican, Asian, dessert!

It was so fun and so yummy!

It was dark by the time we left and walking back in the dark, down hill, was pretty fun and exciting. 

I love big cities and it's kind of exciting to be out late with all the lights and the night's hustle and bustle.

It's quite different than the hustle and bustle in the day.

A little scary.

And sad because there were A LOT of homeless people setting up there little camps and sleeping bags for the night.

I was carrying Isi while Nathan pushed the stroller and one homeless guy was enamored with Isi.

He saw her. Jumped up from his sleeping bag and stood in front of us.

How old is your baby?

Is it a boy or a girl?

Oh! I have a daughter!

What's her name?

Isabelle! That's beautiful!

She is so adorable!

It's been a long while since I've seen a baby!

And she's so cute!

It was a little scary at first but then it was awesome! 

I wanted to give that smelly guy a hug.

His camping buddies (4 men) were huddled around a tiny personal dvd player, watching a movie! 

Seriously, I know why there are so many homeless people in San Diego....it's perfect for camping.

He said, "God bless you."

And we returned the blessing. 

The next morning we got up SUPER early! 3am

Caught the bus about two blocks away at 4am.

It was the airport bus but there was no baggage area....so it was tight and we were lucky we were one of the first ones on. It got full.

Then the bus just stopped working when it stopped at the commuter terminal.

So we busted off and ran to our terminal.

It was an amazing adventure and so fun to play and stay in a really fancy hotel in San Deigo!

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