April 2012: Week Three

While Aunt Patty was in town, Shad worked the first half of the week & besides showing her the ropes, Cashe & I thought we'd show her some of the sites. 

It looks as if I caught Cashe skipping down the trail that runs along the canyon.  He's just running though -- I wish he was skipping -- that'd make it a bit more fun.

Again, it looks as if his little head is tipped sideways & he's skipping down the path.  Undoubtedly, that's just his hat blown to one side from the gusts of wind.

So, the whole point of Auntie Patty's visit was to watch Cashe for 5 days while we traveled to San Diego for Shad's work quota trip. 

A quota trip is for the sales reps & their wives as a reward for making their sales goal as a district the year prior.  Becauase Shad started working for Lilly in December, he didn't contribute to the goal; however they still allowed us to go.  AND, to top it all off, each COUPLE received $4,000 to spend on the trip however they pleased. 

Watch out, San Diego!  Here we come!
This was taken at the Seattle airport during our layover in front of the BSU (right before we boarded our First Class upgraded seats to San Diego -- okay, I'll stop boasting -- it was an awfully nice perk though!)

When we got to the rental car parking lot, we were able to choose from any of the cars we wanted.  The guy at the lot convinced us that the COOLEST car was the new Buick.  We took his word for it.  It was a beautiful car & it had a push-start button, which killed me.  So bizarre.

This was taken outside of our hotel on Coronado Island.

Our first night consisted of a super fancy dinner to Donovan's Steakhouse in downtown San Diego.  It was phenomenal.  Shad had the steak & I had the ahi -- the bill came to $250.00.  Wow.

The following morning, we put our robes on & drank coffee on our veranda overlooking the harbor.  It was fabulous!

That afternoon we had a team-building activity on a sailboat.  All the sales reps & their wives learned how to sail a sailboat.  It was wild -- & SO complicated.  Everyone was so kind though (the sail staff AND Shad's coworkers).  It was a great time!

This is Shad & "Pete the Postman" (he used to be a postman he said).  They're basically turning the back end of the sailboat with this manuever.

Here Shad & I are a team.  I'm waiting for the 'go ahead' to start turning the handles.

Here I am listening for when to stop & turn the other direction.  It was hard work!

Steering the boat with the giant steering wheel was much easier!

I'm quite the pro.

That night we went to dinner at a seafood restaurant where you order your seafood by the pound.  They season it for you in the shell & bring it to you in a bag.  You peel it yourself & eat it.  I ordered 1lb of shrimp (that came to me with the heads on them!) & 1lb of crab.  I managed to eat all the shrimp by myself (because the heads grossed out my husband).  Shad DID help me scarf down the crab legs though. 
The kicker -- like a genius, I wore a white button down shirt & pearls to dinner.  I got all sorts of strange looks & by the time the meal was over, I knew why - I was a MESS!

After dinner, we got coffees & walked along the beach in Coronado.  It was incredible.  The sand was SO soft.

Shad went golfing with his coworkers the following morning, so I met up with a friend I hadn't seen in YEARS, who I knew I probably wouldn't get to see unless I made the time on this trip.  Jen picked me up in Coronado & we did a tiny bit of shopping before we had lunch reservations back in Coronado.

This is giganto, delicious dessert #1 for the day: a chocolate lava cake that took 30 minutes to make!  (They required that you order it 30 minutes in advance according to the menu.) 
In addition to the great dessert, we had a beautiful view!

After an afternoon at the spa (hence my 'relaxed' appearance) & a yummo sushi dinner, we headed to this place called, "Extraordinary Desserts". 
In my opinion, it could've had 12 more adjectives added to 'extraordinary'. 
It was EXTRAORDINARY -- a.k.a. my favorite part of the trip.

Shad ordered the NY Cheesecake & I got the raspberry parfait.  It was SO SO SO good.

The following day we went to a Lakers game against Oklahoma City.  We had debated back & forth about driving 2 hours to do this, but it's something Shad had always wished he had done while we lived in So Cal & we never did.  And why not spend someone else's money to go?

Because we still wanted to spend some moolah on $250 steak dinners & the spa, we opted for NOT getting floor seats next to Jack Nicholson.  We DID get great seats, however & I STILL got to see Jack & it was his birthday that day!  (I wasn't bold enough to go give him a great big birthday hug though.)

You can see Kobe to the left here -- & we got to see a few other celebs, including Steven Spielberg & some dude from an HBO show Shad watches called, Entourage. 

The best part of our seat selection were our neighbors, Malisa & Nathan from Bakersfield.  We had JUST met them & totally hit it off & hung out with them for the remainder of the afternoon.

Malisa & I exchanged info & have stayed in touch & talk about planning some future trips together OR maybe go in on 4 Laker Season Tickets.  

Shad & Nathan made some new friends at the ESPN zone.

Miss Malisa spotted this Lakers fan from a mile away & had to mess with him.  What a hoot!

And of course, he was totally into her too!
(...even though she's from Oklahoma & was NOT rooting for the Lakers that day.)

Trying to organize a photo in front of the Staples Center. 
(I'm surprised the guy who had our camera didn't walk off with it since none of us were paying attention.)

... now we are.  Go Lakers!

We all separated to go to our cars & get something to eat -- we totally lost the boys & traffic was insane, so we made the most of our time at stoplights!  What fun -- thanks, guys!