I’d be a much bigger fan of winter if it didn’t involve so much cold and darkness. The constant darkness of the season begins to wear on me after a while. That’s why Jason and I decided to take a break from winter and go to San Diego, even though we just visited that area last June. Since San Diego has plenty of sun to go around, we invited Jason’s brother Jeremy and Jeremy’s wife Kara to go with us.

While this was a quick trip, only four days, we still managed to see and experience quite a bit.

As with all Sabin outings, we ate a lot of excellent food. Not only did we revisit one of our favorite restaurants from the last trip, El Agave Tequileria, we also sampled some new cuisine. The best new restaurant we tried was definitely The Prado. Not only was the Wild Mushroom Risotto I ordered divine, but sitting out on the restaurant’s balcony surrounded by tropical flowers, fountains, vine covered pergolas, and classic Spanish architecture made the experience perfect.

We also got a chance to gobble some terrific desserts at Extraordinary Desserts. Every one of their dessert was decorated beautifully and looked more like a work of art than something to eat. But they were way too delish to just look at, so we stuffed them down. Yum!

As would be expected in a big city like San Diego, the shopping was also outstanding. I found the perfect little white sundress and even Jeremy found plenty to spend his wad on. He bought several pairs of “fancy lad” jeans-I never thought I would see that day.

In between stuffing our faces and blowing money we saw some great San Diego attractions. We went to the Wild Animal Park, the Cabrillo National Monument tide pools, the Birch Aquarium, the Hotel Del Coronado, and kayaked around the La Jolla Cove.

My favorite spot at the Wild Animal Park was Lorakeet Landing. Lorakeet Landing, as the name suggests, is full of Lorakeets. The Lorakeet is a parrot sized Australian bird with bright plumage. At Lorakeet Landing you are given a small cup of nectar to take into the birds’ enclosure. The Lorakeets love this nectar so they land all over you to get a taste of the stuff. The birds really seemed to take a fancy to me for some reason. They climbed all over my head, shoulders, and arms, but they were oddly uninterested in Jason. Honestly, being covered in birds was a bit creepy, but it was still a unique and fun experience.

At the Cabrillo National Monument tide pools we saw anemones, mussels, hermit crabs, schools of fish, and even a shy octopus (Disclaimer: technically we only saw parts of the octopus. It wouldn’t come out from under a rock.). The water was admittedly quite cold but that didn’t stop me from wading into it. It definitely stopped Jason though-he complained when he got a little drop on his big toe. Poor boy, that drop must have been freezing!

Even though we did a lot of fabulous things on our trip, my favorite part about it was just seeing the sun and feeling its warmth. How I have missed the sun these last months! Thanks to our getaway, I’m sure I will survive until spring and we have our own sweet Utah sunshine.