Ok, this is it gang – the final installment of our California adventures and then we’ll get on with business of May (since tomorrow is JUNE!)…
We spent Friday morning at Liberty Public Market, a large food hall near the airport packed with vendors selling tacos and macarons and fresh-squeezed juices. Juliette and I grabbed a latte and a steamer and wandered around while munching on a flaky croissant. We each carefully selected our treats – a meat empanada for Shane, a bag of radioactive-colored popcorn for Juliette, and a dainty pair of gold earrings for me! Score, score, score.
We left the market late morning and headed up to Del Mar to claim our lunch reservations at Poseidon. First, though, a few beach sprints:
I opened the stopwatch on my phone and stretched out on a towel while Juliette spent several minutes seeing if she could dart to the water’s edge and back in less than 30 seconds (she could!).
The patio at Poseidon was the perfect place to sip Bloody Mary’s and chow down on Cioppino (or Sprite and coconut shrimp for the little track star).
The afternoon was a lazy blur of napping and puzzling back at the house. We headed to La Jolla Cove again in the evening to wander around the tide pools and hunt for crabs.
Anenomes!
We took the steps down to our favorite little stretch of beach and played some whiffle ball, since the water was feeling particularly chilly that evening.
I mean, this little beach. COME ON!
We joined a crowd of people to watch this guy propose to his girlfriend on a petal-strewn bluff (spoiler:Â she said yes), then grabbed dinner in town and called it a night.
We took our time packing up on Saturday morning, reluctant to leave our cozy cottage. I put the final pieces in the 80% brown puzzle I’d been working on all week while Juliette finished up the surf shop Lego set she’d scored on Thursday. Ta-daaaa!
We drove over to University Heights for brunch at Madison, an uber-cool restaurant opened and owned by one of Shane’s high school buddies. The charcoal mimosa was…interesting, the breakfast tacos were spot-on, and the waffle churros were a definite crowd pleaser.
We had a few hours before our evening flight, so we went down to Mission Beach for one last fix. The water was every shade of aqua down here!
We had left all of the beach toys and towels back at the AirBnB, so we made do with games of “bury Mama’s feet in the sand” and “see how big a hole you can dig”.
Plus, more sprints.
Hot damn, beach life suits you, kiddo.
We snapped one last family pic, stopped for acai bowls on the way to the airport, and then called it a wrap. I want to say I was ready to get home, but…not so much. Not yet.
It’s hard to put into words just how happy I was during these few days with my two favorites. Not only during the spectacular ocean-view sunsets or the thrilling roller-coaster rides, but in those simple moments, when we all doubled over with laughter at lunch because of Juliette’s impression of Shane, in which she squints her eyes and scratches her armpits and talks in a super-low voice. I loved our nightly hot tub ritual, where we played animal charades and recounted our favorite parts of the day and watched clouds pass in front of the nearly-full moon. It felt so good to have Juliette crawl into bed with us at 2 am and ask me to snuggle her close.  I’m so thankful for this little family of mine, for a chance to unplug and reconnect and be reminded that life is exceedingly, heart-achingly good.