BlogHer11: The Venue

Last year, after attending the conference in NYC, I was so excited to hear what exotic city I’d get to explore next. And the announcement was made:

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA! COME ON DOWN! YOU’RE THE NEXT CONTESTANT ON HOST MY BLOGGING CONFERENCE.

I didn’t give it a second thought. Of course, I was going. I’ve been to San Diego a bunch of times. It’s just an airplane trip away. So off I went to buy my super early bird ticket as my Christmas present.

Then came time to plan and I realized this thing is freaking expensive. And my husband decided that since I was flying across the country, we should ALL fly across the country. So off we went.

We arrived in San Diego on Wednesday before the conference and checked in at the Marriott where we were greeted by a room with a view. I will tell you that when you have a 4 year old in the room, it’s great to have an endless supply of tugboats, barges, and various other monster ships floating by your window. Thanks for that, San Diego Harbor.

I have to admit, though, I was a little surprised by the entire BARGE of Dole containers in the harbor. Just what exactly are they shipping in all those containers. I don’t want to spread any rumors and start an international incident (since they gave me lots of free coupons and all) but I might look into exactly how much fruit Dole is shipping. And why.

Plenty of other San Diego sites to see around the harbor area. I was especially enraptured by all the bizarre vegetation. Maybe it was the drier climate or the wind but it felt a bit like bizarro world.

It wasn’t much different on the streets of San Diego. When you weren’t being harrassed by the pedicab drivers, you saw expensive exotic cars and things like this. Yeah, I don’t know what it was either.

And then there was the color of the city. In addition to the food, the people and non-people were always eccentric. The small dogs everywhere captured my heart. But this guy was definitely picture-worthy.

San Diego wasn’t just about the bizarre sites in and around the city. It’s about THE FOOD. (Well, for me, it’s always about the food.)

When you’re living in the South, you don’t exactly get exposure to fine cuisine. We met up with my longtime college friend, Dave, a resident of this wonderful city. When we asked for Mexican food, we weren’t expecting this. But it was A-MAZ-ING. Soft corn tortillas with jalapeno butter anyone?

However, being as we were tourists, we had to eat tourist Mexican food in Old Town. It was good. But I think North Carolina does Mexican better. Sorry, San Diego.

Since my husband had been tooling around the city without me, he seemed to want to pick the good food spots. He insisted I go to Hob Nob Hill for “San Diego’s Best Breakfast.”

Since it was on a TV show and all, I figured it must be good.

The eggs benedict was delicious and the kids French toast divine. But the thing that captured my heart…

…were my preflight mimosas that put me close to a coma state.

As long as we’re talking food, it might be time to move on to the conference. A conference wouldn’t be complete without fried macaroni and cheese. Thank you, Aiming Low, for your wisdom and forethought with your menu planning.

Even when we were taking a break in the Serenity Suite, I got some good snackies. This was a lovely green tea cake ball made only better by the company I was chilling with.

 

Did I mention Dove ice cream was there? I know you don’t believe me but I didn’t have one single bite of ice cream while I was there. I’m just not a big fan. However, I couldn’t help but snap this classic shot of the baby bellies indulging in ice cream. (P.S. That’s @MommyNaniBooboo on the left! Update: That’s @hollywoodhwife on the right!)

And there was lemonade to be sampled. Tropicana lemonade to be exact. In celebration of their light lemonade (sweetened with stevia) and their raspberry lemonade, they were offering manicures with pink or yellow nail polish. Tip for next year: pick  a really odd nail color and you’ll have a conversation started everywhere you go. (And yes, it got a lot of free press from me for Tropicana).

But enough of that. You know what you want to hear.

THE CELEBRITIES.

Who did I meet? Who did I mingle with? There was rumor that Sheryl Crow was in the hotel. Ricki Lake and Jane Lynch and Bob the Trainer were all there. But I didn’t meet any of them. I had a special group of celebrities lined up.

Like Mr. Pringles. He creeped me out a bit.

And then there was THE Gordon Ramsay. He was so generous to pose with me.

And yes, I found the Biebs. He’s a lot taller than I imagined.

But this was my favorite superstar of all. Those celebrities have nothing on a puppy.

After three days of nonstop conference events, day and night, I was exhausted as evidenced by my hair on my first morning post-BlogHer.

But at least I had a chance to relax after that, right? WRONG.

We spent the next day walking all over SeaWorld and the following day hiking throughout Legoland (details forthcoming).

Once the madness ended, we decided to pack up all of our souvenirs and head home. We were all set until my husband decided once again to mysteriously head out for “coffee” and returned with his souvenir from San Diego. I’ll let you know when we make our first trip to the emergency room.

My souvenir was quite a bit cheaper but oh so much more memorable.

Thanks for the beautiful weather and the beautiful memories.

Stay classy, San Diego.

Don’t forget to tune in tomorrow for the stunning conclusion of my BlogHer11 series where I talk about fabulously people, post way too many pictures of myself, and name drop like nobody’s business.