San Diego Trip, Days 1 & 2

Andy, Alton and I are on vacation! The first significant getaway the three of us have had together. After two years of living in Oregon and squirreling most of our vacation time to take a long Christmas break, we decided that it was time for a trio trip. Somewhere warm and beachy. With lots to do. Easy to get to. Doesn't cost too much. We scanned our options and decided we'd get the most bang for our buck in San Diego! Coronado Island, to be exact. Since our flights and rental car would be more economical than, say, Hawaii, we opted for a short term home rental to give ourselves more space and a kitchen for our two week break. We found a cute two-bedroom cottage mere blocks from the ferry building and the Bay, a mile across the island from the ocean and one of the top 10 beaches in the US. We'd have a little deck and backyard for hanging out, and with Alton still taking a long midday nap (hoo, hope he keeps that up!), the separate bedrooms would give us freedom to pass that time doing things other than sitting frozen on the bed, which is what we'd be doing in a standard hotel room.
We arrived yesterday and the cottage is indeed adorable. Sort of "granny chic" decor, made possible (according to the owner) by thrift stores and Ikea, which makes things cute but comfy, so that you aren't constantly worried about messing up an antique from an actual granny.
The place is not without its quirks. Although the cupboards are stocked with dishes, pots and pans, small appliances and even some pantry staples, a thorough search has turned up not a single potholder for use with the cooking of the hot things. An alcove beneath the sink is home to a bevy of poisonous household cleaning supplies, but is only sealed off by a ruffly curtain! Shh, don't tell Alton about that--I'm still figuring out where in the house of no storage space I will allocate this stuff to, but for now he hasn't found it!
We have had a pleasant 24 hours settling in. Today we got to explore the little plaza at the ferry pier before Alton crashed for his nap and I betook myself to the Hotel del Coronado for a pricey pedicure in celebration of my 25 pound weight loss achievement! As I have mentioned before, Andy and I are doing a home weight watchers program together to lose weight, and since we are not paying to be in the "real" program and go to meetings, we put that money toward rewarding our milestones (and we treat ourselves to better stuff than those little bookmarks you get at WW).
We are definitely staying on track for eating and living healthy during our vacation, though. We compiled a shopping list as soon as we got to town, hitting all three grocery stores on the island to get what we needed (who knew we were so spoiled in Oregon with so many healthy, natural, and organic products to choose from? Think of that the next time you make a comment about your secluded, Amish Rhyne friends up north, hmm?) and immediately set about making a fresh, whole wheat pasta primavera for our dinner, congratulating ourselves on how organized we were to prioritize our weight management over doing the easy thing and ordering pizza, even though we were just hours into town.
Of course...we were also making the dinner effort to counterbalance the In-n-Out burgers we'd had for lunch.