Flew out to San Diego last weekend for a last-minute work trip.  Was only out there for two days, but had time in the mornings to explore a bit.

These last few weeks haven’t been the greatest, but the sunshine and fresh air was good for my soul.  Just what I needed!  Love love loved it and can’t wait to go back!

Saturday Afternoon:
Eating a late lunch outside at Don Chido in the Gaslamp Quarter 

Evening beer and doing some work near the rooftop pool at the hotel.  (Yoga by the pool the next morning was even better 🙂

Sunday Morning:
Foggy morning walk along Pacific Beach.  The trolley/bus ride out there was a little sketchy…won’t be doing that again.

Sunday afternoon/evening:
Spent most of the afternoon at a conference.  Had Greek tacos at Meze for lunch – excellent! 

Quick stroll through World Market on my lunch break.  Connecticut needs one of these!

Gorgeous view from the conference center

Had dinner with our students at Saja.  Can’t believe some of them will be graduating in a month, so proud of them! 

Monday Morning:
Borrowed a bike from the hotel and road along the bay for a few hours before having to head back to the airport.  Had a perfect sunny morning for it.  Can’t wait to go back!  I’m already starting my list of places to go next time 🙂

  Can you tell that I love taking picture of boats?!

That’s all for now!  Have a good week 🙂

Love,
Dora

Toured four more houses on day 2. The houses that look smaller, and perhaps not as impressive from the outside, in the tour guide book actually turned out to be the most impressive on the inside. Since photos weren’t allowed inside, you’ll just have to take my word for it.

Hawthorne (1814).  Tour guides were definitely having the most fun at this house.  I’d say it was also the most “livable” of all that we toured.

Elms Court (1837).  I wasn’t a huge fan of the interior, but the exterior is quite impressive.  Also had very nice gardens.  The next few pictures show the grounds.

Stanton Hall (circa 1858).  Currently owned and fully restored by the Pilgrimage Garden Club.  Reminded me of a Newport, RI Party Mansion.

In my opinion, The Burn (1832) was the nicest house of all of those that we toured.  The home is actually much larger than it appears here, but my phone died before I could get more pictures from the back. It was nice to see the owners giving the tour here, seemed to know their history quite well! This house is also a B&B and looked quite nice.

Then after driving around for 30 minutes trying to find a place to eat that was open on a Sunday, we found this nifty little pub called King’s Tavern and spent the rest of the afternoon sipping craft beers and cocktails. It is actually located in the basement of the oldest building in Natchez (1769) and carries a lot of history…ghost stories and all.

Neat bar, made out of recycled barrels.

Loved the atmosphere, very laid back…

My family 🙂

Full menu of classic cocktails…mint julep.

And last but NEVER least…shrimp and grits!  No trip to the south is complete without it 🙂

Hope you’ve enjoyed the photo tour.

Love,

Dora

Thankful to have had the chance to escape this long winter to spend a few days thawing out with my parents and brother down in Natchez, MS last weekend. Spent 2 days touring antebellum homes during Spring Pilgrimage and eating southern cuisine! Here are photos from the first day.

Flew into Memphis and started things off right with BBQ pulled pork before heading south.

Had dinner in Natchez at Pearl Street Pasta, definitely the best meal of the trip. Excellent red fish!

We toured 4 houses each day. Linden (circa 1790) was the first house we toured.

Longwood (1861) is a home that was never finished. While the outside was complete, work on the inside was put on hold when the civil war began and was never finished as the owner passed away 3 years later. While I am sure it would have been amazing to see finished, it was neat to see and take pictures of the raw structure. The grounds around the house were also nice to walk, very serene.

Then we had lunch at Mammy’s Cupboard, and yes, you can sit and eat in her dress :-). Loved the turkey sandwich with blueberry chutney. Will have to learn how to make this once summer rolls around. The pie was also very good, and they’ve got quite the list!

Next up was Richmond (1784), which looks like a Greek Revival from the front.

But if you look from the side, you can see where there have been two additions in different styles of architecture.  The middle of the house was the original in French Plantation (1784), then the Greek Revival front was added (1832), followed by the Colonial addition on the back (1860).

Last was The Elms, which is now a B&B.  House was okay, loved the huge front porch and the front yard.

Inside of St. Mary Basilica.

Random photo that turned out to look like a Beatles tribute.  Can you name the album?

Had dinner at Magnolia Grill.  The river view was nice, the food was average and a bit pricey.

Overcast evening on the Mississippi.

Stay tuned for Day 2 photos…

We’ve been back from vacation for well over a month now and I’m really late on getting these pictures up, but I feel like I need to share them anyway because we absolutely LOVED this place!  Dauphin Island, AL is my new idea of paradise…spent an entire week with my family in a beautiful house with lots of time spent sitting on the beach, hunting for seashells, cooking, flying kites, fishing, playing bocce and relaxing…all in honor of my grandmothers 80th Birthday!  Hopefully we will get back there again some day.

We rented bikes to get around on the island