Renee's Writes: New Years Road Trip

Tuesday after Christmas, I came home from work and asked Natalie if she wanted to go to San Diego for New Years. She said yes - I knew she would! Then I asked my friend Stephanie if she wanted to go with us. Of course she did!

Friday afternoon, I got off work a little early and rushed home to pick up Natalie. As she carried her bags out to the car, she also had her fuchsia pink aluminum baseball bat - child size - with her. She must have read my mind as I was looking at her oddly because she patted her bat and told me, "for protection." At least she wasn't planning on clubbing baby seals I guess.

Then a mile or two down the road, Natalie realized she put her bat in the trunk. At lot of good that was going to do us. Then she tells me she has a razor and that she would be like, "I'll cut you fool" to any would-be-attackers. "Uh, Natalie. I'm sure your lady Shick has a safety guard on it. Won't do much damage" I tell her. Luckily, we didn't need to use her bat - or her razor - on anyone.

So we head into Buckeye to pick up Stephanie, grab some Wendy's for dinner, fuel up, and hit the road. It was a smooth drive over. We had the iPod going, came up with a plan to help Steph get payback on a harassing co-worker, made it through 2 border check points pretty quickly, and amazingly enough didn't even have to stop once for anyone to pee. We got into San Diego pretty late, found our hotel on Shelter Island, and settled into our room.

Saturday morning, we got up early and headed out to sight see around town after breakfast. We did some walking, shopping at Seaport Village, had lunch in Little Italy, more walking and shopping, got some supplies for New Years, and then drove out to Sunset Cliffs to watch the sun go down - except the marine layer had already come in and we couldn't see the sun at all. After chilling in the room for awhile, we headed out to pick out a fire pit and get some mexican food.

After dinner, we went over to the beach across from our hotel and got a nice fire going. We laid out towels to sit on and began our count down to 2012. We had a minor set back when we didn't have a bottle opener for the Martinelli's Natalie and Steph got to drink at midnight but luckily the guys in the fire pit next to us knew how to open a bottle with a lighter. (And now we do too.) At midnight we stood up and cheered like idiots, then made several red-solo-cup toasts to each other. It was the most fun I've had on New Years - possibly ever.

Sunday, we slept in and then after breakfast, packed up and checked out of the room. We drove over to Coronado Island and walked along the beach for a bit. It was such a perfect day! Then we drove back over to (a different part) of Seaport Village to do a little more shopping before heading out of town.

Three things I learned on this road trip: 1 - divorced people have all the fun. (Lucky for Steph!) 2 - I'm too old for a starter husband. And 3 - Somewhere between Natalie's travels through Asia and the Pacific Northwest in the last few years, she's developed a British accent.

It was a great trip! (Way too short though.) Can't wait for the next road trip!