Our trip to California was wonderful. I would have added more pictures to this post but I'm still experiencing problems when I try to create new posts and it's even worse when I add pictures. The technicians are still working on it and have been very nice (thanks guys!).
OK, so here's a day by day account of our activities, meals, etc.
Sunday, June 1- We flew to Los Angeles and then drove to San Diego. On the way, we stopped in San Juan Capistrano. It wasn't a planned thing but we decided that we were hungry and took the next exit and that's where we ended up. We ate at Caio Pasta Trattoria and had a wonderful shrimp scampi appetizer and bruschetta while sitting on their cute little patio. 
This photo was taken after we left San Juan Capistrano and drove to San Diego where we stayed at the Hotel Solamar. This is a Kimpton hotel. We've stayed at Kimpton hotels in San Francisco, Seattle and Portland and they are very nice The hotel is in the Gaslamp Quarter which is loaded with restaurants and shops. We decided to eat dinner at Croce's, a restaurant whichis owned by the late singer, Jim Croce's, wife. I had the Sea Bass with pomegranate glaze, macadamia nut crust, red peppers, & Kaffir lime leaf-infused butter. Doesn't that sound absolutely yummy? It was wonderful. Bill had the Bordeaux braised short ribs with creamy wild mushroom polenta, wilted chard and roasted cipollini onions which he said was great. We enjoyed a few brews from Karl Strauss, a San Diego brewery.
Monday, June 2- Ate breakfast at J6 which was the restaurant in our hotel. The hotel is located on the corner of J and 6...get it...hee hee hee Anyway, their breakfast menu was extremely yummy and we ended up eating there every day. After breakfast, went to the USS Midway which is now a museum. It is huge. Standing on the flight deck, I wondered how it is able to float! 
We then drove to Coronado Island and ate lunch at Hotel del Coronoado aka The Del. The second photo is the view we had while we ate lunch. I had yummy crabcakes and a salad of baby greens, strawberries, walnuts and blue cheese. 
We walked along the beach after lunch. We returned to our hotel and walked around Gaslamp Quarter. We decided to eat dinner at San Diego Brewing where we had the appetizer plate and beer cheese soup. I tried the IPA and the Amber and Bill tried the Brown and the Choco-latte.
Tuesday, June 3 - We spent the day at the 
San Diego Zoo. St. Louis has a wonderful zoo, one of the biggest and it's actually free, but we don't have pandas or koalas. Oh my goodness, they are so cute. 
I wanted to take them home. We went to the Padres/Cubs game that evening. Petco Park was within walking distance of our hotel and, in fact, we could actually see the pool bar from the stadium. 
Unfortunately, the Padres lost to the stinkin' Cubs 9 to 6. It was a good game though, even though approximately 1/3 of the people in the stadium were Cubs fans...boo!
Wednesday, June 4- After breakfast, we drove to La Jolla where we stopped at Bevmo for Maui Brewing Coconut Porter. We ended up bringing 10 cans back with us. Yes, my suitcase was a little heavier coming back than it was on the way out! We then then went to the Cave Store. There are 145 steps in the narrow passage leading down to the sea cave. I was afraid that I might get down there and feel claustrophobic but the guy at the store assured me that I would be fine. He was right and the sea cave was really cool. 
This photo was taken as we were standing in the sea cave looking out at the ocean. The only problem is when you walk down the 145 steps, you also have to walk back up. Oh well, it just helps to burn off some extra calories We wanted to eat at an authentic mexican restaurant during our stay in San Diego and we found one in La Jolla called Alfonso's. Bill had the enchiladas and I had a chili relleno and cheese enchilada. We then went to Cabrillo National Monument. Even though the sky was overcast, the view was beautiful. That evening, we ate at a wonderful tapas restaurant called Cafe Sevilla. We had olives and cheese, meatballs, zucchini and eggplant, and then I had the tortilla espanola (egg, onion and potato tart) and Bill had calamari
Thursday, June 5- After breakfast, we took a few final pictures and then started our drive to Los Angeles. We stopped in San Juan Capistrano again, this time on purpose. Went took a tour of Mission San Juan Capistrano. 
All of the flowers were in bloom and it was really beautiful. We then continued on to Santa Monica where we stayed at the Georgian Hotel. We had stayed there when we were in LA in 2004 and we really liked it. We actually had an ocean front room so the view was great. We ate lunch at The Lobster since it's one of my favorite restaurants. I had to order the crab enchiladas! Yum. We then left our hotel at 4:30 to drive to the Dodger game. The GPS told us that it should take about 23 minutes...yeah, right. 1 hour and 29 minutes later, we finally arrived at Dodger Stadium. I don't know how people in LA put up with that traffic. 
Anyway, the Dodgers played the Cubs and, once again, there were quite a few Cub fans present. The guy sitting next to me compared them to roaches and said that you can't get rid of them no matter what you do...hee hee hee. The Cubs won 5 to 4. The Dodgers had the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth but couldn't get a run. Without traffic, it only took about 25 minutes to get back to the hotel.
Friday, June 6 - We ate breakfast at Griddle Cafe. I had seen this restaurant featured on Rachel Ray's Tasty Travels a few years ago. They have the biggest pancakes I've ever seen. Seriously, the pancakes are as big as the plate and super yummy. I had the boysenberry pancakes and they were delicious. We then drove to the Reagan Library in Simi Valley 
where we were able to tour Air Force One. The Air Force One exhibit was originally supposed to open in the summer of 2004 but was delayed so we weren't able to see it when we were there last time. It was set up as it would have been when President Regan used it, complete with jars of Jelly Belly's. It's difficult to photograph the entire plane but this photo shows the front half or so. You'll notice people walking underneath the plane. That gives you a little perspective of how big the plane really is. 
There were white roses on President Reagan's grave that I'm assuming were placed there the day before as it was the fourth anniversary of his death. I miss Ronnie. We certainly could use another president like him right about now. We drove back to the hotel and decided to eat dinner at Manhattan Beach Brewing. I had the southwestern penne pasta. The Amber, IPA and Porter were excellent.
Saturday, June 7- We drove to Amalfi Drive 
after breakfast to see former homes of three of my favorite people...President Reagan and Captain & Tennille. We saw C&T's house last time we were in California but Bill didn't want me to get 
out of the car and have my picture taken because he was afraid someone would call the police...hee hee hee. After we saw both houses, we drove up the coast to Malibu and ate lunch at Duke's. 
Yep, the same restaurant as Duke's in Waikiki and Hula Grill in Kaanapali. This picture was taken as we were eating lunch. Isn't the water beautiful? We then drove back to Santa Monica and did a little shopping. We ate dinner on the patio at Trastevere Trattoria Italiana which is a cute Italian restaurant in the Third Street Promenade. I had the pesto pasta and Bill had the asparagus risotto. After dinner, we walked down to the Santa Monica Pier.
Sunday, June 8 - Our vacation comes to end and and we fly home...back to reality!
