My husband has lots of cousins who are all very close. Most of us live in socal so we always try to get together as often as we can. I really love that part about being in his family now. Once a year, we try to do an annual cousins trip and this year, we decided to go to San Diego for one big slumber party at Karen and Chris' house.
Friday night we arrived to their house late evening. I had to show a picture of their new kitchen that they did all by themselves. I don't have a picture of it but they installed two sky lights in the ceiling for natural lighting during the day and they did everything themselves except install the granite counter tops. It looks amazing!
I love all the storage in the island for cookbooks and wine bottles. I totally want to do something similar to my dream home one day.
The night started with late night Thai food and wine.
And the eating and drinking begins....
Saturday morning we started off the day with a good hearty breakfast at the
Mission and I wore my comfy
Sanuk's (most comfortable walking shoes ever). They have a lot of Mexican inspired dishes which I love.
The french toast was really fun and unusual. It was made from cinnamon buns!
I couldn't help but start the day with a mimosa. Happy me =) They also had fresh made flour tortillas to go along with some of the dishes.
It was overcast on Saturday so we couldn't go to the beach like originally planned. We decided to go to the
Wild Animal Park Zoo where it was more inland, sunny, and gorgeous out. I hadn't been to the Wild Animal Park Zoo since college so it was so fun to experience the tram ride again.
I absolutely LOVE this zoo because it's not actually a zoo but a breeding facility for the animals to coexist and roam around in a natural habitat.
If you look closely, my cousin in law is the sweatiest man alive. He is the one in the navy shirt in the picture below.
When we initially started to plan the weekend, the first thing that people emailed out was to have dinner at
Searsucker. I would definitely come back again. The restaurant had such a cool vibe and the place had a great lively energy. The restaurant was sectioned off so that part of it served as a traditional restaurant, the middle section had a bunch of vintage settees and low tables to be set up like a lounge, and on the other end served as a bar area. How clever! The decor was also beautiful and eclectic... and vintage and modern at the same time. There were ropes hanging from these fixtures with light bulbs, the tables looked like there were made from reclaimed woods, none of the chairs perfectly matched but looked like they belong, we were served with cute turquoise glasses, there were beautiful Turkish looking rugs in deep colors, and the list goes on.
Throughout the restaurant, there were all these signs that said, "Eat" and we did just that.
I never saw anyone carry that many glasses in their arm at once.
Duck fat fries. That's all I had to say. French fries are my favorite and duck fat? Why not?
From the small plate section of the menu, I think we ordered half of it and shared them amongst the table. I couldn't keep track.
There was a giant size strainer hanging from the ceiling. Totally random but it fit perfectly the funky decor of the restaurant.
A soft egg yolk over potatoes. I don't know why this idea seems new to me because it isn't. It is just fun and innovative to see very casual plates all spruced up.
Someone told the waitress that it was one of our birthdays and we got a free mini cake. Oh and our bill always looks sorta scary like this....it goes on and on. You will
never go hungry with this family.
Mat and I really have to visit SD more often. The Gaslamp is such a lively place to go out and it was fun just walking through the streets.
After dinner we headed to
Solamar to have drinks on the rooftop.
To end the night, Karen cooked us 4 or 5 different types of ramen in one pot. Eating ramen brings back so many nostalgic memories from my childhood. I couldn't resist but to have a bite, a slurp and another bite.
'Til the next cousins trip....
