The Best Friend Comes to Town

A couple weekends ago, one of my best friends from high school, Lillian, came to San Diego on a business trip. Lucky me! This meant that we finally got some uninterrupted BFF-time that we hadn't had for quite awhile. Before I moved to San Diego in 2010, she had spent two years in Pullman finishing her master's so we haven't been in the same city since early 2008. In the little time that we've spent together over the past nearly five years, a lot of it has been spent hanging out as part of a group or watching Supernatural marathons with quick bursts of catching up thrown in here and there.

But on this weekend trip, we plenty of quality time!

We began on Friday afternoon when I picked her up and brought her back to my neck of the woods. We took Emma on a walk through the neighborhood shopping center, where Lillian fell in love with some jewelry and the shop owner fell in love with Emma. 

Then we joined a few of my San Diego friends for a sushi night. We attempted to go to Sushi Deli but found out there was over an hour wait. So Lil and I hopped on our phones and found another Japanese restaurant just up the street that could seat us asap. The food was amazing and the group of people was both fun and hilarious. 

We spent almost the entire day on Saturday just hanging out and catching up (while, of course, enjoying all that San Diego has to offer) and it was wonderful! We started the day with some homemade chocolate chip and butterscotch pancakes before moving to the Del Mar beach to sit outside in the 75-degree January sun. 

Me and Lil at Del Mar beach.

Emma came along for the girl time too!

Lillian at the beach.

After an hour or two of chatting on the seaside bench, I drove us up the coast to Cardiff for acai bowls at Sambazon Cafe. This seaside market area signifies everything that I think California should be. It's laidback yet stylish and is only a mere walk to the beach. Not only did we enjoy great food but also a great laugh as a table full of surfer boys mistook us for a lesbian couple. Apparently, while I was chatting with one of the boys about Emma the pug (and Lillian ordered,) I kept mentioning "we" in conversation. As in "we take our dogs to the beach." I, of course, was referring to Micah and throwing "we" into the conversation as subtle hint that I wasn't single and was immune to his lame pick-up attempts. But when Lillian came out of the restaurant to relieve me and watch Emma while I ordered, surfer boy got the wrong idea. He later came up to Lillian and point blank asked her if we were a couple, to which she laughed and sputtered, "No!" 

We took a quick stroll on the beach but the wind was kicking up and the temperature was dropping so we turned back to head home and prepare for phase two of the evening. 

Lillian enjoying some puppy love.

Lillian had mentioned that she would like to do some cheap shopping so I took her to Garnet Avenue in PB. I warned her ahead of time that PB was douchebag central. I don't know what happens to that area after dark but all the DBs come crawling out and sure enough, we ran into a few.

But first we wandered through the shops and Lillian picked out a few things. I wasn't in need of anything at the time but am wishing now that I had been more alert as I need to return to these same shops within the next week or two to search for a red dress for my next Yelp party.

By this point, we were hungry and decided to try Narraya Thai. We were quickly glad that we did as we were seated in the sunken table section of the restaurant. It looked like we were sitting on the floor, which provided for a new and exciting dining experience. We also learned that if we reviewed the restaurant on Yelp we could get a free appetizer. They shouldn't tell the crazy Yelper that because I whipped out my phone and posted a review in five minutes. Our free curry puffs were amazing and well worth the review!

Me and Lillian at Narraya.

After dinner, we walked back to the car and encountered one of the many PB DBs on the street corner. He wanted to know where we were headed and, like the cool people we are, we told him home...at 9:30...on a Saturday night. Guess we really are getting older. :)

We went home and squeezed in a couple Supernatural episodes too!

The next morning, we enjoyed brunch at The Beach House (silly me, I forgot to take pictures!) and then dropped Lil off at the airport. It's always sad to say good bye to a friend but I know that our friendship can handle any time or distance apart. And I'm looking forward to seeing her in July when she returns for Comic Con!