March 17, 2006

The Bitter Taste of Vacation

Last week, I went on my first vacation since a trip to the Grand Canyon/Hoover Dam/Las Vegas in 1998. Sure I've been plenty of places to visit family and friends, but a vacation from everything is pretty rare and a treasure.

On the positive side:
It was great to spend time away. I ate some great food, and saw some cool stuff. That's the really important part of a vacation.

On the negative side:
just about everything else.

I waffled between going to San Antonio, Texas and San Diego, California as I thought about where I could find the best weather. This was not just a vacation from work, but a vacation from the gray and cold West Michigan weather. San Diego won, I exchanged airline miles for tickets, made the hotel reservations and took off!

Take a look at the vacation photos.


You'll see "The Big Bri" - a breakfast sandwich offered by Brian's American Eatery, and a few pretty good Mexican restaurants in Old Town.

The weather in San Diego was really disappointing. The local weather casters used the phrase "storm of the century" to describe this cold-damp weekend. On the news they showed people stockpiling sandbags as this monsoon dropped 0.6" on the city during a 4 day period.

The weather was uncharacteristically just like West Michigan as the temperatures stayed around 50, with strong winds, and predominant cloud-cover. However, it produced this view. My friend Mike sent that to me - taken on March 13 (the day I left) - The mountains are about 50 miles east of downtown. I couldn't see them at all while I was there.

West Michigan on the other-hand had temperatures near 70 and gorgeous sunshine while I was gone. It snowed the day I got back. San Antonio had record heat and full sun.

Adding insult to injury, my car had unscheduled and expensive trips to the mechanic. the day before the trip, the day after. Please use the ads to the right of this post and other posts. I gotta pay for the trip and repairs somehow.

Can I get a vacation from my vacation?

maybe it's just me...

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