San Diego - we started out our first full day by having an early lunch at a place called the Tin Fish. Nick had fish tacos & I had fish & chips. The restaurant is right across from the Convention Center and a good place for people watching. The food was good too.
After lunch we drove to Carlsbad to see a Botanical Garden - it turned out to be a field of flowers behind a garden center. However - Legoland was right next door. We got a shopping pass that allowed us to go into the park for free for an hour to buy stuff in the gift shops. It's pretty cool to see all the things they can build with Legos!

Nick thought about a light sabre clash with Darth Vader, but R2Dt convinced him it wouldn't be a fair fight...

They decided to just be friends :-)
On the way back from Carlsbad, we drove along the ocean. There were lots of Pelicans flying around. It was grey and windy and a bit chilly, but still fun to stop and look.

Check out this picture in a larger format ... the longish dark shape in the water is a dolphin. Pretty cool.

That's Nick - not as uncommon as the dolphin sighting...
Nick's tired of being in all the pictures, so I agreed to hand over the camera - briefly. Aren't the cliffs in the background interesting?
After our sightseeing, Nick & I met up with Chad, a former colleauge from UAMS. We went to the rooftop bar at our hotel to have a couple drinks while we waited for Atashi to join us for dinner.
The rooftop bar overlooks Petco Park - home of the Padres. For no cover charge and a cool atmosphere, you can watch the game from the roof while drinking overprices beverages. I paid $15 (including tip) for a top shelf martini! OUCH! Oh well - it was a pretty cool place to hang out. That evening the Padres were playing the Dodgers. I have no idea what the outcome of the game was.
After the rooftop bar, we all went to a place called Micky & Lou's for dinner. Nick had steak, I had salmon. It was all really good - so was the grey goose martini :-)

After dinner, Atashi & I just HAD to stop in a couple of shops that were still open (at 11pm!) Atashi bought that green shirt she's wearing. I bought the jewelry I'm wearing. Nick was very patient with the whole process...

Having had enough late night shopping for the evening, Nick found a comfy chair & surfed the web while we browsed this cool little shop.