Oh, great! San Diego. That means I have to compete with Shamu and his smug little grin. I can't top that!

just like alex the lion, i too had to compete with san diego. and i came out on top [twss]. for our paperversary/ireland's engagiversary/winter vacay/happy new year we went on a trip to the sandy [and cold] beaches of san diego! lynsey [my SIL] goes to usd and has a condo right on mission beach so we stayed there. sooooo much fun.

thursday we went on a trip to downtown SD to eat at the mission [best french toast ever] then looked around. during this time, justin almost killed us. as we were trying to find parking, he turned down a street which turned out to be a tran tracks road. shear terror for a whole minute. luckily we got off the tracks before this jem came across the corner. we also visited the san diego temple which is gorgeous on the outside, but breathtaking inside. i always thought people were exaggerating but no, no they aren't. then we partied it up with justin's mission friend spencer at lighting jack's bbq [because phil's was closed. i know, tragedy]. friday we went to MEXICO! originally we were just going to walk across the border to TJ [read: the place where marissa OD-ed] but steven & justin had other ideas. so we got some mexi-insurance and traveled to playa neuvo.

i've previously been to mexico three times- two times with my hs friend blair [cruise to ensenada, then a day in tj- i ate nothing there] and one time on my honeymoon [cruise to cozumel]. i don't speak spanish [despite the 4 years of studying it] but justin, meghan, & steven do- so ya, i felt quite stupid most of the time but it was fun! we drove down the coast of mexico to playa nuevo which is about 15 minutes out of rosarito.

poor daniel [meghan's GPS] was so confused once we crossed the borders. i guess mexico doesn't log their streets on the national GPS database [or however they log street names]. the boys also came up with another one of their million dollar ideas. these ideas usually involve some illegal activity, a plane, and a foreign country but this time, it involved a GPS. their million dollar idea is pepper, a movie about a possessed

GPS that tries to kill a family. luckily, our GPS was a daniel and not a pepper.

once there we found a legit and high-class [for mexico] restaurant located RIGHT on the beach. we sat outside and it was gorgeous! and sooo romantic. we even got serenaded. steak + lobster + quesadilla [for me] + mexican singers + beach = romance 101. best. lunch. ever. we also went shopping after and visited a 7-11!

our way back into mexico did not go as smoothly. once back in tj, we were soooo lost as to how to get in the border line to get back to the US. we prob took about 5 u-turns trying to find the right road and finally got in a line. the line, however, turned out to be wrong. well, how were we to know? once you pull it, it's not like you can get in another or back up! so we get to the customs window and the CBP officer started talking to us. this is basiclly the dialogue:

CBP officer: how long did it take you guys to get through the line?
justin: i dont know, maybe 15, 20 minutes
CBP officer: have you heard stories about how long it takes people normally?
justin: ......like an hour or so?
CBP officer: try three hours. looks like you guys won yourself a trip to secondary

i got super excited thinking we won something! but sadly no. basically we pulled into this hanger where we were treated like terrorists. they took our passports, keys, and kept us there over an hour. they looked through our bags, popped our hood, checked under our carriage. i bet they even did background checks and our current facebook status. [mine: hopping the border to mexico! if i don't return, please have a slurpee machine at my memorial. and suspect justin- he might sell me to some mexican dude.] i was thoroughly terrified. luckily, we got off with a stern warning but a not-so-friendly CBP lady officer.

new years eve night we were so tired we kicked it with salt, chinese food, and tosh.0. basically, our night was as lame as the sauce comes. saturday we hung out at mission beach and went biking along the water. that night we visited old town san diego where we ate at cafe coyoto [delicious mexican food].

sadly, we had to leave on our paperversary which made for a lack-luster way to spend an anniversary. this weekend we are going to celebrate the right way so i'll save that for another post!