Patrick and Lauren Wedding in San Diego - September 2018

At Patrick and Lauren's wedding

We were thrilled to hear that Patrick and Lauren were engaged, and even more thrilled that they included us in the occasion!

Ceremony

It was an easy flight to San Diego - 50 mins in the air and we were on the coast.  We had bought a late afternoon flight so landed by 4:30 and were at the Indigo Hotel in Del Mar by 5:30pm.  We both needed a shower - then walked the 15 minutes to dinner at Sbicca, just the two of us.  We sat upstairs and outside - gorgeous temperature.  We ordered several shared plates including tacos, meatballs, shishito peppers and brussel sprouts.  The food was good, but not excellent.  We finished a bit early so walked down to the beach before walking back up and meeting the wedding party at Il Fornio.  We chatted with Patrick's parents and sister before going over to Enoteca Del Fornio where we had a few glasses of wine.  It was there that we chatted with Diego (Patrick's former roommate), John and Terry (Keith knew them from St Vincent's), and Chris (in Patrick's High School class).  It was good to chat with them all.

View on hike in Torrey Pines

The next morning, we had breakfast in the restaurant at the hotel before embarking on a 2.5 hour walk to and through Torrey Pines - ending up on the Beach and Razor Point trails.  It was a beautiful walk along the beach and then through the park - and helped burn off some of the wine from the night before.  Lunch was just a couple of granola bars.  We showered, dressed, and walked the 15 minutes over to the wedding, stopping by Starbucks for an iced tea and L'Auberge to take a picture at the bar by the outdoor fireplace where a colleague of Keith's had her first date with her now husband.  The wedding was at the Del Mar Powerhouse on the beach.  They advertised that the bar was open before the wedding ceremony - a stroke of genius that we did not think of for our own wedding!  We carefully arranged ourselves on the back row - so we could take pictures w/o interrupting but also so we could be first at the bar after the ceremony was over.  In true Patrick and Lauren fashion, the ceremony was casual but very sweet - their friend who officiated was terrific and their vows beautiful - complete with a couple of laughs.  The food was delicious and the dancing and music a blast as we both cut a rug on the dance floor.  There was an after-party at Jimmy-Os - we stopped by for a few minutes but it was proof we are too old - because it was too loud!

Gang at the wedding

On Sunday morning, we had breakfast again at the hotel restaurant and did another hike in Torrey Pines - this time on the Parry Grove and Guy Fleming trails.  We showered back at the room and checked out before storing our luggage and walking out for a sushi lunch at Shimbashi, back at Del Mar Plaza.  On the way home, we were thrilled to bump into Patrick and Lauren who were grabbing a burrito lunch alone.  We chatted for 10 minutes and then they walked us back to the hotel - it was great to get at least a little bit of time alone with them during the weekend!  Sadly, we were then off to the airport after 48 hours in SoCal - but the trip did remind us that we would love to live there some day!

Torrey Pines Hike