My trip to San Diego. Lots of business, beaches and a tiny bit of running

Sitting here in our condo in La Jolla by myself, borrowing my boss's computer so I thought I would blog.  I left the snowy yucky weather in Kansas for sunny, cool, humid San Deigo on wednesday.  We had our first user's group meeting with the company that we are a service provider for on thursday and friday.  I am really glad that I got to come along because it has been hugely useful for me to be here and  get to know the in lab people.  Many ideas were thrown around and many misconceptions we had been given were clarified.  The first thing we did when we landed though was to go to the beach.  We hiked up Torrie Pines and back down and then walked the beach back to the car.  It was so good to stretch our legs after 5 hours of flying.   We also had to have some fish tacos, although I am not a lover of fish or anything seafood so I opted for some good carne asada tacos.  I also got to visit my first real whole foods!  Don't laugh, we don't have one anywhere near and I was impressed with the variety but not the prices.  No wonder people eat crap!  It is way cheaper!  I was SO tired that  night that I skipped dinner to go lay down and slept 12 whole hours that night.  It was GLORIOUS!

Doesn't everyone have their favorite toes in the sand pic?

On the second day, our meetings didn't start till one so I got to go for a nice run.  For whatever reason, I was having trouble breathing.  I think I am finally catching the chest cold that andrew has so my chest is super tight and now I am of course coughing.  I took it slow and tried not to get lost so I only did my three miler.  I was suppose to do my 10 miler with someone from the company but as i soon found out, everyone that was a runner within the company was sick so no one to long run with:(  We had our meeting and then the company took all of us out to dinner down in old town.  Would like to go back there when it is daylight.  It was dead at night.  We had happy hour at the company which was wine, then had multiple beers at dinner, then had wine at our condo we are renting.  Needless to say, I felt like pure crap friday ALL DAY.  I blame the 2 buck chuck wine we got from whole foods.

The View at Torrey Pines

The third day started early so no running.  All day meetings which lasted till late that night.   It was so good to have face time with all the people that I constantly call, harass, text, and email.  Many times I got the comment, Oh YOU are michelle.  Sigh.  Not sure if that was a good thing or not.  Turns out I have the most experience with the most variety of sample types so I had many people coming to me with questions, even lab staff at bionano.  I would love to have a couple of days of just sample prep with their staff but travel is expensive so we will have to see if that is possible.


Day four was all ours so we slept in, laid around and drank coffee (our condo had an expresso machine so my boss figured it out and made us expresso every morning) and then headed out to the beach.  We went to two beaches, the La Jolla cove to see some seals and tidal pools and then over to PB to walk/sit/sleep by the ocean.  We walked so much that I was really worried about doing my 10 miler when I got home that afternoon, which was my plan.  I had been given some routes and they sounded nice so as soon as we got back and the other part of our crew left to go to yet another meeting, I headed out.  This place is super hilly.  I knew it from driving but with the tightness in my chest, I was super worried about doing too much or getting lost.  Well, I got lost but I had heard UCSD had some running trails and I kind of knew where it was so I headed in that general direction.  Thank goodness for all the cross walks/lights because it gave me a chance to catch my breath and stretch.  I wanted to do at least 6 but was back at the condo by 5.3 and the sun was setting so decided to call it good.  No long run this week but I did get three runs in this week, my speed work, my 3 miler and my 5 miler.  I guess my body won't mind one break.

La Jolla Cove

I have had for the most part, a relaxing time but I sure am missing that red headed baby!  I need my baby fix!  He has learned a new word while I was gone so we had to face time so I could hear him say it.  I also did face time on the beach so he could see the waves and the surfers.  All the things and places I can't wait to go with him!  On a side note, flying out, I had two very small kids and their parents.  They immediately started crying and I thought, oh boy, this is going to be rough.  They stopped once we got in the air which was nice but I overheard the mom say there were flying to Tokyo.  Wow, can you imagine that long of a flight with two little ones?  They are some brave parents!

La Jolla Cove sea lions