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I just bought this poster here on Etsy!

If you’ve never traveled with a foodie then I cordially invite you to my next vacation.  It’s the only way to go.  The whole trip is planned around the food and restaurants.   It’s just that simple.  Stevie and I have been traveling this way since we met.  We are disciples of Frommer’s and I don’t think he’s ever led us astray.   We have found some of our very favorite restaurants this way, such as Lou Mitchell’s in Cheecago (a great breakfast spot always crowded with locals),  Catch 22 in Hilton Head (very small quaint hole-in-th-wall with todiefor prime beef), and one of our faves,  Bound’ry in Nashville.   We make very tasty memories together, that Stevie and I.

Enter San Diego.  Stevie had done his homework and we were not disappointed.

Our first stop : El Camino

El Camino, a small mexican restaurant crowded with locals and VERY loud music.   I had the fish tacos and a margarita.  Stevie had a steak and shrimp burrito.  We had sister Julie and brother Jeff and Daniel along with us so we made them play along in our foodie games.   You must taste all the food on the table and vote for the best.  Stevie won that night which should have been an ominous sign to me that he was gonna take the week.  But I kept ordering like the foodie champ that I am.

Breakfast at Broughton Villa

The next morning we headed out for La Jolla to have breakfast in a little villa over the Pacific Ocean.  Sebastian told us about it and he’s a foodie too so we knew it’d be good.  Julie *won* with the yummy chilaquiles.  The orange juice was fresh squeezed and the coffee was so flavorful.  The girls bragged about the pancakes and the scenery was hard to beat.  Just outside, sunning on the rocks were all the seals.  It was a beautiful morning all around followed by a hike around Torrey Pines.   That was our favorite day in SoCal.

Authentic Eyetalian at Buon Appetito

We frequented Little Italy for pizza (twice) and for a very scrumptious dinner.   Stevie ordered Osso Bucco and I had sea bass with a morel mushroom sauce.  I think it was a tie.  The food was so delish and most of the staff spoke Italian.  We ordered tiramisu to go.  Also, todiefor.

Pizza at Filippi’s

I’m gonna go ahead and say that there is nothing better than stellar pizza. And it was stellar. I should know because I had it  hot, warm and cold. Terrific crust and perfect sauce.  We were all winners on this outing. If you’re finding me to be more neurotic than you once hoped, I apologize.  Foodies are like trekkies.   It takes one to know one.

Lunch at Sear Sucker

This was the day our children chose ‘excellent lunch downtown+ping-pong with parents’ over Sea World.  We have the best kids!  And it was our favorite Frommer find.   Darn it if that Stevie didn’t win again.  He ordered the burger.  He always wins when he orders the burger.  I had a short rib sandwich with horseradish sauce.  It came in close second.   They don’t have ketchup but instead serve a homemade tomato relish which was at once quaint and delicious.  The decor had me at hello with its Texas/Wild West feel.   The blue lady iced tea was fantastic and the children were happy to leave with suckers.   They served a complimentary lemon bar for dessert, a gesture not at all lost on me.   I really love dessert and free dessert brings a tear to my eye.

This decor speaks to my deepest Texas soul.  (Do I have a Texas soul? I’m pretty sure.)

I felt so at home here and so completely inspired.

And that, my friends, is how foodies travel. We ran out of days before we ran out of restaurants. And the best ones are always the ones that you would probably never try or find otherwise. Frommers’ makes happy travelers.  And lowers the chances that you’ll end up at McDonald’s or Subway out of frustration!
But as much as I enjoyed the food and decor and beautiful variety of plant life in Southern California, I wanted to kiss the ground when we finally made it back home. I’m a Tennessee girl at heart and there’s no place for me like being surrounded by these mountains and rivers and lakes.

Home sweet beautiful home!

Now, tell me your favorite little haunts to eat.  And then go ahead  and tell me what to order.   Three cheers for foodies!

And three cheers for Amy who is posting an adorable DIY ruffled shirt over at lifeingrace girls!

He was born in Belfast, Ireland in 1898 and his words have changed my life forever.
That makes him my favorite Irishman and my absolute favorite writer.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day in honor of ‘Jack’!

My top five favorite Lewis books?
1. The Problem of Pain

2.The Great Divorce

3. Mere Christianity

4. Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold

5. That Hideous Strength (Space Trilogy, Book 3)

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Y’all are killing me with your Disneyland comments!! Such entertainment.  BTW, the girls had the option of spending their last day in SOCal at Seaworld or playing ping pong with their parents at the hotel.  They chose the latter.  (Fist-pump!)

xoxo,

edie

At the risk of being thrown out of America, I’m gonna go ahead and say it—-I hate giant theme parks.

I’m a little scared to say it out loud because people are crazed for them.  How do I know this?  Because I went to Disneyland yesterday and I’m fairly certain that half of California was there too and they all seemed to be thoroughly enjoying themselves.  Everyone, that is, but me.   So what’s wrong with my theme-park loathing self?    My disdain for giant theme parks has made me question my patriotism and even my motherly love.   How can a woman  who claims to be an upstanding God-fearing American citizen and a mother of four precious children hold a grudge against the ‘happiest place on earth’?

It’s complicated but I’ll try to break it down for you.  Perhaps a numbered list is in order.

 

1.  I’m skeptical about a place to which EVERYONE else in the entire free world is flocking.  I’m counter cultural.  I love my simple small town life,  I homeschool my children,  and don’t like popular music, popular culture or popular almost anything.   If everyone’s doing it, I’m probably not.   If EVERYone loves it, I probably don’t.  The fact that Disney is a rite of passage kinda makes me a little indignant.  I’m not a fan of the herd mentality.

2.  Fairy tales are magical.  Disneyland is not.   Some things just don’t translate.  Can you convey the depth and beauty of an ancient fairy tale in a bumpy roller coaster ride with a million other people vying for the best seat?  I don’t think so.   The Cinderella story is every girls’ dream but chasing down a self-absorbed teenager in a Cinderella costume for that once in a lifetime photo is every mother’s nightmare.   Or at least this mothers’ nightmare.  There is nothing more precious than the look on the face of your children when they hear their favorite fairy tale for the first time.  That cannot be bottled up and sold for $80 in an admission ticket.  It just can’t.

3.  Surprisingly, my children did not seem to be having the times of their lives either.   They were tired and crotchety and whiny just like the other eight million children there.  They wanted a $12 snack after every ride and finally (at about 2:30) said,  “Can we just go back to the hotel?”    Now THAT was music to my ears.   And while many of you may be bristling at the thought of us not getting our ‘money’s worth’,  all I could think was at least we didn’t have to pay in money AND in prolonged torture.   We were all so relieved to be done with it and back home to the real happiest place on earth.

4.  In general, I’m not a fan of wall to wall human traffic,  bad coffee with powdered cream,  persistent nausea from  a day of spinning and bumping and jerking,  or corn dogs for lunch.  Go ahead and call me crazy.  As corn dogs go, however, they were pretty darn good.  And of course, it wasn’t all bad.  I can have a good time almost anywhere and I enjoyed being my family all day. The best part for me was watching the silhouette artist work her magic in less than a minute, making the most gorgeous silhouettes of my girls.  I only wish they didn’t say “Disneyland” at the bottom but I’m sure I’ll find a creative cure for that.

So, Stevie and I took one for home team this week.  We high-fived each other on the way home because we’re crossing our fingers in the hopes that we’ve paid our dues to the theme park gods.  Our children won’t be able to bemoan to their psychiatrist how their parents never took them to Disneyland.  And I don’t think our kids ever suspected we were miserable.  We laughed and feigned excitement and put our best Disneyland faces forward.  I can do  anything for a day:)

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I hope all you Disney lovers will forgive me.  Am I just old and cynical?  I don’t think so because I thoroughly enjoyed climbing up into an orange tree at 5a to capture the forbidden fruit.  Maybe my homebody, small town self should just stay put!

I wanted to tell you that if you don’t have plans for tomorrow morning, you should click over to lifeingrace girls and make those delicious looking pancakes.  Deb isn’t a blogger but she should be!  Thanks for sharing with us, dearie:)

Also, I’m loving all your post ideas for the community site  so keep ’em coming!  Send your submissions to ediewadsworth at mac dot com.  I’m even contemplating adding a chat feature to that site.  Do you follow any blogs that have one?  Do you like it/hate it?  Tell all.

And if you’ve been following the book study, I’ll be updating that post soon as well, so check back in!

Toodle-loo friends!