"I'm a MARINE" (da-da-da-daaaaa)

Lots of updates since the last full blog....we're no longer sleeping on an air mattress, have 'eaten' at nearly 30 restaurants in the Gaslamp, played with Guns, caught some waves, and lots more. We'll start back 2 weeks ago with the Tastes of Gaslamp.

TOG is a 3 hour event where certain restaurants in the Gaslamp District (our neighborhood in downtown SD) give you a small sample of one of their signature dishes. Everyone gets a map to cross off the places visited, and then rate their favorites at the end. It was a great introduction to all the great places to eat for us, and we (more specifically Franny) were determined to hit them all. We ended up making it to 25 of the 32 spots, not bad. Matt bonked out by the last 3 because he was eating his full sample everywhere, whereas Franny went with the "less = more" strategy. Needless to say, both of us were feeling quite full by the end of it, but it was well worth it. Our favorite food-wise was the Dakota Grill, which served skirt steak, garlic mashed potatoes, and salsa fresca. There were a bunch more we're planning to go back to. Also, no food event is complete without a "Gevarter" spilling on themselves - Franny spent the last leg of the tour covered in a beef ravioli sauce.

After arising from our food coma, we went to see The Hangover. If you haven't seen it yet, go see it (unless you're our parents, probably not your type of flick). Hilarious movie. The pic above is a view of the movie theater on the corner, from our living room window.

Sunday the 14th we were awoken a few hours earlier than expected by the movers - but since we were anxious for our stuff to arrive it was a welcome surprise. We spent the day unpacking and organizing and our place looks great. Boy did we miss our bed! We love our apartment complex, The Lofts at 655, and our stuff fits in great here.

During the week we've been entertaining ourselves by finally watching The Shield. We finished season 1, and watched some episodes down in our building's home movie theater which was really cool. Great show...and it amuses us that some of the characters remind us of some of our friends (Mackey = John Helwig, Dutch = Bud). Once our season 2 DVDs come this week, we'll be making use of the theater again. (Can't wait to watch LOST in there next year!)

This weekend was another 3 day one for us, so we started it off Thursday night with a bike ride along Harbor Drive. Lots of amazing scenery and a fun ride....there's an album up on our picasa site.
Friday was actually kind of cloudy here...we know, everyone back East is saying "oh poor you". It was our first full weekend day of June gloom. So we went shopping at Horton Plaza, and then went down to Seaport Village for dinner. There were some cute little shops in the area, and we did what everyone else was doing in the hat shop - try on goofy styles and take pictures. Dinner at San Diego pier cafe was pretty good, although the price is definitely more about the location than the food. The setup reminded Franny of a mini Clam Hut from NJ.

Saturday we went to family day at Camp Pendleton with Greg, and got to see his vehicles, have some BBQ, and play with Guns. The flyer for the event that Allie sent us earlier in the week made us laugh, because of the emphasis on the guns....here is a real snippet from the flyer:

And here are some "kids" playing. It was hard to tell who was more excited, Allie, or the 6 yr old boy who proclaimed "Look, I'm a Marine!!!!" and then sang his own Marine theme song.

After that, Allie and Greg took Matt and I out for our first surfing adventure. 3 boards for 4 of us, so we took turns. Matt got up on his first attempt, but that was it for him. Franny kept getting stuck to the board since she was wearing Greg's wetsuit (the bagginess created a suction effect), so just settled for riding some waves without standing. But it was alot of fun - thanks Allie and Greg. Greg then hooked us up with some free dinner at an opening of a pizza place, and we somehow got the "artichoke is the special ingredient" menu of the random fixed menus. But hey, it was free. We ended the night with about 5 hours of DC Comics Mortal Combat on Xbox. There was alot of trash talking and hypocratic strategies.

Finally, today we enjoyed laying on the beach in Coronado, and went for another bike ride. Be sure to check out all the new albums on our Picasa photo site. And, since we like to end with a video, here's a little salt in the wounds for everyone getting poured on back home...it's hard not to have this song stuck in your head out here.