Returning to San Diego

After 4 days in Seattle with work, I’m now 36,000ft above the Pacific coast heading south to San Diego. This weekend should be great, I’m really excited to return to somewhere we had such good times, 10 years ago on our J1 summer visa adventure. This time will be different: I can walk into a bar without my fake ID; I can afford a nice dinner downtown, rather than burritos every day; I can discover all the top tourist sights, as we seemed to ignore them all back then.

Work in Seattle

Work was really good this week – fantastic to meet all the people I work with and we really made a lot of progress on plans for the future. Our team from Dublin was over, as well as our colleagues from Reno, NV. We got to work at Microsoft’s HQ in Redmond, where over 40,000 people work in a sprawling network of over 100 buildings. It’s so motivating to come over and see the energy and expertise that people have. Plus you get to meet people who work in completely different areas to us, from IT to marketing to legal. I learned so, so much about our business and future plans at this changing time for the company.

J1 Memories 2003

Before I left Dublin, I started thinking about the summer of fun we had in 2003. A group of about 10 of us came over on a J1 summer work visa to San Diego and had the time of our lives. Mick, Kev and my brother John lived together in Pacific Beach. The girls lived down the road. Talking to Kate, Kev and Karen (all the Ks) last week triggered all those funny memories and stories.

I’m looking forward to driving down to PB, stopping off at Pier 22 where we always met; going to the doughnut store on Grand Ave for the freshest, yummiest doughnuts you’ve ever had; seeing the seals in La Jolla and best of all meeting Antonio and Lori who live north of San Diego. I’ll have to take a photo of our one bed condo on Ingraham St (four of us lived in a one bed with 4 air mattresses and no furniture!) as well as kick a ball around the spot where we played football with a bunch of Mexicans and Ethiopians every Saturday morning.

Another side of San Diego

I’m also hoping to discover a different side of San Diego. It seems like we missed many the main sites and sounds when we were there – this time I might go to the zoo, which is meant to be one of the world’s best. I’d love to play golf in Torrey Pines. It would be great to get out in the national parks and go hiking in the mountain trails. Finding a good bar with a happy hour for some craft beers and maybe a margarita would be nice. Catching up with Antonio and Lori will also be great – I haven’t seen Lori since we left 10 years ago and last time I met Antonio was when we toured Ireland 3-4 years ago. Bring it on…

Niamh, Cora, Karen, Clare, Camille, Sinead, Maeve, Kate, Maura, Mick, Kev, Elaine – dig out an old photo and share it on Facebook.