This Thanksgiving, I’m thankful for sandal tans in Novemeber. Jenn and I just wrapped up a week long trip to Southern California where we visited with friends and family and ate food you can’t get in Massachusetts: Mexican, Hawaiian, and In ‘N’ Out burgers.

On one of our day trips, we stopped for an organic hippie lunch at Naked Cafe in Solana Beach. I’ve seen Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers play in Solana Beach four or five times when I used to live in Newport. Its a great place, just not sure where you’d work. Then we continued down the coast to La Jolla where we walked around the million dollar homes… so yeah, we were in the poor part of town. We finished up our LoCal visit with a stop in San Diego’s Gas Lamp District for dinner at Sevilla. According to Jenn, she figured out that I might be worth getting to know after I planned a trip for a bunch of us to San Diego 6 years ago. Sevilla was the restaurant that I took everyone to. So, since it was our 6 month anniversary, I took her back.

But our trip wasn’t all about food. We drove PCH from Manhattan Beach to Pico. We walked along the new San Clemente beach path and waved to the passing trains. And we spent some time with Lilli and Cash. We even got to borrow Lilli without her parents for a few hours.

We watch the Surfliner cruise by

Jenn at some weird California cafe

Lilli and Cash in the PT Cruiser

The beach is lonely when the temperature drops below 70

Tsunami warning sign in San Clemente

Just in case you’re interested… I’m still running. I’ve mixed in some rowing maching workouts at the gym. Ran 5k this morning on treadmill. And I’ve signed up for the Somerville Jingle Bell 5k Race in December. Yes, it’s an outdoor race in MA in winter. It’s going to be cold.

The faster you run, the sooner you're done! It's cold outside.

Here’s a picture from the 2007 run. I’m not sure what’s going to be tougher to deal with. The crazy people or the freezing cold weather.

Only crazy people run outside in December