livin' it up

because i'm a nut, the weekend in san diego included not only the diva dash, but also the hot chocolate 5K.  i'd missed out on this fun-sounding run last year, and when i realized that we'd be in the area, i threw it out to the group.  while only kelley took the bait, the others were perfectly happy to spend saturday night in san diego and sleep in while we ran the next morning.
after we'd stuffed ourselves silly during our post-dash lunch, we headed downtown to the hot chocolate expo for our race packet.

the expo itself really wasn't much to write home about.  there really weren't very many vendors there, although there was a pretty decent selection of race merchandise for sale.

of course, there was lots of chocolate in various forms.

this particular booth caught our eye:

the guys who were running the show were clearly out to get rid of as many full-sized jars of delicious biscoff spread as possible.  and we did our best to help them in their mission.

the stats for the race were interesting.  3,000 tons of chocolate fondue to hand out to the racers at the finish line?  yes, please.

thanks to lilcee and her many connections, we'd secured a sweet room at the marriott marquis.  the view we had from the 17th floor was pretty spectacular.

i wasn't kidding when i said we helped the biscoff spread guys out.  this doesn't even include the jars kelley took home.

the bean had sent me off with a pillowcase she'd decorated at a friend's birthday party. 

after we'd all gotten showered and cleaned up, we headed out on a short walk to the nearby gaslamp district.  kelley had gotten us a dinner reservation at cafe sevilla, and it only took about ten minutes to get there.

sangria is delicious.

we shared a plethora of tapas - short rib, pork belly, paella, meat on a stick.  the lighting was really bad, so my pictures are extra awful.  just use your imagination.

because we'd gotten such an early start to our day, we were all pretty pooped by about 10.  ha!  party animals we are not.  although i have to admit, i was grateful for the early turn-in - considering i needed to be downstairs to meet kelley for the 5K before 6 the next morning.

sometimes i wonder what the hell i'm thinking when i sign up for these things.  heh.