A Girl’s Weekend in San Diego (with Food and Hotel Recommendations!)

Last weekend I snuck off for a girl’s weekend in San Diego. In high school, there were seven of us girls, all in the same grade and attending the same church, who became close friends. A few of us had grown up together and had been friends since we were four years old, and several other girls became part of our group as time went on and they moved into the neighborhood. After high school, all seven of us went to college together at BYU — and after all these years we’ve still stayed in touch!

Through facebook messages and group texts over the years, we talked about doing a girl’s trip the year we all turned thirty. We’re all married, and we have twelve children between the seven of us, but somehow we managed to coordinate everyone’s schedules and sneak away for three days in beautiful San Diego.

We had two main goals for our weekend: relax and talk. I had stayed at the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel a few years ago with my boys, so I knew the amenities, proximity to the waterfront, and beautiful rooms would make it the perfect spot for a girl’s weekend. They generously hosted us for the weekend, and it couldn’t have been more fun.

The gorgeous room not only had an insane view of the harbor, but it also had a small kitchenette, a large table, a big sectional that pulled out and fit three people, two bathrooms, and then a connecting room with two double beds. Hanging in the room during the day, or staying up late to talk was all we wanted to do, and the room set up was perfect for that.

The first night we stayed up way too late doing facials, painting our nails, looking through old scrapbooks, and catching up after almost thirteen years since high school. We all kept commenting about how easy it was to pick up right where we left off, even though some of us hadn’t seen each other for six or seven years. That’s the best part about life long friendships!

The next day we rented bikes from the hotel and biked the few miles along the waterfront. The weather was perfect and we chatted the entire way about life, kids, and goals. It was probably the best part of the trip for me.

The rest of the day was spent at the pool. The hotel has two pools — one family pool with lots of fun poolside games like ping pong, foosball, and a giant Connect Four game (my boys would have had so much fun!!) and an adult pool. We tried both, and eventually decided on the adult pool…cause we were kid free and we could 😉

Eating is a huge part of travel for me, and thankfully a few of the other girls are foodies like me, so we took advantage of the incredible food scene in San Diego and ate so well. Our first night we went to Puesto, known for their incredible tacos (I recommend the carnitas taco!). The next day for dinner, we headed over to nearby Little Italy and ate at Herb and Wood. We saw that it got good reviews on Yelp, but it was unreal how amazing it was. I practically licked the Oxtail Gnocchi plate clean, and the Mushroom and Truffle pizza was to die for. We all were sharing plates, and everything I tried was incredible. We topped it off with some amazing treats from Extraordinary Desserts, which was recommended by a few of you and didn’t disappoint. I’m already dying to go back to try more of your recommendations!

Basically every expectation I had for this trip was more than fulfilled. Amazing destination, incredible hotel, unreal good food, and of course the best company. A girl’s trip with a bunch of busy moms is so hard to fit in, but it was worth every effort and filled my cup in a way that nothing else could.

a huge thank you to Manchester Grand Hyatt for hosting us for the weekend!