BlogHer '11 Day 1

I woke up at about 7 am on Thursday. Excitement rushed through me and it felt like I just couldn't sit still. Not only was I going to BlogHer again but I was traveling with two of my YaYas, my best friends, my sisters by choice. I had managed to convince Jennifer and Kristi that BlogHer in San Diego sounded like a wonderful way to spend their vacation. Our trip from NC to San Diego was completely trouble free.

Planes loaded and took off on time. Turbulence was minimal.

Jennifer and Kristi - 2 of my YaYas

And, our flight attendant gave us free cookies. also, despite my camera issues (briefly mentioned in my Back to Reality post), I got some phenomenal photographs out the plane window on the way to San Diego...

We were picked up from the airport by my twitter hook-up. Yes,twitter hook-up. I went trolling for a 4th for our room at BlogHer and found the incomparable Shauna who writes Cooking in the Burbs and can be found on twitter as @cookingnburbs. I couldn't have found a better 4th for our room if I had picked from people I've known forever. Shauna fit in with us perfectly. We got the the Marriott and discovered we had this view from our room...

And, San Diego, oh my God is it ever gorgeous. The weather is fabulous. The sites are amazing. I even got to see a gorgeous hibiscus and I haven't seen a really pretty one since I moved away from Hawaii.

I could live there if I hadn't sworn that I would never, ever move again.

Before we started the full BlogHer experience, our whole group went out to dinner with a friend of mine from college, Dr. Dr. Mike Wilson.

sorry about the sucky picture, my cell phone camera obviously likes taking pictres from planes better than indoor shots

I met Mike during freshmen year at Duke and it's completely his fault I joined the Rescue Squad and became a paramedic. Mike is a truly fabulous friend and it was nice to know that the three of us (me, Kristi, and Jennifer) could still make him blush in about 10 seconds flat.

Jennifer, Dr. Dr. Mike, Kristi, and Me

We laughed, traded stories, caught up with each other, and, I think we were entertaining enough that we didn't bore Shauna to tears. Honestly, with company that fabulous, I would have been happy eating anywhere which made our dinner at The Fish Market a true bonus.

yum, yum The Fish Market's famous Dungeness Crab Cioppino

After dinner, we drove over to Coronado and were lucky enough to watch the fireworks over Sea World from the beach on Coronado. Sadly, it was soon time for us to head back to the hotel so Mike could grab his car and head out...he said something about being on call (ER duty) that night.

When we got back to the Marriott, we ended up parking under the North Tower (a truly serendipitous occurrence since the parties were right upstairs). As we headed for the elevator, we stumbled onto one of the hidden treasures of the Marriott...an unlocked storeroom with a giant wooden clown in it. By that point at night, we were all a little punchy. Weeeellllll, at least us three east coasters were punchy, I'm not sure what Shauna's excuse was. We decided we simply HAD to pose with the clown and trooped on into the storeroom.

While we were laughing and giggling and taking pictures, we got busted by a Marriott employee. Luckily for us, she was in a good mood and just rolled her eyes and laughed at us. It wouldn't have been good for Dr. Dr. Mike's reputation to get in trouble right before he had to be on call for the local ER. Once the clown induced photo session ended, Mike headed back to his car and we headed upstairs to the parties. My only regret about the first part of our evening is that Mike's lovely wife had a previous commitment and couldn't join us for dinner.

Our first day away was capped off by the incomparable People's Party and the truly fabulous Queerosphere. We only had a very short time at the People's Party but we did get to see the Bloggess and I got her picture with my crocheted traveling companion (more about that tomorrow). Once the brief photo shoot with the Bloggess was over, we headed over to the fabulousness that is Queerosphere. Deb Rox did a truly amazing job again this year. The drag queens were over the top fabulous, the entertainment was awesome, the emcee was rocking her heels, and my crocheted one eye wonder had his picture taken about a million times.

The Fabulous Regina Styles emceeing at Queerosphere

Queerosphere has a permanent place on my BlogHer agenda.

Come back tomorrow to read about BlogHer with Beanis: Day 1.