Greetings from Sunny San Diego!

I spent the past few days in gorgeous, fun, charismatic San Diego. The technical reason for my visit was to attend IMFAR, or the International Meeting for Autism Research. This is a conference attended by all of the big names in autism research, Sally included. For nerds like me, it’s kind of like spotting Hollywood celebrities here and there. Pretty cool stuff. My goal was to attend talks on all new stuff, stuff that I don’t specifically research. Sally reiterated this idea by telling me not to go to her talks (I know what she’s doing; I do what she’s doing), but to go to brand new, interesting stuff. So I spent most of the conference listening to talks on older children with autism and the services they get in schools (after all, the kids I work with are too young for school, or maybe just entering preschool), adults with autism (including a really cool several-decade follow-up), socioeconomic and ethnic differences in diagnosis, and epidemiology (rates and patterns of occurrence). It was all really interesting! I couldn’t help myself, though, and I did go to Sally’s main talk and the event she was chairperson for. I wanted to hear her talk about our intervention and kids and hear the other researchers she chose to speak on the panel, who are doing similar things around the world.

So the conference was great, and the fun was great! A few friends went down to San Diego as well, including Amy, Carolyn, and David. We went out to lunch and had a great time (and were late to the next sets of talks…). Mojitos and ice cream are just important things to get!! We had a great time hanging out in a really cool area. And last night, Mandi went down!! She met me after the last set of talks wrapped up, and we went out for a major night on the town. We headed over to the Gaslamp, a really cool food and entertainment area in San Diego. We did some searching for the best-looking restaurant, and chose Croce’s. We indulged in baked brie with honey roasted garlic and Grand Marnier berry compote, jumbo lump crab cake with sweet corn puree, and some amazing salads. Hers was wrapped in a seedless cucumber, and mine had a vanilla bean dressing with poached figs and warm spinach, gorgonzola, etc., etc. So good!!!

After dinner, we headed across the street to The Tipsy Crow, a really cool bar–apparently San Diego’s longest-standing bar. Mandi drank a beloved Maui coconut beer, while I had mojitos (naturally). We played several games of giant Connect Four and made and watched lots of fun things happen… After we had finished up there, we headed over to La Puerta. This was a spot I had gone to for lunch the previous day with my friends, and where we had indulged in some blended mojitos that were to-die-for. Well, I couldn’t resist them the next day, so Mandi suggested we head over there. We munched on chips and salsa and chatted for awhile. Finally, after some prodding and some really fun-sounding texts and voicemails from my friends, Mandi and I decided to meet them at the bar they were at. It was fun to see them, but the place wasn’t my style. Kind of a dive bar with way, way too loud of music and kareoke. I couldn’t talk to anyone, even while yelling. But we hung out for awhile and had some fun, then we walked back through downtown to the hotel.

Speaking of my hotel, I loved it!! I had a suite all to myself. I spread out on the king-sized bed, ordered room service (including a delectable lobster mac and cheese) and ate messily in my pajamas, watched HGTV unti 1 a.m., and took long and glorious showers. It was fantastic. I have always loved hotels, and it’s been awhile since I’ve stayed in one alone. I definitely took advantage. Additionally, I thoroughly enjoyed Mandi staying over last night. Although…she fell asleep within 3 minutes of hitting the bed. I had something very funny to ask her around minute 4, and there was no response!!

Wonderful sister that Mandi is, she let me sleep in until nearly 10, and then suggested we go out to breakfast. She found the $1 mimosa spot nearby, so we headed there.

A fantastic past few days!!!