When I started this blog, my goal was to post something each week.  It has been six weeks since my last post so shame on me.

In any event, it has been an eventful month or two which included a trip to San Diego and New York, a wedding in Connecticut, a handful of visitors to Minneapolis, and an incredibly busy job. 

I will start with our trip to San Diego which had the two key characteristics of a Ben and Betsy trip: food and animals. 

Our friend, Geoff, told us to check out Sushi Ota.  We knew that the place was going to be great from the moment we arrived.  The restaurant is in a crappy little strip mall but was packed at 1030 on a Wednesday night.  He was right, it was delicious and had amazing tamago.

Earlier in the week, a crazy lady told Ben about place called Carnita's Snack Shack in North Park. We are open to any restaurant suggestion, especially one that comes from a crazy person and has the words "carnitas" and "snack" in the title. Let me put it this way, if you keep kosher or are trying to lose weight, this place is not for you. Ben had a sandwich that would clog even the healthiest person's arteries: pork schnitzel, bacon, and pulled pork. I opted for the lighter option: carnitas tacos with guacamole.

Later that day, we headed to the zoo.  I think that even if you were to remove all of the amazing animals, the San Diego zoo would still be beautiful. I guess that palm trees and 70 degrees all year will do that. Did I mention that there are pandas?  Or as I like to call them, giant stuffed animals who eat bamboo all day long.

On Saturday, we headed to the Little Italy Farmer's Market where Ben was able to don his favorite Michigan shirt and eat live sea urchin as it attempted to walk off the plate.  

I like camping as much as the next person...if it involves sleeping in a nice, spider-less bed instead of a tent. Hiking is another story, though, and Torrey Pines has now become one of my favorite places to hike (Hanging Lake in CO is still at the top of my list).  

After the beautiful hike, we headed to Oscars Mexican Seafood in La Jolla for amazing shrimp tacos.