Palmabella's Passions

I am lucky to be on the planning committee for another Slow Travel Gathering in San Diego in March. Along with Shannon, Marcia, David, Jane, Ken and Brad, we have planned a wonderful three day event on March 12-14. This weekend, we all met to finalize all of the details and plans, and we had so much fun doing it. We began at Jane and Ken's home where our first "official event" will take place for the whole group of 72 on Friday night. I say "official", as many are arriving Thursday night and will be able to gather for dinner at The Vine.

Friday night will kick off "A Taste of San Diego", and is very exciting for me, as I will be preparing much of the food (with help from Shannon and my sous chef, Brad), and the theme is ITALIAN! We have a great menu of hearty appetizers lined up!

From Jane's, we all drove to meet the fabulous guys at Super Cocina, who will be catering Saturday night's dinner in Ocean Beach. I'm not a huge fan of Mexican food, but this stuff was ALL delicious! It was "lick the plate" good! We have a few surprises in store too.

Then we checked into the Island Palms resort on Shelter Island.

It was a warm and sunny afternoon for a glass of wine, planning our Sunday brunch, AND a view!

We enjoyed dinner together at the Vine, after a very productive day!

Bright and early the next morning, Brad and I drank lots of coffee, and took a nice walk along the water, across the street from the hotel.

By 10:30, Shannon, Marcia and David and Brad and I were enjoying a Valentine's Day coffee in Little Italy.

Before heading off to visit friends, we all managed to shop at the Italian market, Mona Lisa Italian Foods, and well as a wonderful Mexican store, Northgate Market, down the freeway!

It was a whirlwind day and a half, but we are ready to go for a fabulous weekend of parties!