I have been to the Hotel Del Coronado many times, yet I have yet to stay there.  It is a luxury hotel right on the water.  In the 1990s, my mother and sister were staying there while I was visiting friends in the city.  I have vivid memories of spending the day with them on the beach.  I had just lost my job and was quite miserable.   We went into the ocean, rode bikes around the island, drank cocktails by the pool.  The day had a magical effect on me, and I often look at the photos from the day to take some of that feeling in.

Also, if you haven’t been and are trying to picture the hotel, it’s a historic landmark and the film, “Some Like it Hot” was shot there in the 1950s.

But this was the first time I went for lunch at their restaurant facing the ocean front, Sheerwater.  We sat on the terrace, enjoying the beautiful view and we both ordered salads.  My friend’s children are ages 6 and 8, and I was curious what kind of meal they were going to get for the grand price of $10.

The menu for kids is called “Under the Sea” and they start out the meal with  a serving of Sheerwater Trail Mix: goldfish, pretzels, dried fruit and cheerios.  We actually weren’t served this appetizer, but for older kids, it really isn’t necessary.   For the meal, the choices include pizza, a cheddar cheese burger, beef hot dog, oodles of noodles, mac & cheese, a rice bowl, fish & chips, grilled ham & cheese, pb&J and crispy chicken fingers.  They all come with a side of french fries or baby carrots and a drink.  The servings are really, really plentiful.   Dessert includes a banana split, vanilla bean cheesecake or a a chocolate brownie.  By the time dessert came, the kids were pretty full.

After lunch, we took a walk around the hotel and by the water and we took pictures of my friend’s children.  It was a spectacular afternoon, and I highly recommend it.

Disclosure: I was not compensated to write this review and all opinions are my own.

I just came back from BlogHer 2011, a conference I’d been eagerly awaiting for some time.  Five days in San Diego never sounded like a bad idea in the first place.  It’s a stunning city, one that I love going back to and still need to explore.  I love its scenery, weather and as a bonus, one of my best friends lives there.

I had such plans for this BlogHer.  Having blogged for more than a year now, I knew what I needed to learn and who I wanted to meet in the world of my favorite bloggers.  I felt confident that this would be my best BlogHer yet (it was my second).

I went armed with a schedule, a list of contacts to look out for and a plan.  I was also representing my company, so I had that very much in mind. Last year I wasn’t invited to many private functions and sat in many of the sessions.  Meeting 3,000 other bloggers at a time when I had only been blogging for half a year was over-whelming, to say the least.  I didn’t know how to talk to the brands.  I didn’t know what I wanted out of the conference and actually didn’t gain much from the sessions.  This year would be different, or so I thought.

This year I received a lot of private invitations to events that were outside the convention center.  These were private events hosted by brands that I somehow had a connection to.  I was honored to be invited to them, and as I made my schedule, I included them wrapped around all the wonderful BlogHer sessions I intended to go to.  I had every intention to do both, while representing my web site you’re reading now, and the company that I work for.  I’m a doer, why couldn’t I do it all?

When all was said and done, and the conference ended yesterday, I realized that I had somehow left many of the sessions off my schedule.  I hadn’t heard so many of the fabulous women I had come to hear.  While I did enjoy meeting some of the most amazing women ever, I had somehow skipped several sessions they were speaking on stage at.  CecilyK stated this very thing so well in her article on Babble Crunch today, which you should read.  She stated, “The private parties and events may offer fun opportunities and swag, delicious food and entertainment, but they do not offer the thing that I find the most valuable over the long term when it comes to blogging: COMMUNITY.”

She is so right.  I did benefit greatly from the Geek Bar sessions where I learned valuable information on analytics and social media platforms and I loved the session with the ladies from The Huffington Post where parenting coach Susan Stiffelman talked about the work at home moms and the importance of being fully present for your kids and I got to hear and see one of my heroes, Lisa Belkin from Motherlode get up and comment. I went to a few other miscellaneous sessions on blog design with my heroine, Jill Smokler from Scary Mommy and others that revolved around changing the world.  However, I felt like I was being pulled in a million impressions and before I knew it, the conference had ended.  How had I missed the sessions that I had specifically carved out in my mind that I would not miss?  Why did I choose to go from party to party instead of the sessions that mattered most?  I won’t tell you which they were, but they were clearly later in the day.

Hint: keynotes.   I was invited to a Dreamworks screening of the film “The Help“. Don’t get me wrong – I did love it and wept to no end, but I could have seen it upon release.  While it felt good to sit down for a few hours in complete darkness, I was missing out on a powerful keynote about “Women Creating Media” with Ricki Lake.  While I was chugging down margaritas at one party another night and everyone was jumping in pedicabs to hit another party, I somehow didn’t make it back for another evening event which was part of my whole purpose for being at BlogHer.  Honestly, I don’t want to talk about it.

Cecily is right.  Last year, I wondered what kind of impression I could make before a brand when 3600 other attendees were barking up the same tree.  This year, I went to the parties because several people I knew were going and I thought it was a privilege to be invited.  And while some of them were marvelous, particularly the Clever Girls Collective party, where I had the cartoon portrait drawn that you are staring at and wondering if I really looks anything like me (I actually do), I now realize that would have been enough for me.  I didn’t need to go any other parties. I needed the sessions.  Live and learn, as they say.

Thankfully, there were a few private events that were stunning and very educational.  The event hosted by my friends from the Blogging Angels was empowering.  It was called “Enough About Us.  What About you?” and was a good 101 course on growing your brand.  The message was that top brands rock it by cultivating an image at every turn, and I took home a lot of useful notes to grow the ones I’m working on.  I also spent the day before BlogHer started at another conference called Women Create Media where I heard from the brilliant Brene Brown on courage and one of my long-time heroes, Aliza Sherman.  I was a member of her organization Web Girls long ago and she, herself, taught me HTML.  I really listened when she said to write with passion, and then money will follow.  She told us to write what’s important to us.  Content is everything.

I also went to a fantastic event hosted by The Big Toy Book  called “Sweet Suite” with my good friends from KidsVuz.  I loved seeing all the hottest products coming out in the toy market and catching up my friends at Hasbro, who co-branded my company’s latest app, Chuck and Friends.  I had a ball playing on the Kinect for XBox 360 for the first time with my friends, dancing like there’s no tomorrow.

I had amazing, long conversations with the most brilliant women, including Gretchen Rubin, the author of The Happiness Project who encouraged me to get more sleep.  I picked up her book immediately at the airport on the way out of town and am figuring out small ways to make improve my life through her beautifully written words, #1 requiring more sleep. Together, Gretchen and I witnessed the premiere of an ABC news segment featuring my amazing friends from The Motherhood.  They’ve just arrived back from a week in Kenya where they met HIV-positive mothers testing their children for the virus, saw the dramatic difference a malaria vaccine could make in the lives of Kenyan women and children and met health care workers who bike, or walk, miles to reach their patients.  It moved me so much that I officially became a One Moms Partner and I, too, am hoping to make a change in a mother or child’s life one day.

I also had a long, personal conversation with Barbara Field, a communications consultant and a brilliant writer.  We talked about life-changing moments, detours, being a mom and what’s most important to us.  That conversation will stay with me for some time to come.

I have to end my post on a not so serious note.  Despite the fact that I was torn about what to do and who to hear, I gave myself time to have a bit of a laugh which is portrayed in the photos below.  .

Meeting Scary Mommy - I acted like I'd known her my whole life. I think I scared her.

I was hanging out with the wonderful Holly Pavlika and got dragged into this group of men promoting cereal bars. We gave back the hats.

It's not the real stoop, but how cool is this? Shame my kids could care less about Elmo now.

One of my new friends from BlogHerYentas, a Jewish meet up I invented, Montreal Mom.

My roommate, Ilana, from Mommy Shorts, who is apparently happy I didn't use the hair dryer. Does she not understand the world of curly hair?

My two BFF's at BlogHer, Gina from TheTwinCoach.com and Monique from MoTravels.com

Oh, and next year, I’ll see you at all the key notes and the only party I might be going to is the one I might be throwing myself.  Amen.

Disclosure: All experiences expressed are my own.

The biggest attraction in Legoland are, indeed, the Legos. As soon as you enter the parking lot, you come across life-sized lego figures. Most of Legoland is also made of Legos. There are mini cities made out of Lego, including figures of the Statue of Liberty, and the Eiffel Tower.

There are many rides at Legoland. My son is 42″, so he just made the cut-off for many of the rides. I was glad he made it, otherwise he’d have felt left out. The rides are all made for kids age 2-12, and all are very gentle. One of the coolest rides we went on was the Lost Kingdom Adventure. Based in ancient temple ruins, it puts you inside a desert jeep and takes you on a journey to recover stolen treasure by blasting targets with laser guns along the way. We rode roller coasters, trains, boat rides, and much more. There’s a 19-foot-tall tyrannosaurus rex and a 12-foot-long submarine, as well as playgrounds made out of legos for the kids to run around on. There’s even a fake factory to learn how legos are made. It’s legos, legos and more legos.

Plus, there are opportunities for the kids to play with Legos all over the park, and naturally shops on your way out to pick up toys at (which was very crowded). There is food everywhere you turn, but the choice isn’t great and neither is the quality.

Legoland is on the coast in Carlsbad about 30 miles north of San Diego. It has more than 50 rides, shows and attractions that are all geared towards pre-schoolers to young children. The original Legoland is in Denmark, and there’s even one in Windsor, England. It’s not a cheap experience, of course, as tickets run about $50 each for the day, but our friends managed to get us in for free using their season passes. Still, even if we had to pay, I’d say it’s worth it..for the kids.