Wishful Thoughts for a New Year of Travel

I've always thought that we kiss our honey-pie at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve to usher in the coming year and ensure it is spent in love and harmony with that person.

Does this hold true for whatever it is you do on the first day of the year? If you spend January 1 comfy and cozy at home eating good food and reading good books, is that a foretelling of what is to come in the new year? Can you shape your year-long destiny by choosing your day-one activities wisely?

If so, my 2008 will be filled with hassle-free travel.

Hubby and I packed up and shipped out for San Diego early on the first. We arrived at the airport with ease, boarded the plane without a problem, took off and landed with nary a care, and collected our checked luggage sans snafus. We returned home five days later in the identical fashion.

While we were in Ca-li, we mostly chilled with relatives. We ate at Lucky Buck's, a burger joint in San Diego's Hillcrest neighborhood adorned with signs of all sizes proclaiming it the best burger spot in town. Our cousins thought so too as they were the ones who took us there.

It's a small, laid-back place where you order at the counter and pick up your basket-o-food when it's done from the kitchen window. The waffle fries are worth the price upgrade and the spiked lemonade was quite tasty. Yum.

Our trek to Lucky Buck's occurred on the only warm and sunny day we were there. We spent the rest of our days donning layers and ducking in and out of foggy drizzle.

Yet the travel gods smiled on us again. As soon as we stepped foot on Oceanside's Pacific pier, the clouds parted and the late afternoon sun accompanied us on our stroll out and over the cold winter waves.