Swamped

It's been one of those weeks. One of those weeks where you wake up and scream "TGIF!" and then stop and go "Wait, what? Friday. How'd that happen?"

Changes are afoot and time is a precious commodity this week. Next week I actually have a week off. My week of summer. So, hey Mother Nature, if you are reading this, PLEASE give us a little coastal sun?

But since I know you are dying to hear about our day at the fair, I'm going to point you over to the GM The Future is Electric blog to read all about the fried food and fast cars.

With that, I will leave you with the cutest thing since mini-pigs in red boots; 2 year old girls in ballet class!!!

Giveaway! Tickets to the San Diego Fair from Chevy Ride & Drive

Confession. When they came to pick-up the Traverse this week I *may* have cried a little bit. I know the kids did, and continue to, every time we get in one of our non-dvd enabled cars...thankfully, we may have a chance to reconnect this weekend at the San Diego Fair at the Chevy Ride and Drive Event.

I KNOW. I see you sitting there, green with jealousy over all my Chevy-loving of late. But don't worry - this time I get to share my Chevy love, with a lucky San Diego Family!

Thanks to Chevy, I have a awesome giveaway: a San Diego “Fair Care Package,” for THIS WEEKEND (June 18-20, 2010).

Chevy's Fair Care Package comes complete with free admission tickets, ride tickets, and other swag to help you enjoy a day at the fair. Additionally, you'll have the chance to test drive Chevy's line-up of cars and they will even schedule a time for that ride & drive so you don’t have to wait in line.

To enter, in the Comments section, tell me about the ONE food item you are dying to try at the 2010 SD Fair. The winner will be chosen at random tomorrow at 4:00 PM. 

Re-Tweet this promotion for extra chances to win!

"@HipmamaB and #Chevy Ride & Drive have FREE tix to the SD Fair THIS WEEKEND! Enter by 4 PM 6/17 to win!"

Think about it, free tickets to San Diego Fair, Chevy cars and a Deep Fried Stick of Butter... who can think of a better way to spend a day this weekend?

*Contest is closed*

CONGRATS to SUE for winning! Enjoy the fair, the food and your Chevy Ride and Drive!

Thanks to everyone for entering!

Mommy Likes: The Chevy Traverse

If you follow me on Twitter you probably know that this week the nice PR people from Chevy have lent me a 2010 Traverse  to drive around town for a week. 

Now, I drive a little Audi A4. I love my Audi - I love the speed and the little sports car feel of it. And while it may have not made a lot of sense when I bought it after having a kid, at the time I was commuting daily and it was a good choice. And even though it's small, it's still our car of choice when going out with the family (Jason has a Nissan XTerra). But for the past year or so I've been wanting something bigger. The kids are getting bigger and we are going to need something able to haul around friends for carpools and soccer practice. And while I will admit to the occasional mini-van envy (ooohh, sliding doors...) I just can't bring myself to drive one.

Lucas, "just chillin' in the back, Mom"After a few days in the Traverse, I will say that I'm in love in a realistic way. It handles well and the room is amazing. We got the model with the captain seats in the 2nd row (see my rant about 3rd row seating here) and the space in this thing is amazing. Parked next to the Xterra it seems to be the same length, but HOT DAMN, the inside seems cavernous in comparison. 

After a trip to the library yesterday, Lucas climbed in the back to just hang out and read. DO YOU SEE THAT SPACE? This is with the 3rd row seats down flat. If the seats are up, there is still cargo area, but I went to the store yesterday, so I put the seats down for max. cargo area. 

The other feature that is super cool, is the reverse cam. This one is actually IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR. 

Lucas immediately dubbed it the "Spy Mirror" and it's really cool - a "picture in picture" pops up when you are in reverse. The Traverse also has rear sensors, so if you get too close to something while reversing it beeps a warning at you. While cool, it's also really scary when you are slowly and carefully backing up in the parking lot at Target and some jerk comes speeding by and all of a sudden it's screaming its beeps at you at a rapid pace. But hey, thats why it's there, to let you know before you reverse into things like trashcans, jerks speeding by and children running in the street. I would much rather be beeped at than in an accident. 

So far the poor car has only been driven to the park, Target, Trader Joe's, Islands and the library... but hopefully this weekend we can put it to the test on a mini road-trip to LA. I think a 2 hour car ride is where we are really going to love the built in DVD system...

iPhood; The Fish Tacos and Chevys Experience

When Chef Jason Neroni was interviewed recently about why he chose to leave San Diego and the restaurant Blanca in Solana Beach, he was quoted as saying "The running joke other chefs told me was that all San Diegans want is fish tacos. It was funny for a moment, and then it got annoying because it was true."

Ouch. But... well... true?

Down in San Diego, we are known for a few things: perfect weather, obscenely high housing costs, and fish tacos. So when I was offered the change to test out 4 of the best Fish Taco spots in San Diego with the Chevrolet Best Of Tours - I jumped at the chance. A beautiful sunny day, 8 different fish tacos and the chance to drive a Camaro?! Who wouldn't?

Stop #1 - South Beach Bar and Grill in Ocean Beach

When we all first met up, we were encouraged to drive or drive in each of the 5 different Chevys lined up to take us to our 4 stops. I immediately leaned over to La Jolla Mom Katie and said "That's all you, I get nervous test driving cars..." {note: foreshadowing} With that she hoped into the front seat of the Malibu and drove us to our first stop. 

Fish Taco Talk: I would have been happy staying there all day. The sun was shining and the ocean was right there, and the tacos were light, crispy and perfectly cooked. There was a little hint of spice to them and the white sauce was enough to give you the flavor but not enough to drown your food. I wanted to devour them, but being this was only stop one, I ate one and politely pushed the other away {sob}.The only thing missing was a beer. But since we were encouraged to drive, we were asked not to drink. That's fine - I needed to be smart and professional anyway. HA. 

Stop #2 The Brigantine, Shelter Island.

We step out from the loud bar buzz of South Beach Bar and Grill to a line of Chevys waiting for us. The one that I was actually very interested in was the Traverse, Chevy's 3 row "crossover". Somehow the keys ended up in my hand and I hopped into the front seat to drive 7 of us to "The Brig" in Shelter Island. 

Last year Jason and I thought it may be time to start looking at a new car to replace my Audi A4 (which i love love love, but alas is a tad small these days). We were getting to the mindset of carpools, lugging crap, 2 kids + dog, etc, and while there is NOWAYINHELL I will drive a mini-van (sorry MiniV moms. While the sliding doors are enticing, I. Just. Can't. Do. It.), we still need something with some size. Enter in the "crossovers" - the SUV/MiniVan mix - for the mom that wants the minivan perks without the mini-van. The selling point - many of them have 2nd row captain seats! GENIUS! Last year when I went to test drive the 3rd row Pathfinder, my first question was "How does Grandma get to the 3rd row with 2 carseats in the 2nd row?" Car seats pretty much render 3rd rows useless, because if you have ever had to install a car seat you KNOW you can't be doing that at every stop you make. Okay. Rant over.

As we learned as I carefully drove through the narrow streets of OB, the Traverse was actually designed by female engineers and many of the ideas for features came directly from mothers. So THATS why the 2nd row is captain seats - because a MOM had some say! In quick 10 minutes I drove it, I liked it. It seemed huge on the inside but didn't look that big on the outside. It's definitely a car I will revisit. 

Fish Taco Talk: The fish taco part of this story - well, it was The Brig. Been there, done that. Good, but nothing special. Moving on...

#3 Blue Water Sea Food, lower Mission Hills area.

Feeling a bit more confident, once again I hopped in the drivers seat - this time in a HUGE Hybrid Silverado. This thing was ginormous. When I first got in, my feet didn't even touch the ground. I felt little driving this thing - like I was a kid driving in my parents car. If you need a big truck, this is a good option. Although I did get a little nervous when it slid back a little on a step hill - something that happens in the slight lag it takes the hybrid to click in. 

Fish Taco Talk: This place was packed. So crowded there was no place to sit down, so we picniced in outside on the back of the Silverado. Maybe it was the hot sun, maybe it was stop #3, but this one really didn't do it for me. But the last stop...

 #4 The Green Flash in Pacific Beach.

Having driven two other cars, I got cocky and decided to go for the win and drive the Camaro. With thoughts of Lucas screaming "BUMBLEBEE" and Jason singing "Bitchin' Camaro, Bitchin' Camaro..." in my head, I happily took this set of keys. 

This car is hawt. I kept trying to think of a way I can justify it.. hey, the backseat isn't that small...with memories of days I used to have my Hoopty (1984 Nissan 300Z), I actually got to pick up a little speed on our short freeway jaunt. When we got out of the car in Pacific Beach, I think there were actually cat calls. Strangers stopped on the street to admire the utter coolness of the new Camaro. HipMamaB lived up to her name. 

Fish Taco Talk: I knew that the Green Flash tacos would be good. An old favorite from "back in the day", the shrimp taco was delish and just what was expected. Too bad I was already so stuffed from the previous 3 stops!

All in all, it was a fun day. Fish tacos, sunshine, cool cars and new friends is a great way to spend a day in San Diego.