Sea World

San Diego - Arrival and Beach Day

Every year our kids get a full week off from school for Thanksgiving, right about the time the weather starts to turn, so it's the perfect time for a family vacation. 

This year we decided to check out San Diego. The weather is great year round, the ocean is beautiful there, and there's tons to do. We planned to have a rather large group of family join us, so we  found a large house close to the beach to rent for the week and booked our plane tickets. 

Our flight to San Diego, had a layover in Salt Lake City. This trip, I was lucky enough to get a window seat, and I saw a side of the Great Salt Lake that I have never seen before (my prior visit to antelope island in the early summer of 2013 was less than awe inspiring...). 

It turns out, I like it a lot more from the air. 

These patches with varying shades of green and teal are very intriguing to me. I will have to do a little research to find out what they are all about. 

We had a couple of hours to spend in the SLC airport, so we grabbed some lunch and teched out for a bit. 

Even Great Grandma Verba joined in, making quick use of her new Kindle. 

After a quick flight from SLC to San Diego, we ran into Grandma Janis at the airport (imagine that!) and then we picked up our rental car (a dodge caravan) and headed to our house. We arrived just in time to catch the sunset. 

Grandma Sanna, Grandpa Max and Great Grandma Win arrived about an hour after we did. We went and picked up a few groceries and then went out for dinner at Shades restaurant in Ocean Beach. 

The next morning, we hit the beach. Some of us walked to the beach, taking the "Sea Wall Adventure" route suggested by the owner of the beach house. We walked a few blocks straight down to the ocean, where the road dead-ends at a small cliff. 

We took a set of cement stairs down to the sea wall path and started to make our way to the distant pier. 

The path was sometimes cement sidewalk, sometimes slippery rock, and sometimes hard pack sand/sandstone. There were lots of tiny coves and rock formations. About 300 feet out in the water, we could see several dolphins swimming along the same direction we were walking. 

Then, we came across an anomaly. My name written in the sandstone! 

It was a nice walk.  Not too adventurous, but there were a few spots we thought would be tough for GG Win. Of course, she disagreed and trucked right through!

We finally made it to the pier and meet up with the rest our group there. 

This particular pier, in Ocean Beach, is supposed to be the longest pier in the state of California. 

We walked all the way to the end and back. We enjoyed watching all the fishermen, the pelicans, and a couple of harbor seals along the way. 

After we finished at the pier, we hopped in the car and headed to Coronado. We stopped near the Hotel Del Coronado and walked the beach for a while. 

The sand at this beach is full of mica, so each wave looked like it was carrying a load of gold. It was enchanting! We also found lots of sand dollars and shells here. It was a beautiful and well maintained beach. 

After a quick bite to eat at a cute street cafe, we jumped back in the car and headed to La Jolla for the sunset. 

La Jolla cove was teaming with seals, cormorants, and pelicans! We could hear the seals barking as we drove up. Then, when we got out of the car we were hit with the stench! Fishy!!!

The black dots are cormorants mixed in with seals.  There were hundreds of both. 

We made our way into the cove and found a small cave at one end of the cove that was fun to walk through. 

We climbed out of the cove just in time to catch the sunset. 

Going, going, going, gone!

A perfect end to a spectacular day at the beach. 

Homecoming

This year, Sam's birthday fell on homecoming, so instead of party planning, we did a bit of dance planning instead.

We spent the day shopping for clothes (pants, shirt, tie). The. We picked up a corsage for Sam's date Tehya. 

When the time came for Sam to get ready, he needed a little help with his tie. Fortunately, his dad is a tie Jedi master. 

Sam went and picked up Tehya and brought her back for a few pictures before heading off for dinner (at IHOP) and dancing (Capitol High Homecoming at Revolution Event Center). 

Cute couple!

Syd's 10th Birthday

This year, Sydney had two birthday parties!! One with a couple of friends (and family) at Big Al's Bowling Alley and Arcade.

A couple of days later, we had a second small family party at our house. 

Birthdays are fun!

Magen's Bay, St. Thomas, USVI

After an early flight in from Puerto Rico, a group taxi ride across St. Thomas, an invigorating (and slightly frightening) dinghy ride across open water, a tour of "R Cabin" and a few minutes of unpacking, we set out in the tender toward Magen's Bay.

The ride over was gorgeous and it was fun to see all the different types of housing on St. Thomas, from shacks to multi-story mansions, dotting the hillside.

The view as we entered the mouth of the bay was picture perfect. The deep perfect blue of the ocean slowly gave way to turquoise waters rimmed by white sand beach and palm trees. 

Once we got close to shore, we all grabbed beach gear of one kind or another, jumped into the shallow water and waded in to dry land. 

We set up a day camp and then went for a swim. The water was perfectly warm and clear as a belle!!

Later, while we were enjoying our picnic lunch, we spotted several Iguanas coming right up near us. I'm sure they were hoping we packed a little extra lunch for them. 

Los Angeles

Have you ever been to Boise in January? Normally, the weather is very tolerable. A little snow here and there, gloomy days intermixed with gorgeous sunny days, and the occasional below zero temperature. January of 2013 was a completely different story. Temperatures had hovered at or below zero for weeks, snow that had fallen in late December was steadfast and gaining, and an inversion (which held a thin layer of cloud compounded by a thick layer of pollution) was holding the sun hostage and wreaking havoc on the air quality. It was time for an escape!

Friday, January 18th, we found ourselves with an open three day weekend in front of us and decided to book tickets to Los Angeles on the spur of the moment. We flew into LAX via Oakland and rented a car. We hopped on the freeway and headed south, no real plan in hand. We decided to head toward Huntington Beach and seek out a place to stay for the night. We ended up at the Shorebreak Hotel right across from the Huntington Beach Pier.

The next morning, we awoke to find the sun shining and blue skies calling our names. Pure bliss! It was a balmy 45 (in comparison to the -2 we had just left) when we headed out to breakfast. We walked to a restaurant called the Sugar Shack (yelp guaranteed it would be great) and ate our breakfast at an outside table. All the locals were wearing scarfs, gloves and hats. We got a kick out of that.

After breakfast, we walked through the Huntington Beach shops and then down the Pier. We watched all the surfers and a knee board competition. Sydney got a chocolate malt at Ruby’s at the end of the Pier. We saw giant pelicans, a sea snake (?), and three dolphins out for their morning swim.

Finally, we left the pier and walked out to the water and stuck our feet in. The water was cold, but not freezing (it was similar to the Oregon Coast in mid summer). We picked up some shells (including a whole sand dollar) and enjoyed the beach for a while. Eventually, we made our way back to hotel. We packed up, checked out and headed south to Laguna Beach.  While there, we had lunch at Ruby’s with my best high school friend, Anne, and her beautiful family. I thought it was pretty funny that we live 5 hours apart, but ending up meeting each other’s families in the middle of California.

Saw several cool cars that Sam really liked. Stopped at a Maclaren Dealership in Newport Beach. Drove north and visited Crystal Cove State Park. Walked the beach and soaked up the sun. 70+ degrees…

Hopped back in the car and headed north up the 101 past Huntington Beach and Long Beach to Hermosa Beach. Checked into the Holiday Inn Express. Went out to Paisano’s Pizza near the pier and ate delicious NY pizza by the slice. Kids had cheese. Michael and I had BBQ Chicken pizza and then split a piece of pastrami (mustard, cheese and pastrami). Then we shared a piece if NY style cheesecake. Yum! Back to the hotel for swimming and hot tub then off to bed for the night.

11/20/13
Woke up relatively early and ate breakfast at the hotel. Headed to Hollywood. Walked around and saw the walk of stars and the Graumans Chinese Theatre. Saw the stars hand prints and names. Syd and Sam got drawings of themselves done by a street artist. Sydney bought neon green sunglasses from a street vendor. Poked around in a few stores and then caught a hop on hop off bus tour through LA. Saw Korea Town, China Town, Disney Music Center, lots of cool old theatres. Ride on the freeway at 55+ on the top of a double decker!!! Drove around Beverly Hills and bought Meyer lemons and cookies from a kids lemonade stand. Went to an estate sale high up in the hills and bought a Limoges tea cup for $5. What a view from that house!! Drove down out of the hills toward Santa Monica Pier to LAX. Dropped Michael and Sam at the airport.  Headed to the Renaissance Hotel and got settled in. John and his wife picked us up and we drove to the Santa Monica Pier. We went on several rides (sea dragon, bumper cars, roller coaster), Syd had ice cream and then we went and had dinner at Marasol, a Mexican restaurant at the end of the pier. After nice conversation and dinner, we walked back down the pier and Syd got cotton candy. Then we went back to our hotel. Sydney and I went swimming in the hotel pool (it was heated to close to 100 degrees!) and then ordered cookies and milk from room service. Then off to bed so we could get up early to head to the airport in the morning.
1/21/13
Woke up, returned the rental car, shuttle to airport, Home!