Archives for May 2011

Vacation: Fun and Food

Today we spent most of the day hanging out on Coronado Island. The island is just across the bridge from where our hotel is. It is so pretty on the island it almost looks like a movie set. All the grass and the flowers are done just perfectly. We walked down onto the beach and climbed on the rocks right by the ocean.

Jesse at CoronadoAshley at Coronado

Next we drove over to the parking garage that overlooks the San Diego airport. We watched a show on airports not too long ago that explained how tricky this airport is to land at. To land at this airport the pilot needs to maneuver through downtown and then clear the parking garage right before the runway. Technically, people aren’t allowed to be up there, but we went anyways. Dad just stared the guy down until he let us through. We got out of the car just in time to see a plane fly over and land, then a guy came and told us we had to leave. But at least we got our pictures first.

San Diego runwayPlane landing

Then we drove over the see the famous Unconditional Surrender statue. It was made from a photograph of a WWII sailor kissing a nurse. So of course we had to get our picture taken next to it doing the same thing.

Kissing statue

Lastly, we headed to Peohe’s for a graduation celebration dinner. This is one of Dad’s favorite restaurants to go to while he is here, and I can see why. It was delicious! He was even fancy and had a special message printed on our menus. We had an awesome view of San Diego Bay with the mountains in the background.

Peohe'sFamily dinnerSpecial menus

Eating out was kinda a big deal for me. Because of my allergies I really don’t eat out anymore. I’m pretty sure the last time was in October for our anniversary, which made me pretty sick. I was pretty nervous, but I took plenty of medicine (Gastrocrom) and I’m still okay so far. I was really brave and even had a piece of coconut crusted onion rings from our appetizer. I went with what I’ve read is the safest go-to meal to limit the amount of mystery sauces and flavorings. Grilled fillet minion with steamed veggies. It was so yummy!

Steak dinner

 

Vacation: Relaxation

Today was a very low key, recharging day. We were all pretty exhausted after all the driving around and site seeing we’ve been doing over the last couple of days. Today we kicked back and relaxed. I slept in until just after 8:00 this morning, which is pretty late for me. We took our time getting ready and ventured out after lunch time.

Dad has been working here in San Diego for several months over the last couple of years, which is how he has racked enough hotel points to get us the free room. Today he took us on to the Naval base to show us the simulator he has been working on. Dad used to be able to take us on simulators all the time years ago, but now his work has increased security and it’s harder to bring in visitors so it was cool that we were able to get in again. In the past he’s taken us on plane simulators, but I think this is my first time riding in a helicopter simulator. I even got to fly it! I wasn’t very good at it and I crashed a few times. On my third try I was able to fly under the bridge and then through downtown San Diego which was pretty cool. When we left the base we drove past some of the sites we flew by in the helicopter.

MH60S

Andrew and Jesse both did well at flying. Nicole killed us pretty good. When we crashed we were upside down and she could see the moon. Nothing like playing in a multi-million dollar toy on a Sunday afternoon.

I love vacation times when we can just all be together. There has been lots of laughter and fun times. I can’t believe that tomorrow will be our last day here, the time has just flown by so quickly.

Vacation: Beaches

Today we enjoyed getting to see some fabulous beach views. After sleeping in a little and checking out of our hotel in La Mirada, we made our way back to our original San Diego hotel. Our first stop was Corona del Mar. This was the beach we always used to go to for swimming. We enjoyed looking at the fancy houses around that area, I can’t imagine how much the must cost. It was so pretty to look out at the ocean view. I wish it would have been warm enough to go swimming, but it was pretty chilly. The breeze felt nice, but with the temperature being a little lower right near the water I needed a jacket to walk around.

Corona del MarHouses

Then we continued our drive down Pacific Coast Highway to Ruby’s for lunch. Ruby’s is my favorite California restaurant. I haven’t minded too much having to eat my own food at restaurants so for until we got to Ruby’s. I had a hard time deciding if I should just eat it anyways. In the end I decided not to, I knew I would feel really sick if I did. I’m really glad that Jesse was able to eat it for the first time though. That was the one place I really wanted him to eat.

Ruby's

After checking in to our hotel and unloading our luggage, we drove over to La Jolla Cove to take in some more ocean views. It’s so funny to watch all the seals that like to gather there. We watched them swim on and off the beach and enjoy all the attention they were getting from their viewers.

La Jolla CoveSeals

It was great to just watch all the waves crashing into the shore. I really miss getting to watch waves at home. Amazing!!

WavesCoast