San Diego - Day 4

(Because my camera bit the dust on Day 3, there are no pictures for this post.  James took some with his phone, but I haven't got those on our computer yet.  Pictures to come, hopefully.)

We weren't really sure what to do on Day 4.  We had pretty much seen everything in San Diego that we wanted to, so it was time to head back north.

We stopped at the San Diego Temple.  It is currently closed, but an old guy missionary, said we could park anyway and take a few pictures.  We just had to stay on one side of the grounds.

Across the freeway from the temple is UCSD - University of California at San Diego.  We thought we would go there and check it out.  We drove around the campus, found the bookstore, and bought some Tritons t-shirts.  Yes, their mascot is the Triton.  We even passed a large water sculpture of a creature that looked like Ariel's dad.  Go Tritons!

We kept driving, stopped once for gas.

Camp Pendleton is huge, by the way.

We had an hour or two to spare before we needed to be at the airport.  So what were we to do?  There was only one option . . .  DISNEYLAND!!  Ok, so we didn't really go to Disneyland, but we parked and walked to Downtown Disney.  It was lots of fun.  I love Disneyland.

We made it back to the airport in plenty of time, got the car checked in, made it through security, and had a chance to eat some french fries before we took off.

Molly was really good on the flight back.  A nervous lady sitting next to us decided to move to another seat, so Molly had her own seat.  We went back through the bag of goodies and kept her pretty well entertained.

Molly fell asleep in the car on the way home.  She woke up briefly to change her diaper and get some pj bottoms on, but was asleep by 8 or so.  She slept until almost 9 the next morning.  Phew!  She must have been tired.

 . . . . And that's the end of our trip!

San Diego - Day 3

 On Day 3 of our trip we headed to the San Diego Zoo.  It was crowded, there are lots of hills, and Molly was a little bit less cooperative and patient than she had been the last two days.  I think she was just tired. 

We got to the zoo and were persuaded by a zoo worker to do the 40 minute bus toor.  Ug.  It allowed us to see the whole zoo in that time, but Molly was less than thrilled to be on the bus after about 20 minutes.  The last 20 (or more) were very, very long.  The driver even stopped a couple of times to ask if everything was ok.  Yes, just please keep driving and let us off this bus.

Shortly thereafter, Molly fell asleep in the stroller.  We'd hadn't seen much and I didn't feel like pushing a sleeping Molly up and down and up and down all the steep hills.  We found a nice chair and sent James to see the rest of the zoo.  We decided to meet back up in an hour.  Molly had a good little nap and I may have, too! 

When we met back up, we decided to go to 1) Panda Bears, 2) Polar Bears, 3) 4D Happy Feet Movie, and 4) ride the sky ride back to the front of the park.  We did all that except for the Panda Bears.  The line was about a 4 hour wait and wasn't moving.  We stood in it for a few minutes, but my not-so-patient-even-though-she-just-woke-up daughter used one of her new phrases and told the people in front of us to "Go Away."  We decided pandas weren't worth it and went on with the rest of the plan.  She liked elephants and big cats we found along the way and she thought the sky ride was pretty cool.

We left the zoo and ate at a local sea food place James found called the Sea Rocket.  I had a grass fed burger with "bacon jam," James had some fish and oysters, Molly had a cheese pita thing that she said was pizza and emptied out the side of bleu cheese spread that came with my burger.  James said his fish was delicious and that's why we went there.  The restaurant was decorated in cardboard and duct tape fishes hanging from the ceiling.  It was interesting.

Next, we headed across the giant bridge to Coronado.  We walked on the beach.  We took Molly's shoes and socks off and set her down on the sand.  SCREAM!!!!!!!  Until this point, Molly had had a few mild melt-downs, but this was an absolute fear and angry scream.  She didn't want anything to do with the water or the sand.

This is what her face looked like. 

She and I hung out on a bench on the sidewalk while James finished walking around and taking pictures on the beach.  At about that time, I started looking for my camera in our bag.  It wasn't there.  James came by.  "Did I give you my camera?"  He said, "No."  It was no where to be found.  Right about then, a nice family came by and said, "Did you lose your camera?  We found this and were looking at the pictures and saw that little girl in a bunch of them."  All I could say was "Thank you!  Thank you!"  The camera is toast.  It's full of sand and water.  However, the memory card was fine and our pictures our saved.  Sorry camera.

This picture (Molly screaming, above) was the last picture I took.  I think in the Molly exchange from James to me and trying to put my camera back in my bag, I must  dropped it.

We drove back to our room.  James took Molly swimming for a few seconds.  She went to sleep well afterwards and slept all night.  Phew!  That means we were set for a good day on Day #4.

A Visit From Across the Sea

James' brother Jason came home to Utah for a week long visit.  He and his wife live in Germany.  I've only met Jason two or three other times since I've known James.  He was active duty army for a while, stationed in Germany, deployed to Iraq, then back to Germany.  He married Jenny, a German girl and he now calls Germany home.  If they have kids at some point, their kids will have dual citizenship.  Jason speaks German and has a very think accent.  

Jason lives in Dinkelsbuhl and he and Jenny recently purchased a home there.  He also just got a new job doing IT work at a hospital where his wife also works.

It was nice for Molly and I to see him a couple of times.  James was even able to take a couple of days off work to spend a little bit more quality time with him, so that's good.  He left this morning and who knows when we will see him next.  We wish him safe travels and the best with his new home and new job!

Here is a picture of the Binggeli brothers.  They are each 5 years apart.  James is the oldest, then Jason (blue shirt) and Jarrell (red shirt).

San Diego - Day 2

On Day 2 of our San Diego Adventure we went to Sea World.  We started out at the Sesame Street land and Molly love the Abby Ride (sort of like the the Disneyland Tea Cups).  She liked it so much she wanted to go again.  The only problem was she did NOT want to wait in line.  Waiting in line is extremely difficult for an almost 2 year old.

We went to several of the Sea World shows - The Sea Lions Live, Shamu, Elmo 4-D, and The Dolphins-Divers-and-Acrobats.  I think we saw just about everything else at Sea World.  Molly was most interested in the turtles and fish in tanks, the people in the Sea Lions show, and not really Shamu.  Shamu is not what I remember as a kid.  With no trainers being allowed in the water, the big whales are fascinating, but don't really do a whole lot.

The weather was beautiful until around 3-4 o'clock. The wind started to blow and then the rain came.  We headed back to the car.  Molly had been an angel, but was getting tired and frustrated.  She fell asleep in the stroller, then stayed asleep in the car.  We went for a drive.  We found San Diego State University, the stadium where the Chargers and the Aztecs play football, and the arena where the Aztecs play basketball (which looks like it was built inside an older outdoor stadium with concrete bleachers.

We stopped at the Mormon Battalion Museum.  It was interesting.  Molly was losing patience, but I kept giving her snacks and that bought us some good behavior.

We walked a block or 2 to a Mexican restaurant - the Coyote Cafe.  It was tasty.

 We headed back to our room.  Molly was pretty wound up and didn't want to go to sleep.  It was midnight before she finally was out.  Phew.  It was going to make for a long day on Day #3.

San Diego - Day 1

We decided to go on a little vacation. We've been talking about it for a while and then got serious and bought plane tickets about a month ago when we decided where we actually wanted to go. We wanted to splurge and go on a trip. We wanted to go somewhere that Molly would like, too. We chose San Diego. James and I have both been here before, but not since we were each kids - me, a couple of times for family vacations and James, for a high school band tour.

Our plane left around 11:00 on Saturday so we didn't have to hurry too fast in the morning. That was good. I was really nervous about Molly on the plane, but she was an angel. We just kept getting things out of our bag when she'd start to get bored and then she'd be really good with the next thing for a while.  I had already bought a few extra things from the Target dollar bins that she had never seen.  Most everything was a hit. Take off had her super relaxed and sitting perfectly still. She giggled during the landing. She only got mad while we were taxiing to the terminal after we landed.

We flew into in John Wayne, Santa Ana Airport. We rented a little car and drove to Ruby's Diner on the Balboa Pier of Newport Beach. 

We drove along the Pacific Coast Highway for a while before making it to I-5.  In San Diego we found our La Quinta in Old Town, an Albertson's to stock up on chocolate milk, yogurt, and coke.  We walked around Old Town and staked out some places to eat the next night.  We called it a day.