Filling In The Gaps

Well, now that I've let my brain unscramble a little bit I want to finish the unfinished, for our own family history if nothing else. And I'm just going to do it all at once.

So...

Tuesday

December 30, 2008

San Diego, California

The day started with another lovely walk on the beach with Doug. What a great way to start each day.

This is looking up towards Belmont Park...

It was a little bit of a slower pace on this day, after the day before. Here Doug is reading on the deck while everyone gets ready to go. You can see the beach between the houses.

We went to Scripp's Aquarium and the first thing we saw when we entered was a very large educational display about global warming, which Nick does NOT believe is real. It was a pretty funny moment.

Further evidence of my connection with the sea: shells are made of calcium carbonate-my kidney stones are made of calcium carbonate. Hummm...

There were some curious creatures and fascinating displays. And a cute girl.

And plenty of opportunity to ham it up...

Fred and Abbie looking out for whales...

And a final pose in front of the whale statue. We seem to be having a theme for this trip.

When Doug and I went on our honeymoon to Catalina Island we discovered Big Olaf's waffle cones. This was kind of at the beginning of the waffle cone thing because we had never heard of them before. When we took the kids there four years ago we made sure to find Big Olaf's to have our cones, and it was still there.

Sam discovered a place that sold Big Olaf's on the beach, so we had to go, of course!

There is something very charming about beach joints. You just have to trust that the health department is keeping up on things.

So we lolly-gagged...

on the boardwalk...

eating our Big Olaf's, because it is a family tradition...

And then we headed to the zoo. Unfortunately we spent a little too much time lolly-gagging and didn't have a lot of time for the zoo. So we decided to take it in the cheater's way: on the bus. Hey, it worked! How much time do you REALLY need to spend looking at animals in cages? (Well, my true feelings about zoos just came out.)

As you see, we were on the top deck. No problem on this trip with the top deck.

Panda bear

Giraffes

Doug and Abbie with the flamingoes

And a fog rolled in and we took a quick drive through the Gas Lamp part of town and Nick was feeling really sick so we stopped at Costco for some pharmaceuticals for him and some pizza to take back to the house. Nothing really thrilling. The next day would be thrilling. The next day would be the whale watching expedition...

Wednesday

December 31, 2008

San Diego, California

Who knew how this day would go?

I actually have a bit of a hard time thinking about this day.

It started out lovely and fine. Here is Abbie and her Webkinz, Lilly, as we head out to sea.

The guide on the boat was really interesting, giving us all sorts of facts and information as we went past different sights. 

So when he told us about something we'd look at it and learn about it. It was a good tour. He was from Scripp's Aquarium, so he also told us a lot of ocean/animal related things.

It took a bit of time, but whales were finally sighted and it was pretty cool!

This whale was the first one and it was pretty far out, but  pretty cool to see.

This whale was closer and was the last photo I snapped before I went down, as the whale was getting ready to do. It would have been a cool photo, if only...

{{{shudder}}} I really don't like to think about the rest of that day. So I won't. It is over and done and my CT scan was normal and we're just going to go with that. Right? Right.

Happy New Year.

Thursday

January 1, 2009

San Diego, California and somewhere over Utah

Every morning on my walk along the beach I would collect shells. Doug also contributed. They weren't always perfect shells, sometimes they were just parts of shells but they each had their own beauty. I'd put them on this dish at the house so that we could all enjoy them. This is the dish before I packed up the shells...

And because I want to remember, and because I know my Mom enjoys these little details, I hurried and snapped a couple of photos of our house on my way out the door.

It was a great little house to stay in. Lots of good memories.

And as we left I snapped a shot of Mission Beach and where we had so much fun. I zoomed in on this picture and found our house on the ocean side, kind of where the houses start to angle up.

*sigh*

And in an hour or so this is what I saw out the window:

That ribbon of highway is good 'ol I-15, and I thought: "Ugh. We almost drove..."

So there you have it. 

Merry Christmas.

Happy New Year.