A Weekend Visitor.

At the beginning of December I had a visitor from Bremerton! My friend, K, who has been in a few plays with me, which is how some of you might recognize her.

She flew in super early and was an amazing sport, because I ended up dragging her to a Baby Shower. She, being incredibly creative, decorated one of the cutest onesies for the new Momma.

After Tim had woken up (he was still on graveyard), we went to the San Diego Zoo. The panda exhibit was practically empty and so we got some one-on-one time with this panda. He was definitely showing off for us! 

The next day, K and I went up to LegoLand. She is a HUGE Lego fan, so while I took a few pictures, I'm pretty sure she left with a picture of every single thing.

Tim took Tuesday off work and the three of us drove to Hollywood! The real reason for K's trip was to see a live taping of The Big Bang Theory.  I had managed to procure tickets to the taping on Tim's birthday (which is a long story that involves me having a nervous breakdown at the business center in Disneyland Hotel). We left our place around noon and Tim slept in the back seat while I drove to LA. We got there a little early, so K and I left Tim in the car (in the parking garage) while I took K to see The Hollywood Walk of Fame and Dolby Theater. We got to the Warner Brothers Studio in time to eat a quick dinner and check-in for the taping. The audience wranglers did a great job of getting everyone into the studio quickly, where we waited about an hour before they showed us an unaired episode of the show before our show taping. The taping itself lasted about 3 hours, but it went by very quickly. Our episode, The Egg Salad Equivalency, aired on January 3rd. No cameras or cell phones were allowed in the studio, so that's why I don't have any photographs. Although, we did have a quick exchange with Regina King as we were walking to our car!

Wednesday was K's last day with us, but she wasn't leaving until later that evening, so we decided to check out Point Loma. My friend C also came with us! The day started a bit overcast, so the view wasn't great, but we did have a fun time going down to the tide pools.

 K is a picky eater, but loves bacon, so C recommended a place called "Slater's 50/50." The 50/50 stands for 50% ground beef and 50% bacon, which is how they make their hamburger patties. Tim and C also got maple-bacon milkshakes for lunch. It was quite an experience, but pretty tasty and K loved it. :-)

(There were chucks of bacon throughout the milkshake.)

K and I ended the day with a drive down to the Mexico-US border and along the Silver Strand. We stopped at The Hotel Del Coronado to look around and go to the beach. It just so happened that while we were in the lobby of the Hotel Del, K noticed a stream of water coming from the ceiling. We let the concierge know and he kind of looked at me like "um, what are you talking about?" until he actually looked and then people started running around trying to keep the woodwork dry and capturing the water. Basically, K and I saved the Hotel Del. 

It's hard to see in the picture, but they had a staff member standing under the stream with garbage cans. '

It was a whirlwind couple of days, but we all had so much fun! 

Read More

Disney for FREE.

Every other week, I get together with the other wives (and their kids) for a park day on Coronado.A friend of ours was down here with her husband for only a few weeks, but in that time they had gone to Disneyland with friends. They ended up getting three-day passes, but only used two of the days. Instead of having them go to waste, she gave me the tickets! With two extra passes to Disneyland and only a week to use them, I asked my friend C if she wanted to join me. She had a guest visiting, E, so it worked out perfectly!

We started out touring the new Cars Land. I thought that we got there early enough for FastPasses to the Radiator Springs Racers, but they were closing up right as we got there. Bummer.

We followed that up with some roller coasters and the swinging ferris wheel.

It turns out I didn't explain the rides very well and we were all gripping the side of our seats on the ferris wheel. Me, because I don't like them and I don't like heights; Them, because the swinging is pretty unexpected.

After that we went on the swings, which was actually the very first time I had ever been on this type of ride.

Disneyland is currently decked out in Halloween splendor. It's awesome.

 We went over to the classic Big Thunder Railroad, where C screamed "I just don't know about this!" from the last car the entire time. :-)

 And then we hit up the Tea Cups and went to wait in line for the Matterhorn. When we went to get into the final waiting area for the Matterhorn, I realized I was missing my Minnie Mouse card holder. Why is this a big deal? Well, it was holding my annual pass, an almost empty gift card, and our FastPasses. But honestly, I wasn't that concerned about those things - I was more upset about the card holder! Tim and I had gotten those at Tokyo Disney and have a matching pair.

So I got out of line and started searching the ground. I asked people in line. I asked the ride operator. C and E had also gotten out of line by this point, so we searched the ground between the Matterhorn and the Tea Cups and then asked the T.C. operators. No one had seen it. Ugh.

At this point, I'm trying to keep a good attitude, because I'm basically hosting for my friends and don't want to be a big stick-in-the-mud, but I was pretty bummed. The operators all suggested we go down to City Hall and ask at the Lost & Found. Knowing that I had just lost it, I figured the best I could do would be to report it missing and hope someone would find it and turn it in.

We walked down the L&F and I gave a description of the holder and what was in it. The lady was so nice and said they don't usually worry about lost Annual Passes, because they can be replaced (it is linked to my picture and my fingerprint), but if it's with something, they'll call the owner. This meant my Minnie Mouse card holder, which made me feel better. And then - and this is why Disney ROCKS - the lady asked me "Is there anything else I can do to make your day better?" I said, "Well, yeah, I lost two sets of FastPasses too." So she filled out two "Skip to the Front" passes for us. Amazing.

After all this turmoil, I needed to blow off some steam, so we walked across the park to Splash Mountain and used our first "Skip to the Front" pass.

Somehow I convinced my two guests to go in the front...

They got a bit wet. 

Then it was back to the Matterhorn to actually ride it and ask the operators AGAIN if they had anyone turn in my card holder. And...

SOMEONE DID! 

The operator was so nice about it and even commented that she always loves the souvenirs people bring and then she finds out they're from one of the International Disney parks and not available here in the US. We were all jumping up and down with excitement. It was awesome. 

Our day ended back at California Adventure, where we took in Tower of Terror. E even took out a chunk of C's leg on one of the descents. Guess I didn't explain this one very well either...

And we stuck around for the World of Color show - which we spent singing along to the songs and dancing.

In all, it was probably one of my most memorable days at the parks. It's a good thing we have annual passes, because I have definitely made mine worth it!

Read More

The Parents come to visit.

Less than 48 hours after Laurie left us, Tim and Patti flew down for a long weekend. Unfortunately Tim had to work the entire time, but we were able to take in a few local sights. Pacific Beach was hosting a large car show!

Here we are with "General Lee."

 They also had the "Green Hornet," the Smokey and the Bandit Trans Am and "The Mystery Machine" from Scooby Doo. The big celebrity guest and car enthusiast was Christopher Knight from The Brady Bunch. We didn't feel like paying for his autograph.

And since Tim could join us, here are the photos we took for him...

 An impala even larger than his and a 60's Chevy (his favorite).

The next day was a shopping and beach day. I didn't take any pictures, because we were having too much fun in the waves! 

After Tim's parents left, it was my parents' turn to visit for a long weekend. After picking them up from the airport, we headed north to Temecula to visit the wineries. It was beautiful and HOT and I didn't take any pictures. Fail. 

Tim was able to join us on Sunday for the U.S. Sand Sculpting Challenge.

 The sculptures were amazing! This is the backside of a piece:

And it was fun to talk to the artists about their work.

Fun Fact: Because of the sand they used for these sculptures, these could last 10+ years! They were demolished the next evening.

This sculpture was hollow on the other side and each of those little sheets had a name on it:

And this was our favorite of the day (and everyone else's too!) It won 1st place and the People's Choice award.

The rest of our trip involved more shopping than I think I've ever done with my parents...ever. I'm still in a bit of shock. :-) But my Mom has a wonderful new wardrobe for the school year! And I got my birthday present - new shoes! (They know me so well.)

That's it for visitors for the next month or so...

Read More

August Visitors! Part 3

Laurie's visit wasn't over yet! On her 5th day, we headed north to Anaheim to visit the Happiest Place on Earth.

We were lucky enough to meet up with Laurie and Tim's cousin, Christina and her boyfriend.

I had to get back to San Diego for an event that evening, so we sweet-talked the ride operator at Splash Mountain to allow all of us to go together. (We had different FastPass times.)

It all worked out wonderfully, because Laurie got to spend the rest of the day and the next morning with her cousin and then they all drove back down to San Diego for a visit.

We ended up going on the SEAL tour, a San Diego version of the "Duck" tour. While waiting our turn to get in the water, this giant bird was hanging out on the boat next to us. I don't think he ever left his perch.

 Group shot!

 They should really call it a Sea Lion tour, because we saw a ton of them!

 And I couldn't pass up an opportunity to wave to Tim at work. :-)

Simon and Christina stayed through dinner (so they could see Tim) and then headed back North. The next day was Laurie's last with us, but she had an evening flight, so the two of us took a tour of Balboa park...

It has a lot more hills than we expected!

Read More

August Visitors! Part 2

Sunday night, I found a Groupon deal for a 2-hour GoCar rental around San Diego. Laurie and I thought it sounded like fun, so we bought one and planned our Monday around it. The rental place was in Little Italy, so the Trolley was the best transportation option. Unfortunately, I didn't realize the Little Italy stop is under construction, so we had to backtrack a bit from the "next" stop on the line. Whoops!

After grabbing lunch - we found an amazing deli that offered your choice of four salads - we headed to the rental place for paperwork and our orientation.

 Here our view of the street from the car. We were very close to the ground and much smaller than everyone else, but all of our spectators seemed to love our little car. We got several honks, waves, and giggles from passersby.

Our route - we were headed to Point Loma with help from our GPS, who we named Pamela. Pamela  didn't always give early warning for turns.

 Along the route, we drove through Shelter Island, where they have a bell gifted from San Diego's sister city - Yokohama, Japan! We've been there! :-)

Our route took us all the way to the south-western most point of the continental US - Cabrillo National Monument on Point Loma. Point Loma is actually mostly owned by the military and there are several cemeteries...

and some experimental labs. This is a sonar-type lab. The actual lab is suspended above the water, so that the water isn't disturbed...or so the GPS tour guide told us...we think it's more likely that this is where they keep the mermaids! ;-)

 Finally we made it to the Cabrillo National Monument...

and the Point Loma lighthouse.

We spent about 30 minutes walking around and learning about the lighthouse and the San Diego Bay. It was really interesting and the view was amazing! Since we only had the GoCar for a few hours, it was back on the road to continue our tour. Here's Laurie driving (you can see how small it is compared to the other cars)...

 And here I am putting the car in reverse - a.k.a. pushing it backwards.

The end of our tour took us through Ocean Beach and along the Sunset Cliffs. It took quite a bit of willpower to not park the car and head to the beach - the day was perfect for swimming/body boarding!

Read More