Sun Diego!

A friend of mine brought it to my attention that I haven't blogged in 4-5 months... I blame the busy summer and start of work. 

For the first time in my academic career, I got a Fall Break! It was like a new term to me, like "what's that supposed to mean??" It means I get a 5 day weekend! And that means partayyyyy!!! Loren and I had been toying with the idea of going to San Diego but didn't want to spend too much money. Fortunately, around that time we were contemplating, my dad offered his Marriott hotel points (from all his years of business travel) to us since he's retired and doesn't need them anymore. Cha-ching! Hello California!! 

So we packed our bags and shipped off Wednesday night to St. George (where the in-laws live) to cut part of the traveling time down. Here's an incredible sun rise we saw as we were filling the car up with gas.

Thursday we drove down rather leisurely, considering how badly I wanted to be at the beach. We hit some nasty storms on the way--reminded me of driving in the torrential down pours of Mississippi. Never want to do that again. We got to sunny La Jolla, California, immediately got in our swimmy suits and drove less than 5 mins to La Jolla Shores! :)

That day we didn't jump in the ocean because Loren thought there weren't enough people around to scare off the fish that could be lurking in the shallow waters. Also, this was the same beach that his sister Rachel got stung by Sting Ray years ago and he didn't want to risk another incident. So we built sand castles instead!

Cutie patootie!

My shot at an artsy photo

B-you-ti-ful!!

We went back to the hotel, ate a delish lasagna Mama Stone made for us, and watched Harry Potter 7.1 and 7.2 on tv. It was a good day :) Friday, we hit up a nice outdoor mall near by

Then we checked out Seaport Village in San Diego. 

Birds of Paradise flowers, so neat!

Blurry pic but check out how awesome this swing is--foot rest and all!!

Then we ate at a yummy Greek restaurant overlooking the water.

Gyro and something else. The Gyro was my fave

Delicious, homemade Baklava!! Totally worth the calories ^_^

After our bellies were full of goodness, we had to spend a couple hours at the beach! My main desire for going to San Diego, versus somewhere else, was to go BOOGIE BOARDING!! My first time boogie boarding was this summer in San Diego during the Stone Family Reunion and I fell in love! So of course that's all I did while there and naturally my inner legs were chaffing so bad from all the sand in the water. But I didn't care. I wore it like a badge of honor! After boogie boarding for hours, we headed down the road to La Jolla Cove to see the seals!

That white-ish part of the rock is bird poop. Thought you ought to know!

We crashed that night! Did I mention our hotel had the best continental breakfasts?! Because seriously, every morning I stuffed my face full of french toasts sticks, eggs, potatoes, yogurt, oatmeal, etc.! Mmm mmm good! Saturday morning we drove up to Mt. Soledad which has a 360 degree view of San Diego--so incredible! I wish I had Panorama on my phone!! 

The bright, white spiky building is the San Diego temple

 

I could see this from the beach and it lights up at night

After this, we drove through Balboa Park, hit up a free museum within our 15 min parking limit! 

Then we went to the Mormon Battalion visitors center. I love this place--it's so fun and interactive. I highly recommend this to anyone visiting the area! And lucky me, I ran into an old friend/co-worker who is now a sister missionary there! It was such a delight to see her!! :D

Sis. Brittany Davies in her pioneer garb :)

She's so cute.

I volunteered to dress up as one of the pioneer soldiers, since all the other visitors were shy and old.

Serious pioneer face pic

By now it was time for lunch. And what are we then ready for next? You guessed it, the beach! Loren got tired a while into boogie boarding so he slept on the beach. After 1 1/2 hours of not budging, a lady came up and shook him, then let out a sigh of relief. She said that he hadn't moved in a while and thought he was dead! Haha ;) While waiting for some good waves to come my way, I enjoyed people watching and viewing part of the Miramar Air Show--planes constantly flew by, doing nose dives and other fun tricks! It was so neat

Not an attractive look but check me out riding the wave in!!

After cleaning up, we headed to Escondido to have dinner with Grandma Stone! It was so fun to get to see her and visit with her!

Sunset at her house

This was our final day here. We slowly made our way back home on Sunday so Loren could go to school Monday. I had that day off and played with my co-worker Kirsten :) Basically, this was the most glorious vacation: I couldn't have asked for more fun, better weather or a better partner in crime!! 

'Til we meet again, San Diego! :)