Spring Break SD

We are just finishing up spring break here.  Yes, I know it's pretty late in the year.  I guess that is okay because it made things less crowded in San Diego where we went for a few days of the break.

 These pictures are in no particular order.  Mostly because blogspot changed their template for creating a blog and I will have to figure out how it works.  San Diego just happens to be where Dennis went to boot camp back in the day so of course we had to stop there.  We were able to get on the base, walk through the museum and take this fun photo with a drill instructor in training.

 There was a nice pool at the hotel where were were staying and some fun times were had in the pool and the hot tub.  Cooper could of course spend all day there, but we didn't.  Mostly it was in the late afternoon.  They had a cool fireplace at one end so after dark you could sit by the fireplace and relax and still be warm even though you were wet.

 One day we took a drive up North and just happened to notice that the Torrey Pines golf course was not too far away.  Of course we had to stop there so Dennis could get a hat and pose for this awesome picture.  We watched a couple of really bad golfing groups tee off from the first tee which goes right towards the ocean.  (No, we did not play--no golf of any kind was played on this trip--shocking I know)

 Cooper, Spencer & I got tattoos.  They were henna of course, but it was still fun.  I got a lizard, Cooper got a Chinese symbol for energetic (I think) and Spencer got an anchor.  There is still a little residue of my lizard on my ankle.

 If you go to a place with a beach, you do have to at least dip your toes in the water--which I did.  It was a little chilly the first two days so we only wandered the beach.  We did not sunbathe.

We visited the Mormon Battalion visitor's center which is in San Diego (because there is where the battalion finally ended up after 2000 miles).  We did the "tour" which was a video/interactive kind of thing, kind of like the talking pictures in Harry Potter.  Too hard to explain, but it was interesting a fun.  We were the only people in our group so Cooper got to be the guinea pig for dressing up like one of the battalion members.  You can see he is thrilled.

 Unlike every where else we went where they take your picture in front of something and expect you to pay for the picture at some point, the visitor's center gave us the picture for free AND sent a jpg to my e-mail.  Now how cool is that.  Everywhere else we went and I do mean everywhere they take your picture and you have to pay!

 We visited the zoo of course and it was pretty cool.  Lots of walking and really great weather.  It is a huge zoo.

 And of course we also visited SeaWorld.  It was pretty awesome as well.  That was actually on the first day we were there.  Cooper & I both got wet on rides and Spencer got a really good (bad) sunburn (that he is still trying to recover from)

 The last day we visted the USS Midway which is stationed in San Diego bay.  It is pretty amazing.  I don't think I could ever be in the Navy and live in such closed quarters.  You could walk all around the ship and we took a tour of the crow's nest.

 We also visited Balboa park which is where the zoo is located but we did them on two separate days.  They have all these really cool buildings that were built specifically for the 1935 International Exhibition.  They are very ornate and interesting.

 There is also an artist colony (for lack of a better word) there in Balboa park.  They have there own little studios.  It's a little bit like Pike Place but without the fish and produce--plus I think the artists actually work in their studios.  it was pretty cool.

 

 This is the view from Sunset Cliffs which were just north of where we were staying and naturally we went to watch the sun set.  All and all it was a pretty awesome trip.