Welcome to 2019!
Wow, 2018 went really fast and we started 2019 in sunny San Diego, CA with the family.
Andrea, Tim, Avery, and their exchange student from Colombia came down from Oregon. Gil, Brian, Jackie (fiancée), Emma, Rayden, and I came from Houston – ten people total. Have you ever tried to get into a restaurant without a reservation with ten people?
Fortunately, we got there in enough time to talk to the concierge at the front desk and he made reservations for each night.
We stayed at the Hilton on the Bay and looking out our window you saw the bay and the navy shipyards. Andrea was on the other side and their view was of the Coronado Bridge, so you didn’t have a bad view no matter where you stayed in that hotel.
I had not been to San Diego since I was 10 and visited an aunt who lived there. That was a few years ago, and I had forgotten what a beautiful city it was. We were thinking it would be a little warmer, but of course, a cold front had come through and the locals were not happy with it.
We did all the touristy things like whale watching out in the Pacific where it was really cold. On the four-hour cruise we saw a lot of whales, and of course dolphins and otters and other sea creatures. The kids wanted to touch the water, not realizing it was an iceberg last week, but they found out real quick how cold it was.
Day Two’s excursion was to the Wildlife Safari, which is part of the San Diego Zoo. The zoo is awesome, but we thought it might be more fun to see the animals in their natural habitat – and it was. Plus, we could ride in a tram and not have to walk so far like we did the day before.
We walked everywhere on the first afternoon. Then we walked to the whaleboat and dinner – or at least most of us did.
On the boardwalk, they have electric scooters you can ride, so some of the group rode those. It’s crazy how they work – you scan the code on your iPhone and it bills you for the time you are on it. Then when you are done you just leave it on the boardwalk. Pretty neat!
On Day Three, we had brunch with Gil’s nieces who both live in Los Angeles. They drove down and we went to this wonderful place called the Hash House A-Go-Go. It was fabulous, but the portions were crazy. They served the food on platters and filled them with eggs, sausage, and potatoes. Or if you wanted waffles or pancakes, they were as big as the plate.
After all that we needed to walk, so we went to the USS Midway to tour the ship and hear about its history. It was fascinating to see how the sailors lived in very small compartments and everything about the ship. We got to hear about how they land the planes and how they catapult the planes that are leaving.
We must have stayed for almost five hours and no one got bored. Then we walked halfway back and stopped at a restaurant for dinner.
Each day the kids went swimming in the heated pool while the adults (I use that term loosely) sat around the pool and visited… and of course, some spirits were involved.
On Day Four we had to leave and come back to Houston, so we all had breakfast together, packed up and we left. But Andrea, Tim, and Avery stayed one more night. We needed to get back home, as we were leaving Wednesday to go to Reno for the SCI convention where we gave seminars on Thursday and Friday.
It’s now Saturday and we are back on the plane from Reno to Houston so that we can go to Dallas on Thursday for the Dallas Safari Convention where we do seminars there.
Yes, 2019 has started with a flurry of activity. And looking at the calendar, it is going to stay that way for the rest of the year!
