Sunny San Diego Days 1 and 2

Aaron has been on a week long business trip to San Diego. I thought about pulling the kids out of school and bringing them down to stay for the week since the hotel and food would be paid for. However, that plan ended the moment Daniel broke his foot. Could you imagine sea water and sand incubating inside that hard cast for a few weeks--yuck! I just figured I would be here at home single parenting it over the long holiday weekend until Aaron got back. It was then we both had an epiphany and thought it might be a good idea to send the kids to G&G's house (minus the booby baby, Noah of course) and just have me and Noah fly out to spend the weekend with Aaron. G&G T graciously accepted our plan so we bought the ticket for me to fly to sunny San Diego for the weekend. I was so excited I could hardly wait. However, I was not looking forward to the flight since Noah is getting four new teeth in and he is absolutely refusing to nurse under any sort of cover. I made sure I loaded Noah up on food before we got to the airport hoping I wouldn't have to feed him until after my flight. When it was time for me to board I could see everyone watch me coming down the aisle and just hoping that I wouldn't be sitting next to them with a baby. I ended up sitting next to a guy with his family. His family was sitting across the aisle from us so he was alone with me. When his 9 year old daughter saw me sit down next to him she told him how lucky he was to be sitting next to a baby. I just looked at him and asked him, "So do you think you are lucky?" He never answered me. Hey I wouldn't want to sit next to me with a baby either!! Luckily, Noah only screamed for 20 minutes of my 90 minute flight. He screamed so much he wore himself out and fell asleep. Whew! When we landed in San Diego it was so warm. Even at 6 pm it was still 65 degrees. Ahhhh. Hard to believe I was shoveling snow just that morning in Utah!! Anyway, Aaron was there to pick us up. I was glad because carrying a huge purse, a huge back pack, Noah's carseat, the front pack and Noah's stroller I was glad to have an extra set of hands to help me out. We grabbed something to eat and headed back to the hotel. There was quite a bit of traffic so by the time we got back to the hotel it was too late to do anything.

The next morning we headed out over to Camp Pendleton so Aaron could show me the amphibious assault tanks he was working on. It is amazing anything that big and that heavy can even float, but they do. After seeing the EFVs we headed over to Sea World. Here is the cheesy tourist picture they always take after entering the park--I didn't want to purchase the picture for $20 so when the picture popped up on the computer screen I just casually snapped a picture with my cell phone camera.We got there in enough time to see the Dolphin show Blue Horizons. The first ten rows around the whole stadium is labeled as the "Soak Zone". We chose to sit in the "soak zone" on the far side of the stadium thinking that we wouldn't get soaked over there. Boy were we WRONG!! They sent to the dolphins head down tail up and splashed right on us. It got us soaked and Noah was not happy at all. It took a while to calm him down. It also got my camera all wet too. My poor camera would only work sometimes after that. The next day my camera would only turn itself on and off and didn't do anything else--DOH!! Stupid soak zone!! That camera was on it's last legs anyway--but still what a demise! That's why we don't have any pictures of the dolphin show because the camera didn't like being soaked with salt water. I know for a fact it is salt water because I had my mouth open and sure enough it is salt water. Ewwww!!

After the dolphin show we headed over to see the Shamu killer whale show. We made sure we didn't come anywhere near the soak zone for that performance. Luckily, I still had my phone with it's camera that still was able to take pictures.After getting soaked I had to undress Noah because his clothes were dripping wet. We just wrapped him up in a blanket. He liked watching the shows even with no clothes on.After the Shamu show we decided to get Noah at least something else to get dressed in since I didn't bring any extra outfits for him. He was happy to get his souvenir T-shirt even if I wasn't too happy to pay the outrageous price for it!!Later on we headed over to see the Sting Rays. It was feeding time and so we decided to grab some fish and try to feed them by hand. These sting rays are about 5 feet across and 3 feet long so they are huge. In order to feed them you have to put the fish in between your fingers and put your arm all the way in the water to the bottom. Then they will swim over the top of your hand and eat the fish. It was a little nerve wracking. I jumped a few times when they slid over the top of my hand and ate the fish right out of my fingers. One time they pushed my hand right into the side so I got to feel how sharp their teeth were. Aaron saw me jump and decided that feeding the sting rays were not for him.Once the sting rays found out you had food they all came over looking to eat. There were so many we had to move to a different spot because you couldn't even stick your hand to the bottom to feed them because it was one huge swarm.Here's some type of whales (I can't remember their names):Here's a polar bear walking right up next to the glass: Later on we even got to see the polar bear dive and catch a fish to eat.

Here's the penguins:Here's the sharks. To see the sharks you went through a tunnel under the aquarium and the sharks swam over the top of your head.Here's the California Sea Lions:By the time we left the park about 6 pm our clothes were still damp from the morning Soak Zone experience. However, they were drying and I even had a sweet salt line on my thigh from the salt water:I tried to rewear these pants on Sunday and couldn't because they stunk so bad with that horrible fishy smell. I ended up leaving these gems for Aaron to bring home in his suit case because I didn't have room to pack them--lucky guy!

Driving back to the hotel we drove right by the San Diego Temple. It is so close to the interstate it's crazy. It really is a beautiful temple. One of the marines Aaron works with, who is not LDS, saw how pretty it was and decided to visit. He was bummed when he couldn't get past the entrance to actually look around inside. He didn't know you had to be a member and have a recommend to get inside. During the week Aaron went and did a session. He was a little nervous during the session when he felt a small earthquake and saw the projector screen start to sway. I think that would make me a little nervous as well.