Thursday, April 26, 2012

San Diego, Day 2

So we went to bed so early last night that I woke up about every 2 hours wondering what time it was and at 6 a.m., we were both wide awake.  We flipped on the tv and just laid in bed watching dumb stuff and eating chocolate chip cookies.  Yes, we ate cookies in bed.  That is NEVER allowed at home, but this time - what the heck.

We slept last night with the windows AND the balcony door wide open so we could hear the water.  Mainly, we just heard the traffic going across the bridge.  But, it sure helped keep our room cool during the night!  We eventually got up and this is what the day looked like...
It had rained during the night and looked like a storm was trying to come in again.  In this picture, you can actually see a line between the gray sky and the blue sky and the same in the water.
This is a picture of the bridge near the hotel.  In the future, I will ask for a room either way higher than the 8th floor or one on the south end of the hotel instead of the north end.  It was just too noisy with the traffic and the comings and goings of all the guests right below our room.

We got up, got showered, and headed out to breakfast at Armando's Green Flash on the beach in Pacific Beach.  We opted for a table on the patio...where we proceeded to get "misted" on by the storm.  It wasn't too bad, actually, but my newly coiffed and straightened hair soon turned into a frizz ball.

We ordered our food and after we left, we decided that we think we are done eating there from now on.  It was just so-so and nothing special anymore.  It was kind of tasteless.  I thought I had ordered something different than the last time we were there (May 2010), but I checked the blog entry from that trip and nope, I ordered the exact same thing which I didn't care for then either!  Drat.  Once again, I was going to order the mushroom and cheese omelet, but then went for the All-in-One omelet instead.  Mistake.  Oh well.  Since we're not going to go there again, I guess no biggie, right?

After breakfast, we decided to head to La Jolla for ice cream.  Okay, wait...cookies in bed, then ice cream after breakfast?  Y.U.P.  We're on Bay-cation, remember?  We can do what we want.  We're over and almost 50.  Ew...did I just imply I'm almost 50?  NO WAY.  I still have 7 years!  Anyhow...so, off we went to La Jolla.  The Baskin Robbins was open and ready for us.  Farmer Man had a brownie sundae, note how I said "had" (i.e. see picture below) and I opted for a cup of peanut butter chocolate ice cream.  We sat on our regular bench and watched the mist move up the coast, the pelicans search for food in the water, the, waves crash on the rocks, the pigeons scrounge for food, and the squirrels eat up the grass...












I loved it how the squirrels and the pigeons would all hang out together on the lawn!  We sat there for a good hour or so not realizing that we were getting fried since it was so gray and overcast, but enjoyed just sitting there watching the day go by.  It was just so relaxing and felt good to be close to Farmer Man.  We soon decided to head back.  As we were winding through the streets of La Jolla, there was one street that looked like if you turned and went down it, you would just drop off into the water.
Well, we turned to see where it would go and there is this tiny, little blockage at the bottom of the hill.  Yeah....I don't think I'd want to head too fast down that road...especially in the dark!  I don't think that little white carrier with the red reflector, or the pile of ice plant would help stop a car anytime too soon.
After we left La Jolla, we couldn't quite decide what to do.  Farmer Man had wanted to go downtown to see the different ships, but that was on the docket for tomorrow since we'd be eating dinner downtown.  So, we drove around for a few minutes and before too long, we found ourselves on our way out to Cabrillo National Monument.  Neither of had ever been there - well, maybe we went there when I was a child and lived in San Diego, but I certainly didn't remember it.  As we began to drive toward where the signs were guiding us, all of a sudden we had to go through this "guard gate" area.  Farmer Man is like, "Wait, this doesn't feel right.  Are we going onto a military base?  I don't think this is the right way."  We hadn't missed any turns or anything, so I just chalked it up to being the gate for the monument based on some stuff I'd read a few months ago.  We continued on and sure enough, you have to actually drive through this base to get to the monument.  I wish I'd recorded some of the names of the buildings we saw, but I didn't.  They were definitely interesting.

Soon, we came to a regular National Park Service gate/shack.  Lucky for us, it was National Park Week, so we got in for free; although, we willingly gave a $5 donation.  We continued to motor on up to the top and there was a little museum at the top, a store (don't get me started on that one), a statue, a lighthouse, and an awesome view.  We decided to go to the store, look around, and then go.  We didn't feel like watching the film or hiking up to the lighthouse.
This was the view from the parking lot.  The long gray rectangle on the left is a dry dock where they work on military ships and submarines.  The airfield on the right is North Island Naval Air Station.

I loved the metal ship on this sign.  I wished they'd had smaller versions for sale in the gift shop.
Coronado Bay Bridge
A helicopter patroling the bay and heading back to the NAS.  The Hotel Del Coronado is to the left, with the red roofs.
We saw a lot of very "eclectic" people on this trip.  You can't see just how eclectic this one is because he's turned around, but trust me.
This is a statue of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, the explorer that discovered this area in 1542.  Not too bad of a picture from really far away!  Good thing I had my telephoto lens on!
The Point Loma Lighthouse was one of the first lighthouses along the West Coast of the United States.  We ended up buying a small replica Christmas ornament of it for our "trip" ornament for this year.
Soon, we were done shopping and decided to head out.  We didn't get down to the tidepools - we can do that another time.  As we had come up to the monument, we'd noticed a cemetery.  I was so taken aback by it.  It was unlike anything I'd seen before other than in pictures.  It was Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery.  It reminded me of Arlington National Cemetery.  As we were leaving the monument, I had Farmer Man pull over so I could take pictures.

The rows of headstones were in perfect alignment.  They went on and on.  There were some that overlooked the bay, others overlooked the ocean.  I was caught off-guard emotionally and I kind of lost my breath thinking about the sacrifices all of these people made for me, for us, for this country.  They deserve a place of honor such as this.  Farmer Man said he'd like to be buried there and I told him that would be fine, if we ever get to move to San Diego.  He would like being by the ocean.  But, in the end, he said he wanted to be buried in Richfield.  That surprised me.  But I'm cool with that too.  I think I'll end up back in Utah...some day.  I just know one thing for sure...I DO NOT WANT TO BE BURIED IN ARIZONA!  I wish we could have just gone and sat there overlooking the cemetery and ocean for a while, but it didn't seem like we could, so we motored on.





We went back to the hotel and just lounged again.  We could have gone swimming.  We didn't.  We could have gone shopping.  We didn't.  We could have going sightseeing.  We didn't.  We just rested and relaxed. Farmer Man took a nap, I played on my iPad, and we just did nothing.  It was fantastic.

Soon, we decided it was time to forage for grub again.  So, off we went to Phil's BBQ.  I didn't take any pictures there (or at Armando's this morning) since they really wouldn't have been much different than they were two years ago when we went.  This time though, we shared a plate of onion rings - seriously, the best onion rings ever - and then we each got our own ribs.  Okay, so I only wanted three ribs, but alone, they only came in 5 ribs.  That is fine for Farmer Man - but too many for me.  Next time, I'll just get the 3 rib dinner and get the side that comes with it.  The ribs were fabulous - as always - and we waddled outta there like pregnant cows.  I made sure to buy us some more Gooba Dust and BBQ sauce so we can make our own ribs at home.  Yum!

We headed back to the hotel and I attempted again to wait out the sunset.  I caught these two fellas hanging out in the pool waiting it out too...they were having a jolly good time, they were.
This time, I made it...the sunset was spectacular!  There are a ton of sunset pictures...I couldn't decide which ones I like the best!  These pictures are in the order they were taken, so it's interesting to see how the colors changed based on where the sun was behind the clouds.













The rest of the evening we just spent with each other in our room.  Went to bed quite early  and just enjoyed being with one another.  Tomorrow is another day...

2 comments:

Cindy said...

FIRST-- those sunset pictures are completely beautiful! I'm glad you posted them all.

Glad you are having a wonderful trip. I like that you guys have your favorite bench.

Jenn said...

Okay...so when you drove down Cabrillo you drove RIGHT past where Dave works :) Do you remember seeing model ships on the right side of the road as you drove down...as well as a really large, three-legged, white arch? That's where he works!! :)