Travels with Mar and Lar - San Diego

Sunday - March 22, 2009

It was our last day in San Diego.

We woke up and went to church at the Del Mar Ward. It was such a good ward, full of good people. We both enjoyed it.

We then went back and checked out or the motel, with a slight tear of goodbye. We got some lunch and then still had a little bit of time before we needed to head off to the airport. We decided to drive up through Balboa Park again. Yes, we were just reminiscing and there was a free organ recital in the park at the Spreckles Organ Pavilion. Mr. Spreckles donated the pavilion and the organ to the city with the condition that they hold free concerts - so they do every Sunday at 2:00. We didn't have time to stop, but we did drive by slowly so we could listen for a bit.

Then it was off to the airport for an uneventful flight back home - oh, uneventful except for one "unexpected turbulence" - maybe the hardest one I have ever felt. But it was just two seconds, and of course it was while coming into Denver.

And we are home again.

Travels with Mar and Lar - San Diego

Saturday - March 21, 2009

This is the third time Mar has gone with me on a business trip. On each one we have gone on a little cruise. In Connecticut, we did a river boat cruise on the Connecticut River. In Spokane, Washington we did a lake cruise on Lake Coeur D'Alene. We kept up the streak this time with a cruise on the Pacific Ocean to watch for whales.

And yes we did see whales - four of them. One group was two big whales and a baby. We followed them around for quite a while and saw the spouts (once Mar was the first to yell "Thar she blows), and we saw their backs and we saw their tails. It was really exciting. It was a perfect day. There was no wind so the spouts stayed in the air a little bit longer. It was a little overcast so there was less glare (but still plenty of sunshine to burn Lar's head). And the sea was relatively calm. We also saw the "harbor whale". There is a smaller whale that swam into the San Diego harbor and has been there just playing around for a few weeks (Mar thought she saw him spout a couple of time the previous evening.) The whales were the highlight of the cruise. Alas, no good pictures of the whales - they don't stand still long enough for amateur photographers like me to get pictures. Look real close and you can see a spout in this one.

We got invited into the pilot house of the ship and Mar got to steer for a while. Pretty impressive, huh. Well, anybody could go it who wanted - and any one could steer while they got their picture taken. Still, I think the captain liked her steering the best.

We did see other fun things though. We followed the USS Nimitz, an aircraft carrier out of the harbor. She wasn't looking for whales, however, so she left us in the dust. We also saw a sail boat race and a three masted schooner and Stars and Stripes 11 - one of the yachts that won the America's Cup.

We saw other sea life also Dolphins, Sea Lions, Jelly Fish, Pelican and Cormorants.

And from the sea side is probably the best view of San Diego that can be found any where.

In the afternoon, we drove up to Andrea and Ben's. We went to an Emma soccer game which was about as great as a six year old soccer game can be. Her team lost but she said it was best to just play for fun.

Jasen is still sick, so he couldn't play in his soccer game and we won't mention what happened at Michael's game, but he said it was okay that we missed it. This was the night Michael had to decide if he wanted to go to the Chivas game or not (see Wednesday's post). We took the rest of the family to Chuck E Cheese for dinner. It seems that Spencer has decided that whenever Grandpa comes it means he gets to go to Chuck E Cheese. And then in the evening, when all of the kids were in bed, the adults settled down to watch Twilight. Then we said our goodbyes for another trip and went back to our motel, and got there just after midnight (which by the way is 1:00 AM our home time.)

Travels with Mar and Lar - San Diego

Friday - March 20, 2009

Work - a challenge (because my lap top crashed - but plan B worked and we were done with everything by 1:00.

Then, if you read yesterdays post, you know what happened. Mar and I went downtown and took the Old Town Trolley tour together. I saw all of the things she saw the day before and I loved it too. And Mar loved it again.

When it was done, we drove down to the harbor and walked around and had fish and chips - well no chips - other healthier side dishes.

Hey this doesn't seem like such an exciting day. Maybe it was just a good day for relaxation.

Travels with Mar and Lar - San Diego

Thursday - March 19, 2009

I worked - yea same old, same old.

Mar went back to the temple for "sight seeing" and then went shopping in the morning.

In the afternoon she took the Old Town Trolley on a sight seeing tour of San Diego. It is about a two hour tour, in a trolley with a driver/conductor who talks non-stop about the things you are seeing and the history of the area. Mar was just so excited about it. And she got pictures. You want to see some - well just read on.


This is the Hornton Plaza - the most ritzy of the downtown shopping centers.




This is the fountain at the Marriott in downtown San Diego.



This is a fountain in the downtown high rise district. It is the first fountain in California that had water and electric lights. Many people expected such a radical idea to go up in flames.


This is the San Diego convention center.




This is the shipyards from Coronado Bridge. We were going to go to Coronado Island for dinner this evening, but Mar decided that there was no way I was going to be able to drive over that bridge and keep my sanity. She was probably right.



This is the Coronado Ferry Landing on Coronado Island. Before the Coronado Bridge was built, this was the only way to get to Coronado Bridge in the bay.


This is a house on Coronado Island. The City of Coronado Island broke off from San Diego a little while back. There is an ordinance in the city that no two houses can be alike. This is on Orange Street, so named because at one time it was lined with orange trees.


This is the Hotel Del Coronado, built entirely of redwood floated down the coast in huge rafts from San Fransisco. All of the Hotel scenes from "Some Like it Hot" were filmed here and on the hotel's beach, even though the movie said they were in Florida. The beach is considered one of the most beautiful family beaches in America.


The tour goes through Balboa Park and over by the zoo. This is the one of the zoo's prize bush elephants.


And I'm not even sure where this is. I think it is in Balboa Park - but maybe not.


She got home pretty excited. Now you may ask how I knew what all of these things were. Well, the next day she went with me on the same tour again - and loved it just as much.

For dinner we went back to La Jolla for fondue. A romantic evening.

Travels with Mar and Lar - San Diego

Wednesday - March 18, 2009

I worked. It is important to bring home the bacon.

Weather changed today. We woke up to a marine layer - meaning fog. Oh, well. We were in San Diego - so who cares.

Mar drove up to see Andrea in San Clemente. On the way she tried to stop at The Flower Fields in Carlsbad, but they were hiding in the fog. She saw them a little bit - fields of color on the hill. It just so happens we were there just when they were in bloom and at their prettiest.

At Andrea's, Mar just helped out. She did our laundry (the smokey clothes from Monday). She took care of Spencer and Jasen while Andrea did service at the school. Jasen went to the doctor about his cold. Nope, it's not a cold. It is fluid in the lower respiratory system, also called pneumonia. He feels yuck. But he is also bored out of his gourd. The kids love having their Nana around. She came home in the evening.

Mar and I went to the San Diego temple this evening for a session. It was a good session. It is the first time I have ever been in that temple. It is a gorgeous, spectacular building. The outside is beautiful and it sits right on the highway where all can see it. At night it is lit and particularly stunning. However most people never get to see the true beauty - the inside. We were bold and asked what was up "those stairs". "Oh just go up and see," they said. There is an open air arboretum and then a grand staircase. And those windows you see from the outside are full length stained glass in some of the rooms on the inside. Now I don't ever want to say "my favorite is" - but this would be in the top three as far as beautiful buildings go. (Guess the other two.)

And then for dinner we just had take out oriental - Pick up Stix. It was good.

And then there was the Colorado connection.

And then we went down to the hot tub. Oh big problem. It was filled with thousands of teenage girls. Okay, may only 15. Can you say uncomfortable. But we wanted to soak so we went over. And we talked to them. They were a High School La Cross team from - Aurora , Colorado. And there was another guy there from - Ft. Collins, Colorado. And there was a woman from Phoenix, but the next day her husband was flying to - Denver, Colorado. And there was this older couple from - Longmont, Colorado (that was us). It was, like, Colorado week at the DoubleTree. Weird.

(By the way, this La Cross team caused problems for Michael Dawson on Saturday. We asked if he wanted to come and use the hot tub, but he had been invited to a Chivas Soccer game - against Colorado. Hmmmmm - hot tub full of high school La Cross team, or Chivas game - hmmmm. He choose Chivas.)

Travels with Mar and Lar - San Diego

Tuesday - March 17, 2009

I worked.

Mar used this as a shopping day. And she went inland - again to explore. She went to Pomay and shopped and looked around. It wasn't exciting - except that it was exciting because she was in a new place and seeing new things.

In the afternoon she found some model homes in the South San Diego area and toured around in them. The prices had gone down. Some of them could be had for a pittance of 700,000 to 800,000.

In the evening we decided on a nice dinner. We went to downtown La Jolla - quaint Prospect Street - and went to Vigilucci's. It was steak and seafood with an Italian flair. Most of that flair was added by our waiter who had a heavy Italian accent - now what did he just say. Mar then showed me some of the things she saw yesterday. Truly a beautiful place to be.

No it doesn't sound like a very interesting day - but my noon time call to Mar started with her saying "I am having so much fun."

Travels with Mar and Lar - San Diego

Monday - March 16, 2009

I went to work at 7:30 and got set up for class. Class was good, but I expected that because there were only two people. But enough about me.

Mar got up and relaxed and got ready for her adventure. I did not know how things were going until I called her at noon. Her first words were, "I'm having so much fun!" Then I could relax. So what did she do? Well, she just went out and drove to see what she could see.

She knew the beach was west, so she started that way and ended up in La Jolla (pronounced La Hoya). It is the jewel of the San Diego coast line. She went to the cove and saw kayaks and surfers and people just enjoying themselves. She saw birds and pelicans (yes I know they are birds), and sea lions. And she loved the houses and the different plants.

Then she drove down to San Diego itself. She ended up in Balboa Park because the people at the restaurant the night before said if there was just one thing you had to see in San Diego it was Balboa Park. That is where the zoo is. There is a Natural History Museum and an Art Museum and the Museum of Mankind. Their are hiking trails and gardens. It is comparable to Golden Gate Park in San Fransisco. Again, she loved it.

And then she told her GPS to take her home - and it did. She put in a lot of steps today - and she paid for it with a blister.

After I got off work in the evening we went up to Andrea's for Family Home Evening. A bunch of the LDS families from the base had a group FHE at the beach and did foil dinners and just played. Now we never told Andrea that Mar was coming. She thought it was only me. Boy was she and all of the kids surprised. Mar got to do a little bit of nursing. Just before we got to the beach, one of the husbands hit himself with an axe. He went home to take care of it. A little later, he called saying it was still bleeding. Ben took Mar to look at it and give her opinion - which was - bandage it up, come down and have dinner, go home and help get the kids to bed, then go and get stitches. He got two. It was nice being with the kids. Emma and Spencer insisted that their grandpa play with them and help them with dinner. Michael had a bunch of his friends there. Jasen was sick, but on drugs so he was okay and enjoyed himself. But I don't think anyone enjoyed that FHE as much as I did. I miss that crew a lot.

When we got back to the hotel at about 9:30, we smelled like smoke - so we went down and soaked the smoke off in the hot tub.

Travels with Mar and Lar - San Diego

March 15, 2009

An adventure begins.

My company is sending me to San Diego to teach a class. All year we have been waiting for a venue where it would be exciting for mar to go on a trip with me. This one is it. San Diego in March has to be wonderful, and where I am going to be is only 35 miles from Andrea. So we booked a mileage flight and she is going with me.

We left Denver in the early afternoon and got to San Diego about 4:30. We got our rental car and headed North. We are stying in San Diego but just over the freeway from Del Mar. I got a nice motel just 1/2 mile from our office. Our car has a Neverlost GPS. This may seem like a luxury but it makes it so Mar can drive around and see what she wants to see and can always get back home. We found it to be a real plus - a giver of freedom.

Sunday evening was easy. We went and found some dinner and then settled in. It was just a great feeling to know we were in San Diego, I was on a business trip and Mar was with me and relaxing.

Travels - Lar in Chicago

March 9 - 13, 2009

Yes - I am a little bit confused about where I was this week. I flew into Chicago, I taught in Lisle but my motel was in Naperville.

At any rate, I was in the Chicago Metropolitan area teaching a class for a company called Arris. The class had 14 students. They had a lot of questions, but for the most part it was a good class. I have to say that I have rarely worked that hard in a class. They really kept me on my toes. I also helped solve a couple of problems after hours.

Other than that, there is not much to tell. The weather was rainy on Tuesday, but otherwise it was clear and cold. The flights there and home were uneventful.

Reading List

March 6, 2009

Today I finished another book from the 5001 reading list. And I got serious. I read The House of Mirth by American turn of the century author, Edith Wharton. It is a story of a woman who is in the top echelon of New York society. She is beautiful and charismatic and charming. She has one society flaw. She has no money. The story is about how she falls slowly from grace, and goes down the tiers of society. There is the obvious theme of the life style. But it is important to note that in all of the story, she does not lose her "values" and sink to depths to maintain her position, even though that is what she is accused of.

I really liked the book. However, I doubt if most "modern" readers would like it, or would even get it. The morality is so far distant to what our mores are today. And the language is different and in many cases difficult. Also, nothing ever really happens. There is no adventure or even romance. It is a story about a woman, and that is all. But as a novel, developing a character and revealing that character, it is superb.

( The name comes from a passage in Ecclesiastes 7:4 - "The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.")

Reading List 2009

3/6 - The House of Mirth - Edith Wharton

2/16 - The Wonderful Wizard of OZ - L. Frank Baum

2/11 - The Last Lecture - Randy Pausch

2/9 - Peter Pan - J.M. Barrie

2/1 - Next - Michael Crichton

Travels - Lar in Minneapolis

February 22 - 28

Yes, I returned to Minneapolis only one week after my last trip. It was for a Library Manager class with three people, 2 from the company I taught during the last trip and one Mentor employee from Oregon. The class was successful.

Were there any highlights from this trip? Hmmmm....

I did get to go to the St. Paul Temple again on Tuesday evening.

I chose Tuesday because - the weather was changing. On Thursday there was a "fast moving blizzard" that went through. It lasted about 6 hours and dumped 6 inches of new snow. It was really only bad for about 30 minutes - then it eased off to light snow. But during that 30 minutes visibility was as 0 feet.Flights for this trip were easy. Almost everything about this trip was easy.