Wednesday, January 14, 2009

San Diego

Last weekend Dave and I went to San Diego to hang out with his parents. His brother and sister-in-law were able to come as well. Darrel and Mary were booked on a veterinary drug company paid vacation and we were all able to come along and stay at the hotel for free with them.

On Thursday I worked on 90210 until 4pm. I quickly drove home and crazy enough, was home before Dave. He had a class until 5:30. We were out the door around 6 and made it to San Diego around 8:30. We missed out on the free food and snacks at the convention center but went out to eat at an Irish pub. The food was quite tasty.

The next day we had breakfast at the hotel's restaurant called MaryJanes and then drove too Balboa Park. We got "passports" that would give us free entry into most of the museums. First up, the automobile museum.

Check out that hot Ferrari.

Next up, the air and space museum.

The actual Bonnie and Clyde car.

I am top gun.

After the air and space museum we walked over to the Science museum and grabbed a little snack. With our passport we were allowed one free IMAX screening. We watched the one about the ocean. I don't remember all of it because I fell asleep a few times. I think most of us did. I blame it on the IMAX. The screen makes you dizzy, so you have to close your eyes, but then that just makes you fall asleep.

We decided to go our separate ways from there. Everyone went to the Natural History museum except for Bri and I...me and Bri...whatever. We went to the photography museum. We also hit up the San Diego Art Museum.




That night we ate out at a restaurant called RA Sushi. I think we got about 10 rolls of sushi and ate it all. It was so good.

On Saturday we toured the USS Midway. They give you headphones that explain everything on the boat. It's kind of nice, because then you can go at your own pace.


I don't think the Navy would ever let Dave work on an aircraft carrier because he's just too big. He'd always be laying unconcious on the floor because he's hit his head too many times.

Uh oh.

Nathan was bad and sent to the brig.

Nathan and Dave are serious helicopter pilots. (Click on the picture to see the image larger, so you can see their faces.) They mean business.


" I say stop!"

A sculpture recreation of the famous V-J Day kiss. I used to love that famous black and white photo until I read this: "This famous kiss photo was taken on V-J Day in Times Square. The photo was plastered all over newspapers and was seen as a symbol of a new era of peace, love and hope. The truth of the matter was that this soldier was kissing every woman in the square and this nurse in particular slapped the sailor. " I still like it. I guess will just remember it the way I think it is.

I didn't slap Dave after he kissed me and he wasn't running around kissing all the women.

We then headed to Point Loma to see the tidepools. Unfortunately, when we got there, the tidepools had been closed for the rest of the day because there were too many people already there. We went to the lighthouse and looked around the park.
Father off in the distance we could see a whale spouting out water. It was too far to see any part of the body, but you could see a spray of water every now and then.








Group photo.





A little about the hotel. It was really cool. Since it was the Hard Rock Hotel, it was all music based. They had pieces of clothing from famous singers. Band names painted on the walls. Photos of famous singers and bands. In our room they had pink embroidered guitars on our pillows. A black guitar pick sticker held our toilet paper roll. And lots of other fun details.


Here's our incredibly expensive mini bar that was completely off limits. Although when we arrived at the hotel, they hadn't completely restocked everything and tried to charge us for three large bottles of water and a bottle of wine that came to around $80 or something like that. Luckily we got that taken off our bill. The design on the mirror is kind of their logo design. It's on their clothes in the gift shop, on your towels, on their pads of paper, etc.

It was such a wonderful trip and vacation. It was really nice that Dave's parents invited us and were able to get us our own room at the hotel and pamper us for the weekend.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Rose Bowl Parade

On Years morning Dave and I got up at 5am. Not fun. We got ready and drove to Pasadena to see the Rose Bowl Parade. Janelle had saved us a parking spot in front of her apartment, that way we wouldn't have to drive around forever trying to find a spot.

Around 6 we walked to Colorado Blvd and scouted out for good parade watching locations. There were so many chair that people had set up already along the street. Some people even had blow up mattresses that they had slept on over night or mini fireplaces to stay warm and cook food.

We found a spot behind a few blow up beds. After they woke up and deflated the beds, we moved up and were right behind just one row of chairs. So we had a great with no one standing in front of us.

Waiting for the parade to start and staying warm.

Only some of the people. I heard there were about a million people along the parade route.

There were airplanes writing messages in the sky. At first it was cool because it was festive, "Happy 2009" but then...

...it got lame because they started advertising for television shows.

And it begins.

First float of the parade.


This one moved a lot. All the little robot characters twisted and turned and waved.





The Hawaii band.
The B2 Stealth Bomber was pretty cool, but it only flew once over our heads. What a waste.




He twirled this rope around that horse the entire route. Poor guy. His arms must have been so sore at the end.



Probably my favorite float.


This float had a dog that would skateboard around the inside and they played, or should I say, blared the song, Who Let the Dogs Out.








There was another little "float" like this. They were bumper cars. I don't think they were allowed to bump each other.



Cool hats.






It's hard to see him, but on the back part of the float, the guy from Jack in the Box is dancing.




The end.