The Moment You've All Been Waiting For (Part One)

Or so I like to think...

Needless to say, our vacation was incredible. I could tell you that much and just leave it at that. But I won't, because as we speak pictures are uploading to Flickr and I'm sitting with my journal open where I chronicled our 4.2 full days in California. A much-welcomed and needed get-away of sorts. And celebration of sorts, too, seeing as California is the first place Cliff and I ever travelled together apart from going home to visit each others' families.

We've just barely been able to get back into the pace of things here, so this quiet Saturday morning is my only time and space in which to even begin to recount. So I'll just leave it to a retyping of my bulleted outline of sorts from my journal to tell.

Day .2

• Flight out of Nashville to Santa Ana/Irvine/Costa Mesa/Orange County was pretty eventful; we were privy to bare witness to a giant thunderstorm rolling through parts of the eastern Midwest as well as saw, from the sky, those giant wildfires in Oklahoma.
• Got into the airport 12:50AM our time, rented a ruby red Toyota Camry (whom we subsequently named Ruby), and headed to the Wyndham Orange County where we rested peacefully through the night.

Day One

• Hit the Pacific Coast Highway through Newport and Laguna Beaches to Dana Point where we had delicious breakfast bagels and fresh juice blends at coffee shop by the harbor and caught a whale watching tour with Dana Wharf.
• No whales sighted, however LOTS of dolphins and sea lions which I couldn't really complain about. The first of the dolphins we spotted were the Pacific White-sided which, you should know, I once adopted through the World Wildlife Fund when I was 10 or so, thanks to my grandparents. I cried as soon as I saw them. Come to find out, they are rarely seen on these trips and when they are, they never come near the boat. Lucky us!
  
• On our drive down to San Diego, we made another pitstop at La Jolla Cove to see the seals and the what is supposedly one of the most beautiful views of the Pacific. I'd definitely say it ranks up there on my top.
• Off to the Sheraton Suites in downtown San Diego we went with our tummies full of that great tasting fresh wonder that is a burger and fries from In-n-Out Burger which we found on our way in Pacific Beach thanks to Jody's great detective work on the phone realtime with me, all the way back in Tennessee.
• We settled into our suite on the 18th floor with a pretty nice view and not too much later, we had a knock on our door. AARON WAS THERE! We sat and caught up just a bit, brainstorming on our plans for the evening, and finally settled on a walk down to the Gaslamp Quarter for dinner and drinks at Fred's Mexican Cafe and live music at The Field.

Day Two

• Early morning start so we can head out to Coronado Island for breakfast at Clayton's Coffee Shop (where I had the most wonderful eggs over easy on homemade hash), a tour of the Naval Bases (particularly the Naval Special Warfare Center where the SEALs train and where you aren't supposed to take pictures, so I've linked to some other guy's - who broke the rules - stuff), and a visit to the Hotel del Coronado (a gem of a resort).
• Then back to mainland we went for lunch at Rubio's (the original home of the Fish Taco... which is delicious I should mention) before heading to...
• THE ZOO! Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Personal faves = the gorillas, pandas, and orangutans. I can see why this is always mentioned as one of the best zoos in the country, and whether you like 'em or hate 'em, there's really great conservation and breeding efforts going on there.
• Our night ended with a seafood dinner at Nick's at the Beach in Pacific Beach and a stop at the Mootime Creamery back on Coronado for some fantastic ice cream. They've created their own fantastic version of B&J's infamous (and now graveyard residing) Brownie Batter ice cream. Needless to say, this was the first of three visits at Mootime.
  

Part Two to follow sometime soon...