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

Day Three

• An even earlier start to the day because it was Easter, and we had a trip ahead of us out to El Cajon for a wonderful service at Shadow Mountain Community Church where David Jeremiah is the pastor (whose name and face I recognized from years of working at a Christan bookstore).
• After church, we spent some time just resting and walking around Balboa Park, touring the gardens, drinking coffee in a courtyard cafe, stopping over and over again to take pictures of the beautiful fountains, flowers, and architecture.
• From Balboa we drove out to Pacific Beach again and stopped a seeming hole-in-the-wall which turned out to be the world's largest Hawaiian BBQ chain called L&L. Oh My Gosh. If you've never had Hawaiian BBQ, try it sometime in your lifetime. It's soooooo good.
• Next stop: Point Loma where we visited the Cabrillo National Monument (don't think we didn't bring our NPS Passports), the lighthouse, and the tide pools. Fortunately on our way from Point Loma to Old Town we crossed paths with a 7-11 which more than made my day.
• Our goal for the day was to catch the sunset after doing some hiking in Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve. And that we did. And we got a whole lot more than a sunset and a good hike, too. Despite not seeing a whale on our boat tour, we got our bang for our buck at Torrey Pines and not only saw a whale fluke slapping out in the ocean but also caught wind of (literally) and saw a whale that had died and come ashore.
• Dinner at Miguel's Cocina in Coronado (where Cliff and I split their delicious lobster and shrimp fajitas) and dessert at Mootime (yes, again).

Day Four

• Woke up sad, of course, but ready to fill up our last full day in California with as much good as possible, which began with a visit to Seaport Village and brunch at Don Pancho's Taco Shop in Imperial Beach. A brunch of California Burritos (steak, cheese, sour cream, and FRENCH FRIES) at a stand-up taco shop just miles above the border. First times for everything, right? Well, it was gooooood.
• And the rest of the day? We lounged on the beaches of Coronado at both Silver Strand State Beach and the Hotel Del (with a sad goodbye with Aaron and a stop for just a little bit more ice cream from Mootime in between each... color us addicted) soaking up every last drop of sunshine that we could and enjoying a moment, just the two of us, together.
• Soon after that, we were heading back up to the Orange County area (and stopping for a "last meal" at In-n-Out on the way) to catch our flight home which took us on a roundabout way back with a layover in Las Vegas. So cool to see from the sky (seeing as I've never been before)!

Definitely a memorable trip, and thanks for bearing with me as I've recounted (almost) every detail. Ha. The travel agent and resident tripadvisor.com poster in me just couldn't help but share.

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...

Because I'm Especially Rude

Nanananabooboooooo.

(I'm in a weird mood tonight.)

California Teaser

Cliff and I are sitting here looking through our vacation pics and I just had to.

You know, show this to you just to tease you.



Because there's no way I'm posting about our trip without the pictures to offer you the glimpses into the things I'm describing. This was, quite possibly, one of the most wonderful moments in my life... apart from salvation and marrying Cliff, of course.