Eastern Chill

When we arrived in San Diego a week and a half ago, I had a small sense of reprieve. I had just crammed on a project and got it to a somewhat self-managing state, and now I had 10 days in front of me to relax with the wife and family. Last year it rained every day we were in San Diego, but we had nothing but sunshine this time around, making it fairly trivial to choose a "local" destination and take a day trip.

Today we wake up to a couple inches of snow coming down. But, as they say, too bad.

I can almost swear that each of these trips gets shorter each time around. The time just goes by and, all of a sudden, you're packing your bags and hopping back on the plane. Yes, the time goes by faster each time around, and with each trip out I get the sense that the time to do these trips is evaporating.

On that happy note, here are a few more sets of pictures from the trip. On the Monday we were out we hit Julian, which I already posted some pictures from. Tuesday we had lunch with some folks I used to work with then headed out to one of our favorite spots, Seaport Village, and browsed around the shops as well as walking around the USS Midway, which apparently is docked there as a museum now, although I don't know if that is full time or not.

Compared to prior trips here (this was our third), it was rather empty. Surprising, considering it was the beginning of the Christmas shopping season and all of that.

Wednesday morning Lori, myself, and my father had breakfast with my Aunt and Uncle. They are headed out to Peru soon for their 5th and 4th (respectively) missions trip, and had a lot to share with Lori who just recently returned from Honduras herself (I'll try to post some stuff from that later).

By the time we left my Aunt & Uncle's it was early afternoon. We drove across the Coronado Bay Bridge and visited the "island"¹ of Coronado. Half the island seems to be taken up with the naval base where my dad used to work, and the other half is a combination of housing, touristy areas, parks and beaches.

We spent some time in a little mall diving in and out of shops. We also walked along the beach behind the shops which faces the bay and gives you an excellent view of the San Diego skyline. Afterwards we headed to the other side of the island and walked up and down Orange street. As the sun started heading down, we took to the beach behind the Hotel Del Coronado and captured the sun as it sank into the ocean.

Again, not very busy anywhere we went this day.

Thursday we headed out to Sea World. I haven't been there in 25 years or so, and Lori had been to the one in Orlando some years back but not San Diego. It's much different than I remember... almost smaller. We caught all the shows we could and hit all the aquariums, which tend to be my favorite thing to see.

The park was a virtual ghost town, and everybody that was in the park probably attended each show we were at and still did not fill the arena up.

That evening we swapped Christmas gifts at my parents, since we will not be in town at that time (we alternate each year). Talk turned to my brother afterwards, who has gone AWOL since July when he started a new job in Las Vegas. He's been fairly determined to live his own life it seems, but we all miss the heck out of that guy. Oh brother, where art thou?

My mother took Friday off and took us to the vineyards of Temecula, just bit north of where they live in San Marcos. The closest I've gotten to alcohol consumption is Vick's Formula 44d, so I pretty much played the role of designated driver. In order, we visited the Thornton, Wilson Creek, and Ponte Family Estate wineries, having lunch at the last place. Lori and Mom had a wine tasting at Wilson Creek, and the grounds there are beautiful. The food was excellent at Ponte.

The funny thing is, the wineries were probably more populated than any of the other places we visited during the week. It's a bit strange how folks get really dressed up for tastings and come out in groups - in the middle of the day on Friday. It's a whole foreign world to me, I guess.

I miss my folks much, and am already scheming a way to see them again ahead of our next scheduled date. Until then, thanks mom and dad for being our hotel and rental car agency once again. Thanks, Dave, for being our tour guide in the Gaslamp District (which I unfortunately did not get pictures of). And thank you, San Diego, for staying at home, work, or school (and out of our way) while we acted like tourists.

Photo links:

• Seaport Village
• Coronado
• Sea World
• Early Christmas
• Vineyard Hopping

[1] It's not really an island as there is a very skinny connector to Chula Vista.