San Diego Trip: Part 2

San Diego Trip: Episode 3: Revenge of the Sunburn: Sunday

We had planned on attending Skyline this morning, but I think all of us were tired from traveling and bustling around. We decided to sleep in, hang out, and just be lazy in general. I had been to Skyline before and quite honestly… when you grow up and have connections in a church like Heritage, nothing is really impressive: Heritage has such great worship experiences… last time I attended Skyline, it really didn’t compare.

In the morning, a few of us went to get groceries at a local food chain, Ralph’s. It was the first grocery store that I knew of that had a parking garage underneath the store. That’s how much of a premium space was there. There was absolutely no unused space anywhere along Mission beach. If there was any empty space, it was because they had torn down an old condo and were in the middle of building a newer and better one.

We had decided from the beginning that each couple would be responsible for a dinner on one particular night. Mom made her famous tacos, Melissa made her famous grilled potatoes (along with chicken and other grilled food), Sarah made her famous spaghetti. It was a pretty cool system. We were very well-fed all week long. In this trip alone, I put on eight pounds. I couldn’t believe it! Back to the ole Slim Fast diet.

A fateful decision was made on this day. Melissa visited the beach for two hours. She wore no sun-block. She laid on her stomach for too long. She got fried. The beach here is deceiving. With the temperature hovering in the 70’s and a cool breeze coming off the ocean, she had no idea that she was even getting burned. She told me later that she was cold enough to have goose-bumps most of the time out there.

She didn’t really, really feel it until Monday… but she knew by Sunday night that she was going to be in a lot of pain. We tried aloes and other non-prescription medicines through-out the week, but nothing seemed to touch it at all. She was pretty much miserable from Sunday night till Tuesday night. More about that later.

I was able to get a bunch of reading done. I got three books finished: Revenge of the Sith, The Final Prophecy (Star Wars), and a gem of a book called ‘Three Nights in August.’ It was the best baseball book I have ever read. It made me think, it made me laugh, it made me appreciate the game more, it made me hate the Cubs even more than I already do, and it even made me cry during the chapter about the events surrounding Darryl Kile’s death. I’m always reading stuff… but had more time to get huge blocks of reading done. It was nice.

I’m sure I’ll have more to write about the beach community, but I’ll wrap up day three by sharing an experience we had with a beach bum. Melissa and I were out walking one night and we watched a guy that smelled drunk and walked drunk walking along the beach picking up beer cans and bottles of all kinds. At first we thought he was just collecting them in order to make a few cents by recycling them… but then we watched him a little closer. He would pick up half empty containers, finish the contents of the can/bottle… then put it in his bag. It was disgusting and sad all wrapped up together.

San Diego Trip: Episode Four: The Zoo Strikes Back: Monday

Today we visited the San Diego Zoo. It is a huge zoo that is very well done and has lots and lots of exhibits. My big complaint about the San Diego Zoo: The terrain is so steep and hilly that you get tired about an hour or two of walking around. Thankfully, our tickets included a round the park bus tour that allowed us good looks at most of the cooler exhibits.

The zoo had a little Children’s petting area that we let Emily go into. It mainly had goats. It was fun to watch Emily interact with the animals. One goat starting chewing on my shirt and another starting chewing on a camera cover strap. It was weird. We walked in, it seemed like every goat decided to either start pooping or peeing all over.

We also took Emily on a Sky-way type ride. I thought that it would freak her out, but she actually enjoyed it. In fact, it freaked us out more because she liked it. She wanted to sit and look over the edge… and our stomachs just couldn’t take it. Melissa held on to her very tightly.

The reptile house was pretty cool. They had a huge yellowish python… very cool. They also had an anaconda, which was also very, very huge. We also attended a Sea Lion show. I really love Sea Lions… they are so much fun to watch. There were several parts that were very funny.

I’ll be honest, I think that I enjoy the St. Louis Zoo more than the San Diego Zoo. It is not so hard getting around St. Louis, the exhibits are more creatively laid out, there are better viewing areas, and you can get in for free. In San Diego, you had to pay for your admission, THEN pay for several other additional things. I was pretty surprised they didn’t charge for parking!

I think all of us got either tired or bored or both by mid-afternoon… so we went back to the condo to rest and hang out.

The time difference took some getting used to. California is two hours earlier then Missouri. So when we woke up at 6:00AM in San Diego, it was really 8:00AM our time. When we went to bed around 10:00PM in San Diego, it was really midnight our time.

Emily loved hanging out with her uncle Jeff. She was always trying to get him to play with her. There was one time when he was napping and she was insistent on seeing him. So she snuck in his room. I’m not sure what happened next, but she just loved hanging out with him.

Living on or around the beach certainly has it’s set of perks. Every morning there were people that would run right along the shore… dodging the waves as they came in. Every day the beach was packed with people who were laying out, playing in the sand, having a picnic, etc. At night, very few people were actually on the beach, but many people were walking or riding their bikes on the street that ran parallel to the beach. It was neat.