Friday, March 22, 2013

San Diego #2

 We ate lunch one day at this Mexican restaurant, it had the best salsa and queso. It is kinda hard to find good mexican food in Idaho, shocking huh.
 They had an outdoor patio that was really nice. We were out of the wind so it felt warm. I realize Aaron's eyes are closed but this picture showed the most of the patio. There were trees right next to us and birds flying around. We also had a really good drink that was lemonade, ginger ale and mint leaves. I have tried to make it but it doesn't taste the same. Once again... I miss all the food!
The plastic hanging over the windows is where we ate breakfast every morning. It was a heated porch and had a view of the ocean. We sat there with our news paper and caught up with facebook before starting our day.
On our way to meet everyone for sailing. Notice that we wore our Cable One wind breakers. Not everyone wore theirs, I bet the wind cut through their hoodies and they were freezing,
  Tuesday was sailing day. Honestly, I have never thought about sailing, it never sounded fun to me. It is the best thing ever and now I want a sail boat. They had lunches made for us, that's what is in the fancy cardboard boxes. They told us it was sandwiches but I wasn't expecting a gourmet sandwich with apricot spread and brie on the most delicious bread ever. They also gave us water, an apple, sea salt and vinegar chips (how appropriate), and a chewy peanut butter cookie. We were the only ones on the boat that don't get sea sick and we ate part of our lunch on the open sea, not really though because we just stayed in the bay, but everyone else had to take dramamine and hope for the best. On the left side of the picture by the trees you can kinda see the water, that is where we walked to get on our boat.
 It was nice that most places we went we could walk to. I love how all the boats look lined up.
 There were several boats all with Cable One employees on them. I didn't know that we would actually learn how to sail, be responsible for moving the sails, steer the boat, and then RACE!
 We are lucky that we got put on this boat. I don't remember his name but he let us do everything ourselves. On some of the other boats we found out that people just sat and watched and there was even a boat that you just had to push a button and it moved the sails for you. I call that cheating! And also boring. I thought for sure we would win the race because this guy used to race sail boats, but the race started before we got to the starting line. We got ahead a few times but ended up finishing last I think. I didn't care though, I was having so much fun anyways.
 To get out to where we were going to race we turned on the motor, which I didn't know sail boats had.
 We went to the front to do a Titanic like picture but you can't tell that's where we were standing. We were the only ones besides the guy in charge that were comfortable moving around on the boat. Everyone else stayed in their seats until we had to move a sail.
 It was a little scary walking to the front because there really is nowhere to stand and almost nothing to hold onto. The ropes on the side are really low so you have to bend over to hold on to them. And they are ropes, not rails, so they move.

Aaron took this while I was walking back. This is before the sails were open. The water was nice and calm as you can see.
Open sails. All I could think about almost the whole sailing experience was the episode of friends where Rachel teaches Joey to sail. The guy kept saying all the same terms and someone even got hit with the boom when the wind changed. It wasn't funny but it made me think of when Rachel would tell him to duck and he would jump up and say where? 
Aaron was the first one brave enough to steer the sail boat. When the guy asked who wanted to everyone just sat there trying not to look at him so they wouldn't get picked, so Aaron said he would. What a team player. He drives his parents boat all the time but this was so different.
A cool picture I took. Now I know why my doctor has pictures of sail boats in his office. I always thought they were boring to look at while you wait 45 minutes for the doctor. Now I think about how much fun sailing is when I look at all the pictures I took. My next doctor appointment it will be a breeze to wait.
The other boats we were racing against. It is weird to race a sail boat because you can't go straight. You have to turn when the wind changes, so if the finish line was ahead of us, we were most likely not even going towards it most of the time.
We sailed by some interesting looking Navy ships.
We heard some of the other boats start their engines during the race. So we may have finished last but at least we used the wind the whole time.
It was a little scary to me that this guy would jump up and tug on the sail if it got stuck. I thought for sure he would end up in the water.
Ahoy! I steered for a while because no one else wanted to. The wheel was hard to learn at first because you have to turn it quite a bit for the boat to respond but once it starts turning you have to quickly turn the wheel back the other way or else the boat will just go in circles. I may or may not have done that.
This one looked funny to me because it is so skinny.

When we got back to the hotel we finished our lunches and took a nap. We met everyone for smores on the beach at 8 that night. They gave us these really nice water proof cable one beach blankets and they had hired a guy to sit by the fire and play his guitar and sing. The hotel makes their own homemade marshmallows. There was plain, mint, and strawberry. They also had every cracker, cookie and different kinds of chocolate you could imagine to make a smore. All gourmet of course, no graham crackers and hersheys. We also had hot chocolate and cider. Every time we had an event at night we would sneak away before it was over because everyone would stay late to drink and it was boring. We went to the hot tub every night instead. We used the robes in our room, that's right we had our own fancy hotel robes, to run to the pool. We saw other people wearing theirs, and it was nice because they were warm, but it was kinda embarrassing because we had to walk by the 5 star restaurants and all the shops downstairs with people dressed in their best going out clothes because they were dining at the Del! We got a lot of weird looks. 
No Corey, I saw no ghosts. We walked around the hotel a lot, there are so many floors to explore, but even in the pictures we took there are not even any ghost looking blurs or orbs. I touched the door of the room the girl stayed in that was murdered like 100 years ago. She was found outside by the beach on some stairs. She had been shot. Supposedly, she checked in with no luggage, and was supposed to meet someone there. No one ever claimed her body, and she hasn't left the hotel since! Aaron would not touch the door. When we got back to our room there was chapstick on our dresser that wasn't ours and it had dark red lipstick on it. Haunted chapstick!! Aaron said the maids that gave us fresh towels and made the bed earlier must have found it on the floor or something, OR the ghost thought my lips were chapped.

Monday, March 18, 2013

San Diego #1

Aaron won a trip to San Diego a few weeks ago for being in the top 7 sales people for the whole company last year, go Aaron! It was the best time ever! I was so nervous to go and leave my kids, I knew they were well taken care of (thanks Brenna and Peggy) but I have never left them before so it felt weird. I took a bunch of pictures on the airplane because it had been about 5 years since I had flown anywhere. Aaron even let me have the window seat, even though I offered it to him.
This was the bridge we had to take to Coronado island where our Hotel was.
 The view from our balcony. As soon as we checked in to the room we wanted to go explore. It has been SO long since just Aaron and I have been on vacation. It was fun but it also felt like we should be changing diapers, letting kids nap and pushing strollers so when we had free time we didn't know what to do.
The Hotel Del Coronado was built in 1888, so it is very old and has settled and all over the place the walls, floors and hallways are crooked and dip down. It was kinda funny.
 This is the whole hotel. We were amazed at how large it was. It was right on the beach so we went for walks at least 3 times a day.
 The first night they had a get to know you type dinner for all the Cable One people, it was outside by the ocean but we didn't take pictures. Almost every meal was a buffet, and had such good food. Everything was cheesy and buttery. I miss the food. When we got back to our room every night there was a gift from Cable One. This bag had treats inside, you know, the expensive nuts and candy you see in the hotel gift shop that you don't buy because it's expensive...
 There was cool looking old furniture all over the hotel, this was kinda right by an old elevator above the lobby.
 This was the rewards dinner the second night. This is the first time I have ever had a full 7 course meal with tons of silverware and several wine glasses. They even gave us the stuff to cleanse your palate. It was lemony and Aaron ate all of his because he thought it tasted like lemon sorbet.  FANCY. You can kinda see the ocean out the windows too.
 I think this is the next morning. We woke up early every day, mostly because we were some of the only people not drinking the night before, and I felt like 6 (which was already 7 in Idaho) was sleeping in, and we actually got a full nights sleep. I didn't want to waste any time there. We would walk on the beach and collect sea shells for the girls, and then go to breakfast. I should also mention that breakfast every morning was also a buffet, there was fresh fruit, donut holes, a yogurt bar, omelet bar, ham, bacon, biscuits and gravy, pancakes waffles, and some delicious stuff that almost tasted like red enchiladas, there was a lot more but I can't remember everything. It was so hard to decide what to eat every morning. So many choices! We only had to pay for 2 of our meals while we were there. Cable One even gave us $100 to cover the cost of meals that they didn't provide. It was so nice.  I loved being outside in the morning. The wind was calmer, and it was quiet, not very many people around. There was a guy that drove a big machine to groom the beach so I also wanted to get there before he did and all the good shells and things were gone.
 After the awards dinner we had these nice windbreakers waiting for us. They were nice to have on the sail boat.
 One of our many walks around the hotel. I never got tired of being outside and looking at all the different plants there.
 This was a little walkway that goes to our room. Its weird because the doorway that's around the corner from Aaron that leads into the hallway has no door. So you could always feel the fresh air and breeze in the hallways.
 It was sunny only a few times that we were there. A lot of the pictures look like it was cold, but 65 definitely feels better than 30!


 I thought all of the things that washed up on the beach were cool. Aaron thought it was gross that I was touching them. I have only been to the ocean once before when I was very little, so I felt like a kid. I was running around and picking up everything to examine it. We came home with a lot of shells and sand dollars. After we got home I even found some seashells in the pocket of my jeans. When I went to bed at night I had a hard time falling asleep because I was excited to walk on the beach in the morning.
 This bird was out early in the morning with us enjoying the sun.
 My hand is full of shells.

 Some nice lady took a picture of us.
 Aaron thought I was weird but I had never seen seaweed up close.
 The ocean!
 I had to get my feet in the water even though it was freezing.
 Some guy made this. It was really cool, up close you can see that he even made the bottom part look like tiny bricks. Amazing.
Now you have seen the first 2 days of our trip, hopefully it won't take me so long to post the rest.