The Mighty Pacific Ocean

My children have been East Coasters for the last 4 1/2 years and sometimes even forget that they were all born in California. David had never even seen the Pacific Ocean so on the last day of our visit, we went to the beach. We ended up at Dog Beach in Ocean Beach which was kind of fun since we got to see the dogs romping around and (almost) made us miss our own two at home.

Here is my California Girl, Kelsey!



Here is David collecting Pacific sand to take home:

As the sun sinks slowly into the west we bid a fond farewell to Paradise!

Sea World

Well, you can't go to San Diego without playing tourist. I forgot my camera the day we went to the San Diego Zoo so I had to make do taking pictures at Sea World. Basically, it's just the Killer Whale show with Shamu (who must be about 105 now).

The Salk Institute

One of the places that David wanted to see in California was The Salk Institute mainly because of Jacob Bronowski's (The Ascent of Man) history with it. So, one of the days we ended up in La Jolla just before sunset and checked out the Institute. I was pleasantly surprised at the design of it.
David at the Entrance

The interior court. It runs to the edge of the cliffs above La Jolla.

Here is David in front of one of the chalkboards that are in exterior hallways at the Institute:

Christmas Day

David and Kelsey
Originally uploaded by KwanYin.

Christmas Day--Here are David and Kelsey at my mom's house on Christmas morning. We had the whole family together.

Here are Kayla, Rob and Kristi (the Tucker/Gorney's):

And here are Duncan and Cameron with Killian and Ryder Henson (cousins) in the background:

Retro in San Diego

Kings's Inn - Pool
Originally uploaded by KwanYin.

Most of us went to San Diego for Christmas. Christopher was not able to come but David, Duncan, Cameron, Kelsey and I made the trip. It was combined celebration of Christmas and my mother's 70th birthday. The kids had not been back to San Diego since 2001 and David had never been there.
We stayed at the King's Inn in Hotel Circle. It's a 50s motel that has been redone as a Hotel. It was a wonderful place to stay for me...very Polynesian and retro. Here is a picture of the hotel pool:

The employees were very nice and it was centrally located for all of our trips. It ended up being a wonderful choice and to top it all off, they had a waffle restaurant on the premises. It was called The Waffle Spot and had all these characters on the menus like Sir Robin of Flapjacks and Sir Up (which used to be Sir Imp because I think the people that designed the menu didn't speak English as a first language!) David's favorite character was the Waffle King so we had to take a picture: