VACATION CALIFORNIA

To celebrate Janelle's finishing of college we took a nice 10 day vacation to San Diego, Temecula and L.A.

My Aunt Kathy, Uncle Dan and Cousin Sara housed us for the first half of our vacation and they were so fun to be with. Dan treated us to grapefruit off his own trees and BBQ'd some excellent chicken. He was also the driving force in us hiking up Cowles Mountain. The highest peak in San Diego. It was about a 45 minute hike with a beautiful view in every direction. If I learn how to post pics I will add some from the hike. Dan also got out the "Cruisers", a common bike Californians use to cruise. Janelle and I road to a Starbucks a few miles away around Lake Murray and enjoyed some exercise topped off with a carmel frappacino.

The first night the Pro's took us out to Miami Grill, a cuban restaurant with tasty Sangria's. We met Jeanie (sp) Dan's daughter-in-law there. The food was great. Then we drove thru La Jolla (pronounced La Hoya, please don't make that mistake in front of the Pro's) We went to the beach where 50 plus seals gather to sleep at night. The next day Janelle and I spent the majority of the day at Sea World. (Thank you Craig!) It's the only place we used the camera on a regular basis. We saw the Shamoo show (J's favorite) and the dolphin show and the Sea Lion and Walrus show (my favorite, except for the part where the ship pointed a large water hose directly at me and soaked, pretty much, just me). I was also lucky enough to have a seagull pee on my head, on the fly-bye, while looking at the seal exhibit. I watched another seagull attack a lady for her fish, it was pretty funny. Sea World was amazing, the sharks, walrus's, Baluga whales. etc... and their shows were a lot of fun to watch. We spent around 5 hours there.

That night Laurie visited for dinner as we watched the M's win the first out of a sweeping 3 in the battle between the two worst teams in baseball. Laurie said she is becoming a M's fan.

The next night Sara took us out in the town, the Gas Lamp District. Boy was that place alive! We stopped in a few Irish pubs and finished the night off with great conversation over a bottle of wine and cheese. We had a lot of fun people watching. The next day Sara took us out to the South Beach Grill on Ocean Beach for the best fish tacos in S.D. We tried the Mahi Mahi (the best), Shark, Wahoo and Lobster tacos while sippin a cold one and watching Spain beat Germany in the European Cup Championship. What an atmosphere. Thank you Sara I think we need to make that a regular stop everytime we are in S.D.

Janelle and I did spend a day at the beach where I found it hard to stay still. I don't know how people lay in the same spot during a sunny day for 4 plus hours. Janelle can do it. I had to get up and play in the ocean every now and then. We managed not to burn ourselves but we also didn't pick up much sun, we found out SPF 30 really doesn't allow the rays to soak in.

We spent a little bit of time at Pacific Beach, Mission Beach and Ocean Beach. All beautiful beaches with cool stores and restaurants but the Coranado Beach was by far the most beautiful. Kathy, Dan, Uncle Craig, Janelle and I went out to a beautiful dinner right on the water at II Fornaio where we enjoyed specialized pizza and Janelle had the scallops. We could see the large air craft carriers, down town San Diego, beaches, the Coranado bridge, our table was right off the water, beautiful. From there we went to the Del hotel where I managed to break our camera and I think Dan was able to round up around 8 people to look for a tiny spring we never found. Dan was telling some of them it was a contact we were searching for. The camera was fixed with a ballpoint pin spring (Magiver style). We all dreamed of family vacation at the hotel, Kathy says to save your money and we can make it happen with about 40 people. As we were just about to leave Coranado a 10-15 minute firework show went off on the beach, it kind of topped off the night and since it was are last night in S.D it was at the perfect ending.

We drove to Temecula to hang with the Lyfords. Uncle Craig, Aunt Kelly and Cousin Truman. Unfortunately we didn't get to see Cousin Emily, she was out of town making some $ working sport camps. ( We missed you, thank you for letting us use your room). The visit started with a nice tour of the back yard, shady and cool. Craig showed us all the different plants as Jethro (the dog) tried to eat a peach seed. Craig and mom (Tru) remind me a lot of each other. They both have a special ability with animals and plants. We had a relaxing night with amazing conversation and another great BBQ. I am proud to have Uncle's that know how to work a grill. We had steak and chicken and beer and margarita's. Kelly then amazed us all with a grilled peach cobbler that was delicious!! Craig and I did our thing and played with a black widow's web. It never came out. I think one of the funniest moments was watching Craigs deep sigh when he would have to ask Jethro twice to do anything. It was always followed with a "I wouldn't have to ask Laska twice". The next morning we slept in and had breakfast with Truman. He add gotten back from a 6-9am football practice. It was a good time hanging and chatting with Truman.

Our San Diego/Temecula trip was so fun. Janelle kept saying how easy it was to talk and hang out with all of the Proughs and Lyfords. She felt like she had already knew you all for a long time. We both already miss our time with you! Thank you so much for taking care of us and opening up your schedules to us! We hope to come back soon and look forward to seeing you hopefully in November.

I will write part 2 (L.A) later, I am tired of typing! :)