San Diego

We took a trip to San Diego at the beginning of June to attend one of Steve's good friend's wedding! It was a lot of fun and we got a lot more checked off on our "to see/do" list than we thought we would.

We got in Wednesday evening and after taking a shuttle to an extremely ghetto car rental pick up place/car, we made it to the hotel. We explored the gas lamp district that evening, which was only a few blocks from our hotel, and then stocked up on some groceries for the weekend.

On Thursday morning we headed to Balboa Park - which is a super amazing place! I loved it so much! Hopefully one day we'll have time to go back and get to go through some of the many museums they have there. Matt and Jeff met us there and after an obligatory stop at In n' Out we went to Sea World! Sea World was giving some free passes/buddy passes to all the law enforcement workers, so Jeff got us in for free (because of all the wildfires he'd been "fighting").

I didn't remember much about Sea World from the time I'd been there as a kid, so it was fun to experience it. We went and saw a show called Sea Lions Live and at the beginning of the show a little otter ran out and waved it's little paw at the audience. I thought Steve was going to pass out he was so excited! It was a fun show, except for the heat!

 We also got to ride some gondolas over the bay, a rotating tower thing, and see all the other sea life.

That night we got some food and took it to the beach to eat. It was so cold, but really pretty!

Before heading back to the hotel for the night we drove up to Mt. Soledad which had an incredible view!

Friday we went to Seaport Village, which had tons of cute little stores and street vendors. We walked along the pier until we came across a restaurant that was built out above the ocean! We had some yummy seafood there with a fun view of the harbor. About two minutes after we left the restaurant a huge aircraft carrier came sailing into the harbor - if we had stayed in the restaurant just a bit longer it would have passed right by the window where we were sitting! :/ We stood and watched it for a while since it was neat to see such a big ship maneuver through a smaller space. 

Yummy calamari!

As we walked to our car we saw a ticket on the windshield and started to panic. I knew I had put enough money in the meter when we left, so I couldn't figure out what it would be for. Turns out our rental car had expired registration! I guess that's to be expected when renting from a ghetto car agency. Luckily, the car rental company paid for the ticket without a fight!

The registration expired in April and we were there in June

We then drove across the highest bridge ever to Coronado Island. As you drive over the bridge you can see all the aircraft carriers at the naval base, which was pretty spectacular. The island itself had way more residential area than we thought it would, but we found our way to the beach! 

 

Proof we got in the ocean:

That evening we met up with the Clines, Matt, and the soon-to-be Porters and had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. Outside of the little shopping area where we ate was a carousel that everyone decided was a good idea to ride. It looked like it went super fast when we were watching it, but it turns out it went a normal speed once we were actually riding. Disappointing...

Saturday was wedding day!!! It was only slightly dampened by the fact that Steve had gotten really sick during the night and thrown up while I slept like a baby through it all! But by morning he was feeling okay. This was the first wedding that Steve and I had attended together since getting married ourselves, so it was fun for us to relate a little more to Jeff and Rachel's day.

Tyler, Jeff, Steve, and Matt were all great friends through college

We had some time in between the ceremony and the reception, so we headed back to the hotel so Steve could nap. While he was sleeping I walked up to Balboa Park again, which was a lot busier on Saturday! There were a ton of people there exploring, setting up booths, or performing.

The reception was fun. They had it catered by a local place that had really yummy tacos - Jeff had been talking them up the whole week and they didn't disappoint! We were exhausted from the day, but had so much fun!

Sunday morning we met up with Matt and explored and ate lunch in Old Town. We then headed to Children's Pool in La Jolla to see some seals and sea lions. It's pretty funny because a sea wall was put up to make it the ideal spot for children to swim, but it turns out that's ideal for seals and sea lions too, so they've kind of taken over the beach there. Activists have roped off the beach trying to keep people away, but it's still open to the public, so we saw a few people just walk right under the ropes and set up camp on the beach! We were happy to watch the animals from afar for this visit though.

We hit up Jamba Juice after the Children's Pool since we don't have one in (or anywhere around) Lubbock :( and relaxed for the afternoon. Later that evening Steve and I headed over to Little Italy and had dinner. We then walked down and spent some time by the ocean and saw some pirate ships! 

We flew home early Monday morning and true to Steve's luck with travel we got in later than expected due to delayed flights. But we made it back! It was such a great trip and we will definitely head back as soon as we can!