Tourist.

We have done a lot of San Diego sightseeing in the last several months. Katie (a friend), Gray, and I went down to Old Town San Diego a month or so ago. I think it could be a great place for kids to learn tons of info about the people living during the early days of San Diego. We went a little too late in the afternoon to see everything, but it was a neat place. I may need to return to see a few more things. 

Old Town San Diego

One Saturday several weeks ago, we went to the Poway Farmer's Market. It was pretty fantastic. I'd heard from a friend that there was a train just across the street from the market. We had to take Gray and let him ride it since he loves trains. He was pretty pumped once he saw the train. The train was small, so we had to wait in line for a few minutes while one group of people rode before us. Gray did not enjoy it when the train left the station without him. He proceeded to throw a huge fit (with real tears). It was pretty comical. When he finally got on the train, he said 'choo choo' and did the arm motion over and over. It was adorable. Does he have to grow up? 

Poway Farmer's Market

We also drove up to Mt. Soledad while trying to find a random restaurant. The map on the iPhone tends to make decisions for you by saying "You don't really want to go there. Do you? Let me suggest this place."It generally makes me really angry because I'm way off course by the time I realize the iPhone is leading me astray, but in this case the memorial was so close to where we were it was easy to talk Josh into a detour. The view from Mt. Soledad is AMAZING and memorial was pretty impressive. Afterward, I navigated us to the original destination without the help of the iPhone.  

This memorial has been in the national headlines recently, because some people don't like that a religious symbol is on public land. This cross has been the center of litigation for over 20 years. That seems to be a lot of wasted money on both sides, but no one asked me. If it finally comes to removing the cross/memorial, I wanted to see it in person before that time arrives. I like it and hope it stays because it really is an amazing memorial.  

Mt. Soledad Memorial

A better view of the whole memorial borrowed from Google images.
There are tons of plaques with veteran's photos and information  all around the base of the memorial. 

Last weekend Josh's squadron received a 96 (or a 4 day weekend in civilian terms) as a reward of sorts for having no alcohol incidents for a certain period of time (about 3-4 months). During the last 96 the squadron received, Josh and I were on a boat headed for Mexico. We thought we should spend this one exploring California. 

We originally planned to head north to San Francisco, but after checking the schedule the plans changed. Josh had been scheduled for a huge flight the day he went back to work. Due to the amount of time he would need to study and flight plan, we cancelled the San Fran idea and planned to spend the weekend together at home. We drove down to Coronado to eat lunch at the Hotel Del, walk along the beach, and do some window shopping. The hotel is iconic in San Diego and we both thought we needed to have brunch/lunch down there before we moved on to the next place. The food was good (we had the worst waitress on the planet) and the weather was beautiful. 

Turns out, Josh had an emergency situation crop up within the squadron over the weekend, so we would have probably been cutting our trip short and coming home if we had gone to San Francisco anyway. I guess things really do happen for a reason. 

Hotel Del Coronado

Gray and Dada enjoying the "island."

Coronado Island with Point Loma in the background.

I finally finished looking through the 101 Things To Do In San Diego magazine I picked up a few months ago, and now I have a new list of must-do things in San Diego. I included a deep sea fishing trip, Legoland, a day at the Del Mar horse races (we missed them last season), Anza Borrego Desert, several local missions, the Bernardo Winery and Orfila Vineyards, a harbor tour, the California Surf Museum, Catilina Island, and at least one summer concert on the list.  Maybe we can do all of that plus see the rest of the museums at Balboa Park and drive to Northern California for some more sightseeing.