Now Where Was I?

Oh Yes.  My Birthday, part III.

Not only do most people's birthday only last one day, and two celebrations are rare, but somehow we managed to make a third trip part of my birthday celebrations.  A second trip to Vegas.  We had been planning a trip to Vegas kind of half-heatedly, then I signed up for emails from the Bally's Casino group.  They sent a me an offer of $37 for a Friday and a Saturday night.  $74 for a weekend, tax included.  How could we not go?

This trip was much less stressful then our first, which we took on as part of our trip west to move out here.  This time we took our time strolling through the casinos seeing what each had to offer, and getting tips from my sister on what to do.

One of the things we did do was go to the discount tickets window, there are a number of them on the strip and one on Freemont street.  We scored tickets for The Blue Man Group and Madam Tussaud's (sp?) wax museum.  The dummies are a little shocking to see in real life, to see the work they've put into them.  In real life, you wouldn't be fooled by them, but in the right light, the right picture does make it look as if you are standing there.  There was only one instance where there was a "pro" photographer insisting he take our picture (with Barack Obama.)  They wanted to charge so much for the picture though, mostly to spite them, we snuck back in through the exit, and took our own picture.

If you've not seen he Blue Man Group, you really should.  It's parts rock and roll, experimental theater, stage magic and audience participation.  It's tough to describe it otherwise, but while Dawn, Sara and I walked out of the theater excited and elated, other were feeling like they'd been hoodwinked.

We also went out to the Red Rocks Canyon just outside of Vegas.  The rocks a wonderful shade of earthy red, and are great for rock climbing.  But, it was cool and windy on the day we went, a day that turned into overcast, windy, and with hail falling from the sky.  That did not stop us from getting out to see the seasonal waterfall.

The rest of the trip?  Stays in Vegas.

My Birthday Part 2

So most people's birthdays only last one day, but somehow my birthday became the excuse for three weekend worth of fun.  Weekend one was Disneyland, weekend two:  Sea World, San Diego.

Sea World is not one of the theme parks I'd been to before this.  I had some idea what I was in for, I figured I'd see some a killer whale named Shamu, for example, but other then that, I didn't know what I'd get.

Sea World is a mix of amusement park, animal shows, zoo, aquarium, and celebration of things Budwiser.

The first animal show we went to didn't even involve any sea life.  The have a show where they rescue animals from the pound, and have trained them to do tricks.  Dogs and cats, running around in all sorts of zany ways, hopping, jumping ropes, running obstacle courses.  The most amusing animal for me running the course was the pig though.  Rather then jump over the brick wall, he went through it, with a crash sound effect.

Of course we saw Shamu.  I did learn that Shamu is the stage name of the whales used in the show.  There once was a Shamu, and the name is too recognizable to not keep it going, so each park has a Shamu.  The show we saw, called Believe, had a story line, and encouraged us to protect the ocean.  Also, the whale jumps way up out of the water, flips around, and occasionally splashes the audience.

We also saw the Budwiser Clydesdales.  I'm guessing they are a big park sponsor, because a team of them is kept there, and I think they occasionally pull the cart around, but we didn't wait for that, just tried to get a little face time with the horses.

There's many opportunities for interaction with animals.  You can have a swimming experience with dolphins, feed various animals, take time to pet them too.  We got to pet rays, and feed seals, or sea lions or both, but didn't wait around the time it would've taken to pet or feed dolphins.

We did also see a dolphin show.  I'll admit it, I was a sucker for the gimmicks used in the show.  It was no Shamu Slam, but it was fun in a different way.

If you do go, protect your food and small children from the birds around the park.  The aves are not shy about stealing stuff.

I thought we lived in San Diego...

Well that's the theory anyway.  We might be living in Seattle based on the weather lately.  Apparently John and I brought the cold, wet nastiness to San Diego this year.  Everyone keeps telling us that the weather we currently experiencing is the strangest its been in years.  I'm not so sure.  Now highs in the 50s aren't bad for February and are downright fantastic in some parts of the country but here where the beach is just moments away and where they kept telling me it was warm, sunny and beautiful all year long, it's just downright odd.  Weather complain now over.

Work is going ok.  We now have a technician to fill the gap until the other technician from Texas arrives.  Since handing over my ordering duties I've been able to focus on getting some science done which has been fabulous.  As always, there is more that needs to be done and I should be working more, but I think things are going well for now.  The meetings every week with the big bosses are a little frightening.  I am use to trying to please just one boss.  Having never been very successful at that in the past 7 or so years, I now have the added anxiety of trying to please 4-5 people.  

On the home front, the place is quite cleaned up and starting to look like we actually live here.  I don't think I'll ever think of it as my home but it now has John and Dawn touches on it.  I've been a little crafty lately so I think in my next post I'll show some of my craftiness.  Nothing really that great but not putting in 10 hour days at work 7 days a week, makes me need something to do :)  

My extra time has also giving me an opportunity to start reading again.  I am currently obsessed with mystery novels.  I'm not sure where this is coming from but I seem drawn to them especially the ones that are in a series so that I can follow the character through their unlikely lives as amateur sleuths.  Right now I'm really enjoying the Goldy Culinary Mysteries by Diane Mott Davidson, The Coffeehouse Mysteries by Cleo Coyle, and Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper by Elaine Viets.  I've read most of the Hannah Swenson Mysteries by Joanne Fluke but their is a love triangle with the main character, Hannah, and the two men, Norman and Mike, that she seemingly has hanging on her every word.  Now I realize that the idea that one woman could live in a town where there has been multiple murders in less than two years and apparently law enforcement is so bad that the local cookie shop owner is the only one able to figure out whodunit is pretty unrealistic, however, the idea that two men would propose and be "ok" with the fact that this woman is dating both of them and refuses to marry either one because she just can't choose is beyond impossible.  I will probably finish the series because I'm a completist but I'll shake my head through the whole thing.

Also in our free time we've been all over the place it seems.  I'll leave John to do the details of our recent voyages because he does a much better job with it than I do but I can give the reader's digest version.  We went to Vegas to visit Sara again.  This time we stayed on the Strip at Harrah's and had a great time.  John was lucky and won back all the money I lost :)  We also got a little outdoors scenery in as well with a visit to Red Rock's Canyon where it proceeded to hail as we went on a hike.  It was definitely a memorable visit :)

Last weekend we went sea kayaking in La Jolla Shores.  Now for those of you who might not know, I am a Southern Atlantic Ocean girl.  The Pacific is not the Atlantic.  It is cold.  So sea kayaking involved wet suits.  Which the deal I made with John and Rachelle was that noone was allowed to laugh or make fun of me in the wetsuit, but overall we all looked rather silly so we all ended up laughing at ourselves.  Wetsuits don't do much for the overall physique but add on helmets and life jackets and let's just say the outfit is something to behold :)  We had a great time with our quite cute guide checking out the famous 7 caves of La Jolla Shores.  

For this weekend as you may know, I am not the hugest fan of Valentine's Day so John and I had our traditionally boycott of Valentine's Day by having Beer and Pizza with TV.  This year with my joy of Weight Watchers we made our own pizza instead of Domino's but it was pretty darn good anyway.  I've also gotten it into my head that I need to run a 5K and 10K before I turn 31 this September so I tortured John this weekend by going out running with me.  The Wii Fit says that I can run 6 miles in 30 minutes.  However, in the real world it takes me 20 minutes to run/walk 1.5 miles.  So I've got some work to do.  Also this weekend we went to the Birch Aquarium at Scripps.  It is a nice aquarium but it is hard to not compare it to the GA Aquarium.  We had a nice time though getting out and about.  We're determined to explore San Diego as much as we can and I think we are making some major headway :)

Maybe if I blogged more often my posts wouldn't go on forever.  Hmmm...have to think about that for awhile :)

Let's Jump To My Birthday Part 1

My birthday this year got spread over three weekends.  This post is about the actual day of my birthday, January 10th.

On my birthday, We Went To Disneyland!  It wasn't the real original plan, I was thinking we were going to go to the zoo.  Turns of Disneyland offers free admission on your birthday.  But only on the day of your birthday.  No rain checks.  So, instead we got out of bed and drove to Anaheim to go to Disneyland.  I had been to Walt Disney World before, as had Dawn, but this was our first trip to Disneyland.  I think I spent most of the day in wide-eyed amazement, just surprised by that mere fact that I was in Disneyland.  I know, it seems stupid to some, but growing up in WI before air travel was $200 a ticket. you know not like it is now, going to Disney was a once in a life time experience.  Just getting to go to the park twice in my life time was what I thought was pretty cool.  Now knowing that Disneyland is only 90 minutes from where I live.  Well, it feels like nothing can stop me now.

So, yea, on this trip, rather then focus on the rides, I did spend most of the time just looking at things and thinking about how much time and effort has been put into these things.  Like walking around an elaborate movie set, because you know it's not "real" but there it is in front of you.

Not that we completely ignored the rides, we did go on the safari boat ride, and splash mountain, (among others,) but really, I think our favorite was the teacups.  We took many pictures, I think these are our favorites.

We spent nearly all day there, visiting each of the major park sections, I don't think we left until near closing time.  

We also learned that we like churros and even tried to re-create favorite movie scenes with them.  Here we are doing our impersonation of "Lady and the Tramp."
 Yes.  We are wearing mouse ears.  They'll even stitch your name on your hat.

I also think if you were making a noir disney movie, this would be a great closing shot.

Christmas, here there and everywhere.

Christmas present opening is done with my family on Christmas eve.  Also in our house we take turns opening presents.  There's an orderly process.  First, the ages of everyone in the room are determined.  Then the youngest person in the room picks a gift, (not their own,) and presents it to the recipient.  The recipient opens it, and we all ooh and ah.  Then the next youngest picks a gift, and so on and so on.  The advantages of this system is no-one's gift, either as a recipient or as a giver is overlooked.  The disadvantage of this system is it can take an long time to get through all the gifts (depending on the number of people, and number of gifts per people.  You do the math.)  But it also leads to a number of running in-jokes, referring to monkey paws, pictures of Dave or the "or you can have box number 2" tradition.

We all received a number of very cool gifts this year, but the best part was the gift seen multiple times in the evening.  Let me show you:

That's right it was a Merry Wii Chirstmas.

The biggest disadvantage of for us on this night is the dreaded get up before you even get to sleep to catch a plane to see the other half of the family.  But, this is our tradition and we love and build on our tradition every year.

In previous years, we got to go Atlanta, and drive to Chapin, SC.  This year, we got to fly all the way to Columbia, SC, and had chauffeur service (Thanks Claude!) pick us up and get us back to their house.  Where, in also a growing tradition, they let us sleep before going for the gifts.

The tradition there is Christmas Day opening of presents, with a distribution of presents by Claude, and everyone getting a little pile of presents in front of them and the chaos of opening everything all at once, with some oohing and aahing over particularily good gifts.  There are traditions here as well, including Dawn, Tanya and Rosie getting pajamas.  All in all, a good time.

So, Let's Jump to Christmas

So, having been in San Diego just a few weeks, we head back east for Christmas.  The trip itinerary this time includes Milwaukee, Chapin, and Dayton.  We also had stopovers in Phoenix and Charlotte.  We left on a very nice San Diego day.  Notice the lack of jackets in this photograph.  I was warm in the sweater I was wearing.  But, it is family we must see, so onto Milwaukee we go.  Through Phoenix.  In Phoenix, we saw Rapper and Actor Ice-T passing though, with his wife.  It didn't really hit me who it was until he was about even with me.  So, no photographs, no autographs.  Besides I wouldn't know what to say to him if I saw him.  I'm no big fan of his rapping, or acting, so we'll just add him to the list of famous people I've seen in airports.  The list now includes two:  Ice-T and Emmanuelle Lewis.

The holidays at my family's house includes the cookie day tradition.  The day when we gather to make cookies and don the cooking articles of clothing my mom prepares.  We've had aprons, hats, and this year, oven mitts.  Some cookies get made every year, others are experiments that sometimes become traditions.  This year was the first year in Peg and Dave's new house, and one of the biggest cookie days we've had.  We greatly missed the presence of my sister, but my sister in law's sister and her husband came this year.  We were also joined by Dave's niece and fiancé.  

Other things that go along with cookie day includes sugar highs, silliness,  

cookies poorly decorated by John.  (One year I was mixing colors and managed to make grey frosting.) 

 

We also had lots of snow, and that gave me and Dawn opportunity to play in the snow.  We did try sledding, but the snow, the day we decided to go out was too wet.  We did manage to snap a few cute pictures though.

Three posts in two days? Must be a Record....

Having enjoyed a night in Las Vegas, we woke as on time as we ever did the next day to meet Sara, who provided breakfast for us and introduced us to all of her co-workers.  Apparently she set up a game where the had to guess when I came in.  I think one person said they guessed right, everyone else, not so good.  (Though I'd think the game wouldn't be that hard.  I imagine there place, for breakfast has mostly regulars, so spotting the guy who's never been there before should've been clue number one.)  Admittedly, Sara and I do not look much a like, so that would've been the biggest challenge.

Honestly, there's not much to the pictures to see on this day.  The only one really worth looking at is the arrival in California picture, which also serves as the last self portrait in the serise.

So, we made it to California, even made it into our apartment.  The first thing we did is go to the beach right?  Nay!  There was unpacking to do, things to get arranged.  we hardly got any free time until well after we got here, a story I might save for another time, because it's boring.  And if there's one thing you don't want to detract from one boring story, it's another.  (I know, I've got a boring story about a broken down Mazda in Mississippi that bores the pants off 'em.)  So really there was a lot of running around before we finally came to the real completion of our Westward journey, putting our feet in the Pacific.

So, let's all pretend that these pictures were taken on November 1st, though really it was December 14th.  This though, really did mark what we considered the symbolic end of our westward journey.

By the way, the water was freezing.  Our feet went numb after taking these pictures.  But we had done it.  We had gone all the way across the country, from Fernandina Beach, Fl, to San Diego CA.  Dawn also managed to snap these amazing photos from the cliffs near UCSD and the Torrey Pines beach.