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.