USS Midway Museum

 We recently spent a Saturday touring the USS Midway museum.  The Midway is a decommissioned aircraft carrier that has been docked in San Diego harbor and turned into a Naval aviation museum. It was an awesome learning experience. We spent four hours on board and could have easily spent longer.  There was a self-guided audio tour that told you all about the different parts of the ship, including recordings of people who were actually stationed there. One of our favorite parts of the day was chatting for about 20 minutes with a WWII veteran who was on the beaches at Normandy.  We both love history, and this was a great way to spend a Saturday.

In the pilot house-not quite as fancy and high tech as the one on Kelson's ship.

On the flight deck with downtown San Diego behind us.

Kelson took a moment to think in the ship's chapel.

Adjusting the throttle.  Full speed ahead! (I am sure they say that on aircraft carriers.)

They had 50 or more different models of restored aircraft. We could have spent another hour or more listening to the description of every one.

a little view of the harbor out the porthole

Poor Kelson got locked in the brig. Luckily, I busted him out so he could come home.

I Could Really Get Used to Living by the Beach...

I have always loved the beach. My family vacationed on the Oregon coast almost every summer when I was growing up, and it was something we all looked forward to. One of the awesome things about being in the Navy is that you always live near the beach. Here in San Diego, we have gorgeous beaches, and I love that we can just drive over to the beach after work and go for a walk if we want to. It is so cool! One place Kelson has been wanting to take me is the Cabrillo National Monument, and we finally made it.  It is a historical site/national park on the beach that is supposed to have awesome tide pools, which is what we really wanted to see.

We thought we had timed our visit perfectly, but it turned out that we had read the tide table backwards, and the tide was high. Oh well. It was still beautiful.

Can you see us?

I am so grateful to be blessed to live in such a beautiful world.  This was truly glorious.

We climbed up into the old lighthouse.

Can't beat a sunset at the beach!

My Surprise for Martin Luther King Day

I love holidays. Not only are they an excuse to eat yummy food and have celebrations, but Kelson gets to take the day off and stay home with me, which is awesome. Kelson and I made the best of our holiday last week and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. He volunteered to plan our day's activities and refused to tell me what we were going to do. All I knew was that we were going to drive about two hours away, and that it was going to be cold there, so I assumed we were going to the mountains. I just packed the picnic and hopped in the passenger seat to leave on our adventure. We drove through beautiful citrus orchards and up into the gorgeous mountains. Shortly after we started up the mountain, we turned on to the twistiest road I have ever seen (and mind you, I have been on some seriously crooked roads driving around the mountains of eastern Oregon).  For the next ten miles or so (which takes a long time at 20 miles an hour), this is what we saw:

We were completely encased in fog. This was actually a pretty thin spot. For the most part, we saw absolutely nothing all the way up the mountain. Luckily, we went high enough that we got above the fog, and I finally discovered our secret destination:

We went to the Hale Observatory on Palomar Mountain. It has a 200 inch telescope that was the biggest one in the world for a long time. It was really fascinating. It would be awesome to actually get to look at the stars through it.

Kelson was right when he said it would be cold up there. We got our one and only glimpse of snow for the winter.  Apparently San Diego has made me weak, because I was freezing. It was a great day, though.

The trees there were full of mistletoe, which I had never seen in real life before.  Kelson deserved a reward for planning such a fun date.  Thanks Kelson, I love you!

A Fun Visit from Grammy & Grandpa

One of the fun things about living here in San Diego is that all of our family suddenly wants to come visit us and the lovely climate we live in. Last week, my grandparents came down to southern California to watch the Rose Bowl, and they continued down this direction to spend a couple of days with us. We were excited to have them. We always love guests.  They hadn't been to San Diego in a long time, so I made good use of the day that I had with them to show them around town. The day started off with Kelson taking Grandpa on a tour of the ship. Grandpa and Kelson both had a great time. I hung out with Grammy while we let the two of them do manly things.

 After the tour of the ship, I took Grammy and Grandpa to Old Town for some authentic Mexican food and  a tour of the Mormon Battalion site. It is an awesome museum. Some of Grammy's ancestors were in the Mormon Batallion, and we found them on the list there.  Grandpa may not look too happy about being an honorary member of the battalion, but I promise he was having a great time.

 

After Old Town, we drove out to Coronado and went for a walk on the beach. (It is still completely bizarre to me that I live in a place where you can sunbathe in January. It was over 80 degrees last week.)  By the time we finished our beach excursion, I had pretty well tired my grandparents out, so we headed home to relax and then went out for dinner. It was a great visit.  Thanks Grammy and Grandpa!  We love you!

Goodbye 2011, Welcome 2012!

    We had a fun New Year's Eve getting ready to ring in this exciting new year. Kelson was off, so we got to spend the whole day together. We drove a few miles from our apartment to Otay Lake and went for a walk on some of the trails there.

I love that there is such beauty just a few miles from our home in the city.

         I have been under the weather all week, so we decided to spend the evening at home rather than spread our germs around at a party. We had fun eating sea food, playing games, watching an old movie, and ringing in the new year with sparkling cider.  

        I'm always a little sad when New Year's Day comes. It means the end of another holiday season, leaving nothing but January and February to look forward to. However, it does give a chance to think back on all of the wonderful things that have happened in the last year. 2011 was a big year for us. I don't know that we will ever have another year with so many life changing-events. Most importantly, we became a family this year. This is the first time I have ever had a partner to look forward to the new year with, and it is very exciting. We are looking forward to 2012 with optimism and hope. It is going to be a good year!