A Visit From Oregon

We are so grateful to my parents, who drove all the way down from Oregon to bring us our other car. Not only did we get to spend some time with them and introduce them to our new home, but now we have two cars, so I don't have to get up before the sun and drive Kelson to work. It is lovely. We had a great time during the four days Mom and Dad spent with us.

Since we won't be going home for Thanksgiving this year, we decided to make a little early Thanksgiving dinner for Mom and Dad. Kelson and I had grand adventures with turkey, brown rice stuffing, and various other holiday foods. To top it off, I made a pumpkin trifle.  Yum! I think we did pretty well for our first time cooking Thanksgiving dinner.

On our first day exploring the city, we went to Old Town San Diego. Our first stop was the Mormon Battalion historic site. It was an amazing museum, and we learned lots of things that I didn't know before. Dad got to dress all up in soldier garb.

While Dad carried the gun, Mom and I relaxed in the wagon.

The next day, we went on a trolley tour that took us all over the city. It was a wonderful way to learn about the history of my new home and see all of the places I can go back to later.

Arrr  Matey!

We love you, Mom and Dad!  Thanks again.

Veterans Day at Knott's Berry Farm

First of all, my Veterans Day post would be incomplete without a huge thank you to all of those who have sacrificed and are sacrificing now to keep our country safe and to protect those who can't protect themselves. As I have had a little taste now of what it is to be a military wife, this Veterans Day is much more meaningful to me than it ever has been in the past. I also want to say thank you again to all of the retailers who made it possible for us to have an awesome Veterans Day, including Knott's Berry Farm, TGI Fridays, and Chili's. We had the awesome opportunity to spend a day at Knott's Berry Farm for free. It was pretty busy, so we stood in a lot of lines, but it was still very fun.

We started our day out with a bang on the Pony Express. It was a weird roller coaster-type ride. You leaned forward, so you were going head first.

After that, we slowed things down with the Calico Mine Railroad. It is kind of like the "Its a Small World" of Knott's Berry farm. The ride is slow, safe, non-thrilling, and full of corny, old animatronic figures. That's what makes it great. Classic. I think Kelson was lulling me into a false sense of security for the next ride he wanted to go on.

He wanted me to go on this. Are you kidding me? You can only see a little bit of it, but it was a serious, loop-the-loop, flip head over heels 15 times in 30 seconds, faster than lightning, feet dangling in the air roller coaster.  I had never been on such a thing in my life. Apparently I love that boy, though, because I consented.

This is how we both looked at the end.  It was so much fun! Of course our eyes were watering and we both walked like we were intoxicated for a few minutes, but it was worth it. We went again right at the end of the day.

Speaking of classic rides, the log ride was our absolute favorite. We both loved it when we had been there as little kids, and it was still great. It was all decorated like the North Pole for Christmas. We went on this one twice too.

TGI Friday's gave Kelson free lunch.  Thanks!

Slowing things down again on the railroad tour. It looks like Kelson is advertising something.

On first glance, it looks like Cinderella's carriage, but it is actually a little hearse. Creepy.

Getting ready to get spun around really high in the air.  Fun! This time Kelson was the nervous one.

We flew around in circles 300 feet in the air. The view of Anaheim was fabulous.

Our day at Knott's Berry Farm was so much fun! Thanks again!

Sea World!!!

Kelson finally had some leave last week, and we made great use of it. There are lots of amazing deals going on right now for military folks in honor of Veterans Day, and we made good use of them. Our first adventure was to Sea World, where we received free admission (thank you Sea World!). I can't believe it is only 15 minutes from our house. So cool!

Hello stingray! It looks like it is smiling at us.

We started out our day on the Journey to Atlantis. Good thing it was warm outside, because I got rather wet.

The last time I went to Sea World in San Diego was when I was eight. Aren't I cute?

The starfish are still pretty much the same 15 years later.

We went to the 4-D pirate movie. Everything comes right out of the movie at you!

Look out Kelson! Shark!

Being a Wednesday, the park was pretty empty, so we had no problem walking on to all of the rides and in to all of the shows. We didn't stand in lines at all. We loved the dolphin show, but the sea lion show was probably our favorite.

Lame self-photography I know. Notice that we are super wet. We went on the Atlantis ride two more times right at the end of the day and got thoroughly drenched. It was a great day. Thanks again, Sea World!

Finally Settled in San Diego

There is a reason this blog is entitled "Sea to Shining Sea." Not only does it cleverly incorporate patriotism and the ocean (you know, that whole Navy thing that we do), but it describes what we have been doing for the last year.  I figured out the other day that in the past year, between the two of us, we have flown cross country at least 12 times. We have covered all four of the extreme corners of the United States. We have lived in or visited Oregon, Maine, Key West, and now San Diego. For someone like me who has never moved in her life except for going to Utah for college, this is a new, exciting, and terrifying experience. On the days when the stress of it all overwhelms the exciting part, I have to remind myself how blessed we are. We live in a beautiful place, we are less than an hour from Kelson's grandparents, and I am seeing and experiencing things that I never imagined that I would. Now for a few pictures from our first week in town...

My first view of downtown San Diego.

 Our first priority was to find a place to live. We were blessed to have a place to stay in the interim. Kelson's grandparents live in Escondido, and we slept in their home gym for a little over a week. Thank you so much Grandma and Grandpa!

After a few stressful days of apartment shopping, we finally settled on a place about 10 miles from the base that we really like. It was a huge relief to finally have a place to live and to start unpacking all of the stuff that has been boxed up for 6 months.

After we chose an apartment, Kelson decided that I needed a break. He took me on a day trip to the charming little town of Julian, which is up in the mountains above San Diego. It did me a lot of good to get out of the busy city and enjoy the scenery. They had the cutest chapel I had ever seen. It looked like a little old schoolhouse.

Julian is famous for its pies, so of course we had to have some apple pie at Mom's.

That night was Kelson's grandparents' ward Halloween party, so we had fun passing out candy at the Trunk or Treat. I'm afraid we were a complete failure in the Halloween costume department. It was a little tricky with all of our stuff still being packed up in boxes. Next year we will come up with some awesome costumes.

Key West!

Hello for yet another three week late post. I have been so busy having fun at home with my parents that my blog has been pushed to the back burner. We arrived in San Diego a couple of days ago, so I should hopefully be a little better. Before I jump forward to the present, I wanted to share a some of the highlights from our wonderful trip to Key West. Kelson sailed there in his ship, and I met him there. I felt very brave as I flew into Ft. Lauderdale and drove down to Key West all by myself.

This was the first beach we visited in Key West. The whole thing was about 100 feet long. The beaches in Key West were all pretty tiny. This happens to be the southernmost beach in the continental U.S. In case you were wondering, moonshine is not allowed. Just read the sign.

This guy was just standing on the end of the pier playing the guitar and singing. He looked like he had a pretty good life. From this pier, we saw a stingray, a shark, parrot fish, pipefish, and all kinds of other neat wildlife.

That night, we went on a ghost tour of Key West. Spooky!

The big event was on Saturday. Spruance became the newest commissioned destroyer in the US Navy. The ceremony was amazing.

In addition to friends and family of the crew, thousands of people from Key West were there.

The ship was looking fabulous. It was an awesome sight to see all of the sailors in their whites running up to man the rails of the ship.

It was the first time I had seen Kelson in his dress whites. What a handsome boy!

That's Kelson right above the "R" of Spruance. Sorry for the blurry picture.

We spent one whole afternoon snorkeling. It was so fun!

On Sunday, we drove up the Overseas Highway while we listened to General Conference. Beaches are in short supply in the Keys because there aren't big enough waves to make sand, so we had to settle for this concrete wall to eat our picnic on.

Beautiful!

Many of the houses in Key West have the underside of their porches blue. It is a Gullah superstition. Ghosts can't cross water, so the blue tricks them into staying away from houses.

Key West is crawling with scantily clad, drunk people. I felt like this poster was a fairly good synopsis of downtown Key West.

Key Lime Pie!!

We went out early on our last morning in Key West to snag a few more minutes on the beach. This is at the country's southernmost point, just 90 miles from Cuba.

We went swimming at South Beach again. There were schools of tiny fish swimming around our legs, which attracted pelicans. It was great to watch them fly in, scoop up some water, and then do a clumsy splash landing in the water and fall over backwards. They were not very graceful, but we had fun.

We had a great time in Key West. It was a treat to be able to spend a few days together in the middle of our two month separation. After Key West, I spent three more weeks at home, and Kelson sailed south to Colombia. From there, the ship sailed through the Panama Canal and then spent a few days in Panama before sailing up to San Diego. What adventures!

Farewell Maine, Hello Oregon

I have been a little remiss in my blog updates lately, so here is an update on the last three weeks of our lives...

On September 1st, Kelson, along with the rest of the crew of the Spruance, sailed away from Bath and down the Kennebec River to start the journey down the east coast, through the Panama Canal, and up to San Diego. Two days later, I also left Maine for good and flew home to stay with my parents in Oregon while Kelson is sailing around. We are, once again, living on opposite sides of the continent, which has pretty much been the story of our lives. It is even less fun now that we are married, so we are looking forward to being together again. Luckily, we get to talk or e-mail almost every day. In the last three weeks, Kelson has spent time in Newport, Rhode Island, Yorktown, Virginia, and Mayport, Florida. He arrived this weekend in Key West, where I will be joining him on Thursday for the ship's commissioning ceremony.  We are so excited!

This is the kind of amazing beauty I came home to. One Friday, my parents and I drove for an hour up a treacherous road to spend our afternoon relaxing by this beautiful creek. Maine was gorgeous, but I have missed the mountains. This is home.

I have never seen my dad more content than he was here in his water shoes, Hawaiian swim trunks, polo shirt, and panama hat fishing in the creek. What you can't see in the picture is that Arty, our chocolate lab, was also having the time of her life in the creek, which may have something to do with the fact that Dad had no luck with the fish.

Some families play board games for FHE. We play with power tools. My parents helped me build bedside tables for our new apartment in San Diego. Most of our furniture has been salvaged from yard sales and junk shops and refurbished. Stay tuned for some seriously fabulous before and after shots.  Post coming soon.

Last weekend, I went with my parents to the annual Jensen Distributing convention in Spokane. We have taken this trip to do buying for our hardware store as a family every year since before I was born. It was always one of our favorite events of the whole year. Believe it or not, hardware conventions can be pretty fun, especially if your grandparents and all of your cousins are along for the trip. I haven't been able to go since I graduated from high school, so I made sure I was home in time this year. We had a great weekend!

We stopped at a lot of thrift shops on the Spokane trip to look for treasures. This book was one of the funniest, most ridiculous things I have ever seen. It was a book of "nonracist, nonviolent, nonsexist, positive rhymes for all kinds of kids". Apparently all of our traditional nursery rhymes are inappropriate for children, so all of the rhymes in this book were rewritten. All of the king's men and women (rather than his horses) succeeded in putting humpty dumpty back together, Jack and Jill succeeded in bringing the water home, and the old lady (and old man) who lived in the shoe needed a lesson in birth control. It was so ridiculous I couldn't help but laugh.

Since we got back from Spokane, I have been very busy working on furniture. Yesterday, I went with my family to pick peaches at an orchard in Payette, and they were amazing! Mom and I are going to be preserving fruit this week. Yum!

Soon to come: furniture transformations & adventures in Key West!