"Stay Classy San Diego"

Isn't is ironic how once you get a career that offers you a lot of vacation time, you have too many responsibilities to actually use it?

With my work anniversary falling in August I was about to lose all but 80 hours of my accrued vacation time, so we decided to take a few extra days in California after my Nana's memorial service.

The service itself was fine. It was a Catholic memorial, like she'd wanted, and it was so touching to see some of her lifelong friends come out - although none of them were in good health at the age of 80+. The older I get, the more interested I am in listening to these people talk about the good old days. I find the war stories especially fascinating. I learned that after the bombing at Pearl Harbor, some of the wives and families of soldiers had to wait over six weeks to hear status of their loved ones. I can't imagine waiting six minutes, let alone six weeks. My Papa retired from the Navy and it's heartbreaking for me to think about the things he gave up to defend our country - births, birthdays, first days of school. I don't know if I could willingly make such a sacrifice.

But, with this being Corey's first trip to California I couldn't let it end with him just seeing all of downtown smoggy Riverside, so we headed down to Laguna Beach and then on to San Diego.



It was amazing to watch the sunset on the beach with our shoes in our hands and our jeans rolled up, but mostly I savor the sounds. It's so calm and peaceful listening to the waves roll in - I feel like I could pitch a tent on the sand and never miss modern conveniences.

But, I will say that our hotel room ON the beach was a nice respite. We stayed on Coronado island on base (the military does have its perks) and we literally walked out of our hotel room onto the beach.

If I hadn't been so excited about seeing the penguins at Sea World I would have wanted to stay there for weeks!




I have been to Sea World several times, but the last time was many years ago. I was sure we'd have a good time, but I think I underestimated how much fun we would really have.

It was fantastic! Besides just the penguin exhibit (which I dragged Corey into twice) there were amazing dolphin and whale shows, and a fireworks show to end the evening that was absolutely perfect. If I could go again tomorrow I'm sure I'd enjoy it just as much!

Alas, we had to come back and, well, you can see how exciting that was by reading my last entry.

Now I just need to come up with a reason to use my other 160 hours of vacation!