Tuesday January 25th, 2011
Tuesday was day two of our the San Diego leg of our California excursion. We enjoyed another wonderful breakfast atop our hotel in the club lounge. Odd looks continued today from the other Club Level guests when we strolled in with the boys, but inevitably, by the end of the meal, the boys had won the hearts of some Grandmas and were telling them all about the airplanes they watched take off that morning.
We headed out to the Cabrillo National Monument which is on the northern side of the San Diego bay and about 10 minutes from our hotel. The view was spectacular as we were able to see the entire San Diego skyline, the Naval base, and the ocean from one vantage point. We then hiked asunder to the top of the hill and visited the historic lighthouse, which has been in place since the middle 19th century.
After a couple of hours we headed to the historic Gaslamp district for lunch. The Gaslamp is basically San Diego’s bar district. Having no idea where stay, we sought the advice of a worker in the local Oakley store who sent us up the block to a bar called Rotten Nick’s which had awesome burgers, but they were literally the size of a softball. We enjoyed a nice dish of gelato across the street at cafĂ© called Choclat and the headed over to visit the USS Midway Musuem. The USS Midway is a retired aircraft carrier, or “crap carrier” as Peter likes to put it. We really had a great time and were amazed at it’s history. It took 4,500 troops to operate the carrier, including 225 cooks (you don’t think about that when you think of a war ship). It was really cool to walk the 4.5 acre air deck and see a bunch of retired war jets. All in all, it was a neat experience. Afterwords, we went back to our van for a snack and Tom chose to have an apple which, of course, he managed to drop out onto the pavement. I picked it up and told him not to eat the half he already started and that was covered with grit, but to instead eat the other half with the peel on it. Well, Tom didn’t want anything to with the good half of the apple and insisted I clean it off, which I somewhat did and told him, “If the apple is crunchy, it’s dirt…ENJOY!” Well, that caused an uproar with the boys and they have been quoting and using this phrase throughout the trip.
We quickly returned to the hotel for a quick swim before sunset, but the water was frigidly cold (at least to the adults). Ah, the beauty of childhood where body thermometers do not exist. The boys could have cared less about the temperature. So needless to say, Brian swam with the boys while Katie chilled her tootsies. We were icicles by the end, but that problem is easily cured with 10 minutes in the hot tub. Tom, Joe, and Peter have learned to like the hot tub on this trip and it’s been a fun experience to watch them enjoy this.
We put the boys down for a quick 45 minute nap before heading out for dinner, and it was like we knocked them out for a week. Katie and I sang and danced, and tickled to wake them up with little success. They wanted sleep, but we wanted food. We met Katie’s friend’s Brett and Leah for dinner at Tomm Hamm’s lighthouse. The food was excellent. The West Coast doesn’t appreciate how fresh their fish is. The Salmon was exquisite and the boys were good and patient.
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