Mini-Vacation Part 1

Since moving to Las Vegas we have been very excited about traveling the western part of the United States.  Although both of us have briefly visited a handful of places (mostly for work) in the west, neither of us have spent much time on this side of the country with the spirit of exploring and really getting to know it.  When the opportunity came up for us to tag along on Brad's work trip to San Diego we jumped at it.

We drove in on Tuesday and enjoyed a lunch along the way at Chick-Fil-A.  We have missed this little luxury while living in Las Vegas, but to Micah's dismay there was no playground at the one we had stopped at. We arrived at our hotel early in the afternoon and got settled.  That evening we met up with the other folks from our squadron who were also going to the conference and went to Old Town for dinner.  I LOVED it!  It was like an old restored Mexican village and they had the best Mexican food I have had since I left Texas (which is why  I loved it.) They also had musicians and dancers roaming about as well.  It was a lot of fun!

Wednesday Brad had to go to work but one of the other wives also came with her husband so Kendra, Baby Weston, Micah and I all set out to explore.  We decided to go to Coronado Island that morning.  You can drive there but when I was researching it I found out that there was also a a ferry that would take you over. I knew Micah would love to ride on a boat so we decided to do that.  We actually ended up parking right in front of the USS Midway Museum so Micah got to see a really big boat before we took off on our ferry ride to the island.  Micah did LOVE the boat.  He didn't want to leave when it was time to get off. We forced him off the boat though and went strolling around the island.  It is a relatively small island but we probably walked a couple of miles total.  We stopped and let Micah play at a park and saw the beach.  We also got to eat at a little cafe.  We were hoping for some seaside dining but didn't find anything on the water so we had to settle for close to but not in the view of the water. We walked back to the ferry and Micah strong armed me into an ice cream cone before we boarded. It was a fun and exhausting day.

Thursday Brad also had to work so we set out on our own adventures again.  This morning we got off to an early start so we headed to Chick-fil-a for breakfast and a little playground then to Ikea once it opened at 10.  Ikea is such a fun store and since we don't have one near us I took full advantage of getting every gadget I thought I might ever need and ended up with a nice little bill at the end.We went back for Micah's nap and then set off again with Kendra and baby Weston for Balboa Park to see the model train museum.  Now Micah loved seeing all of the choo choos and was just in awe of every display, but Kendra and I decided that this must be why little boys have daddies because we couldn't imagine anything more boring in the world. Balboa park itself was amazing and the architecture of all of the museums was awe inspiring even to someone like me who doesn't appreciate such things as much as I should.  After our tour of the museum and a short walk around the park we headed back to the hotel. One thing we lucked into (and I didn't anticipate or pack for) was that our hotel had a heated swimming pool.  This was a HUGE hit with Micah and he constantly asked to go swimming the entire time we were there.  Every evening Brad would take him for a quick dip in the pool (in their clothes since I didn't pack for it, oops!) and it was the highlight of the day.