Delusions of... Everything

Sky Watch Friday

Where the sky meets the sea.

San Diego, CA

Photo by Handy Man

San Diego - The Confession

When we were planning our spring break family vacation San Diego was 4th (meaning last) on my list of places I want to go.

First (and always) I wanted to to go to Massachusetts to visit my good friend Chris and her family, but because it was early April when it's very possible to get snow in MA it was immediately taken off the list.

My second choice was New Orleans, where it was possible that my friend Chris and her husband would meet us for a shared vacation.  The kids had no desire to go to New Orleans, so it was immediately taken off the list.

Third on my list was Washington DC.  I thought it would be interesting, historical, educational and again our MA friends could meet us there.  However Handy Man was convinced it would be too cold and possibly snowy so...

We ended up in San Diego.  Everyone else was excited, I was... Meh.   I was excited to be getting away for a few days, I just couldn't imagine that all the touristy spots we were planning to visit would be fun.

Boy was I wrong!  I can't believe I had this beautiful city last on my list of places I wanted to spend spring break.  I don't know what I was thinking!

(All photos by Handy Man on his little Canon point and shoot, except the last photo was taken by a worker at the Maritime Museum)

Wordless Wednesday

Outside a church

Old Town, San Diego

April 2, 2011

Bloggers really are The Best

I've recovered from taking a whirlwind trip to San Diego then going straight to work the very next day.  If I was being honest I'd have to say I'm still pretty damn tired, but I'm trying to stay in a state of denial, so I'll just keep saying I've recovered.

I'll be posting all about my trip over the next few days, but for today I'm posting about the very last day of my visit to a city that I absolutely fell in love with.  It started fairly early with a trip to a great breakfast place in Mission Beach, called The Mission.  Clever huh?  There I met one of the first bloggers I started following regularly and faithfully, Jenn at Juggling Life.

I love her blog, it's honest, funny and Jenn is really smart.  I thoroughly enjoyed meeting her, sharing a meal and having great conversations.  Her youngest son and my son are the same age and have the same name!  It's so cool to meet a blogger friend in "real" life.  When I go back to San Diego (yes I will be going back) we will get together again and I can't wait!

Thanks Jenn for meeting me and recommending such a delicious breakfast!

After breakfast my family and I checked out of the hotel and drove around before heading to the airport.  We ended up in Pt Loma where I found the house I want to live in!  Do you think the people living there will mind?!

Wine Country Part II

If you missed part one of my journey through wine country you can read it here.

As we left Newberg Oregon for Eugene the sun was setting on what had been a wonderful day.  There was still an adventure waiting for us at King Estate.  Driving along the dark windy road to the winery was very nerve racking, but once we got there all of our nerves turned to joy.  Even though it was dark when we arrived we knew it was a special place.  The light of morning did not disappoint!

Our home away from home...

We hung out and chatted in both the living room and dining room.

The kitchen was a cooker's paradise!  It was stocked with wine and there were two refrigerators, one covered adult beverages, the other snacks and breakfast fixin's.

There were four bedrooms, two were suites with pull out beds in addition to the regular bed.  All the bedrooms had an adjoining bathroom.  It was truly heavenly.  Here was my little room...

We all did our own thing Saturday morning, three of us went jogging (after the guy who checked us in said that people intend to jog but never do while visiting).  I guess they proved him wrong!

I grabbed my camera and went on a walk.  I couldn't wait to see the vineyards in the daylight.  The King Estate property is very large, 1,033 acres to be exact and includes 470 acres of organic vineyards, as well as 30 acres of fruits, vegetables, and flowers.  I was not disappointed.

I saw my first blooms of the season...

As I made my way up the road I saw the castle like structure that is the winery, tasting room and restruant...

At 1:00, after showers and breakfast we made our way to the main building for a tour and tasting...

The structure is so beautiful...

The views from up there were breathtaking, I don't think my camera (or my ability to use the camera) did the views justice.

Stay tuned for Part III - The tasting and tour!

San Francisco

In October I took a few days off from my new job to take a trip to California.  It was a multi-purpose trip, to see San Francisco for the first time, meet up with my friends Chris and Nick, AND see Pearl Jam perform.

San Francisco was pretty cool.  We were there when the Giants won the world series, that was exciting.  We stayed for two nights on the waterfront.  Chris and I scheduled our flights to arrived close to the same time, her from Boston, me from Seattle.  We got to the hotel just in time to walk to peir 39 and grab some dinner.

We made plans to go to Alcatraz the next day.

It was a cloudy, rainy, foggy day, but we didn't let that discourage us.  In fact, the whole trip was cool, rainy and windy.  Just like home.

It was creepy to be in a place that held so many hard core criminals, but the views were amazing.

For some reason I love this shot of a tunnel entrance.  I think the colors are stunning.

After the Alcatraz tour we went to Ghiradelli Square and did some window shopping.  The three of us bought chocolate at the Ghiradelli store claiming we were buying it for others (yeah, right).

Later we met up with Nick's brother and his girlfriend for dinner and many drinks at a tiny Irish pub. 

The next day we packed up and took the BART to the Caltrain and landed in Mt. Veiw for the first of two concerts.

To be continued...

Beautiful Mt. St. Helens

After we finished up at the Ape Caves we checked in to our hotel.  We stayed at a nice little place called the Lewis River Inn.  Our rooms had wonderful views of the river with nice little decks to sit on, too bad it was too hot to enjoy the little deck!  Chris and Mark took pictures, but I didn't.  I was really completely out of it.  I got even more out of it when after having a nap and a couple beers we went to dinner at a very nice Mexican restaurant where I had a banana margarita.  I wasn't going to have a drink at all, but I tasted Chris's and oh my gawd was it good so I ordered one too.  YUM!  No pictures of those either.  Seriously I only took about 40 pictures the whole time they were visiting.  So unlike me. 

It was Chris and Mark's wedding anniversary.  This is the second time we've spent our anniversaries together, first in NY in 2007 and this time in the PNW!!  We had a very nice meal, even though I was sticking to the booth in the wicked heat.  No pictures of that either!

In the morning we hit the road for the north side of the mountain.  There are two main visitor centers, one at the very bottom and one at the top.  In between there are a couple other places to stop and get good pictures.  The forest service runs an education center that's very cool for kids, but we didn't stop there.  Since it had hit 107 on the thermometer we decided to skip hanging out at the lake too.

We did stop here for some amazing views of the north fork of the Toutle River.  (Sorry about the haze but that tends to happen in the Northwest when it gets really hot.)  That valley was decimated in the 1980 eruption.  It really is gorgeous now.  We came back to this spot to eat before heading home.

Where you see the river running is the normal size of the river, down a little for summer but you get the idea.  The rush of mud, water and debris cut that large area within minutes of the eruption.

In the upper left you can see Mt. St. Helens off in the distance.

Mark and Chris

Chris and me

Here we are walking to the Johnson Visitor Center at the end of the road.  The view from up there is spectacular. 

 

 

 

Even with all the heat our trip was a big success.

The next day was, yet again, very hot.  We had planned to have a BBQ before we knew hot it was going to be.  I wanted all my friends to meet Chris and Mark.  We shopped in the morning before it got too hot, then got home and I prepared brine for the chicken.  Around 3:00 we were all sitting in our downstairs family room, where it was only slightly cooler, watching tv when I commented, "What are we thinking having a BBQ on the hottest day of the year?"

It turned out to be a huge success.

Handy Man took these shots and I swear he took the first one out of my kitchen window that was in desperate need of a washing but look past the spots to all our lovely friends!

We had such a great time visiting with Chris and Mark.  It was very sad putting them back on the plane to Massachusetts.  Chris is coming back in September to see Pearl Jam, so that's definitely something to look forward to!

Boston Goes to the Ape Caves

After a long drive and good music on Mark's ipod we made it to the Ape Caves.  They are called caves, but they are really lava tubes.  I believe they were discovered in the 1950's before the 1980 eruption.  They are on the south side of Mt. St. Helens, away from where the big 1980 eruption took place, which was on the north side.  The south side was affected too, just not as bad as the blast zone on the north side.

Did I mention it was hot?!

The caves stay a pretty even temp somewhere in the mid 40's, which was surprisingly welcome after the heat.  Since Handy Man and I had been there before we knew to wear good walking shoes and bring coats.  It seemed crazy to be carrying coat in the 100 degree weather, but we needed them in the cave.

Here are some shots from the mouth, before we went in.  I'm not saying Handy Man had trouble lighting the lantern, but he did use up almost all the matches.

Considering it was pitch black in the cave and we only had one Coleman lantern I got some pretty good shots.  The walls of the cave were ever changing and very beautiful.

We didn't quite make it the whole 3/4 of a mile to the end of the cave.  The ceiling got really low at the end and made my slightly claustrophobic self a little anxious.  I hated to rain on the parade, but I couldn't go any further.

It was so hot when we came up out of the cave, but not as hot as it would be the next day when we traveled to the visitor centers on the north side of the mountain...

Boston Goes to Anderson Island

On Saturday after trips to the grocery and liquor stores, we spent most of the rest of the day relaxing at our house.  I really needed the down time for recovery.  It hurt so much to talk, but I had out-of-town guests, who I don't get to see very often, how was I not supposed to talk?  We took a driving trip around beautiful Burien, hitting a couple beaches and that was about it!

The next day we hit the road for Anderson Island.  It was a beautiful day, the beginning of the heat wave.

Here is a shot driving onto the ferry.

This was Chris's (and maybe Mark's?) first time on a car ferry!  The Christine Anderson is very small compared to other car ferries in the state.

Halfway to Anderson Island the ferry stopped for a spreading of ashes ceremony.  It was very touching although it did feel like we were imposing a little bit.

After we settled in we went down to the beach!

This is how we spent most of the day, either at the beach or sitting in the chairs, reading, talking, napping, drinking... You get the idea!

At sunset the guys had fun throwing rocks at stuff.  Such guys!

The next day dawned hot and hazy.  Handy Man was creative with the camera...

Then we hit the road for Mt. St. Helens...

Boston Comes to Seattle

Our friends from Boston, Chris and Mark landed in Seattle the evening of July 23.  I picked them up from the airport and was so excited to have them here!  We got to our house and I was so drugged up from my oral surgery excited I left my keys in the ignition with the auxiliary on... Apparently I had turned the ignition off but then noticed I left the widows down so I turned the key to put the windows up, then I got distracted by needing to pop the trunk and stopping my dog from jumping on my guests that I just got out of the car without my keys.

We didn't figure it out until the next morning when we got in the car and there were my keys in the ignition and a very dead battery.  Luckily we have another vehicle we could use.  Handy Man put the battery on the charger and we went to the Pike Place Market.  And I forgot my camera... So did Chris and Mark!

This was Chris and Mark's second time to Seattle and the Pike Place Market.  Mark knew he wanted tie dye and Chris wanted to shop for gifts.  Neither one was disappointed!  I had a hard time of it.  My mouth hurt so bad I decided to take 1/2 of a pain pill.  The medication caused my brain to stop working and my stomach to get upset.  I couldn't remember any of my old friend's names who I used to work with at the Market, I couldn't decide if we should get crab for Saturday's dinner, I couldn't make my brain stay on one track for more than a few seconds.  It was kind of scary.

We came home to relax, then we went to the Pub to have dinner and celebrate our 27th wedding anniversary. 

Here is a shot of me and Chris after we got home, before we went to the pub.

Here is a group shot at the Pub that Asthmagirl took of us...

Next stop?  After a trip to Trader Joes, Fred Meyer and the liquor store we were ready for Anderson Island.  I didn't forget my camera for that trip!