Awesome San Diego Anniversary

Our Anniversary!

So we just had the most awesome anniversary in San Diego.

To start out on Friday May 20 Kristen and I drove to San Diego.  We left about 7:30 in the morning and had a relatively uneventful trip.  One thing that definitely surprised me was how many cops and border patrols that we saw.  We must have counted at least 50 on the way there. 

We had to pass through 3 different border checks because I guess that the highway is just really close to the Mexico border so they have to constantly check that there are no illegal aliens or substances being transported.

We arrived in San Diego at about 1 p.m. and drove straight to the San Diego temple for our first planned activity.  After stopping at McDonalds to change into Sunday Best, we headed to the temple and went inside to worship.  It was one of the most beautiful buildings that I have ever seen!  Most of the light inside is natural light from the sun because they have so many windows in all the rooms and hallways.  It was so pretty and had so much glasswork and chandeliers!  My favorite part was the indoor garden up on the 4^th floor.  It was in a courtyard of sorts so it received sunlight and it was separated from the visitors by only a sheet of glass.

After finishing worship we took lots of pictures outside near the gardens and lawns.  Many people had gathered to celebrate a few weddings of young couples, so we had to compete for the good picture spots.  A few visitors took our picture for us. 

After the temple we drove to our hotel.  We had booked a stay at the Days Inn near San Diego airport and Sea World.  They gave us a great room with a King size bed.  Since Kristen and I only have a Queen size bed at home, this was a nice treat and helped us to relax and sleep peacefully!

After becoming acquainted with our room and unpacking a little, we drove out to a little restaurant called Urban Chicken.  I had received a great deal in my e-mail which allowed me to buy $20 worth of food and drinks for only $10.  On our way there we got off at the wrong exit and had to navigate our way there.  I was not exactly sure of how to find the place so we stopped and asked a few college age kids if they knew where the restaurant was.  They explained to us how to get there and helped us to navigate that part of the city.  The kid that was the most helpful was wearing a “Scottsdale, Arizona” shirt.  We thought that was kind of interesting. 

So when we found the place high on a hill and drove down to a parking spot on the side of the road, the manager informed us that they were very busy.  He said that the coupon had created a lot of business for them that day and they had not been prepared for the heavy influx of customers that they had received.  He told us that we should come back another day or that we would have to wait about an hour for the food to be ready.  We told him that we were from out of town so it would be difficult to come another day but we informed him that waiting would not be a problem. 

While the food was getting ready for that hour, I finally had an opportunity to do what I had wanted to do since we had arrived in San Diego.  Kristen and I walked down to the pier and got to be right by the ocean and look at the bridges and buildings around the shore.  That was really cool!  

We returned and retrieved our food and then went back to the hotel.  We knew that it would be a big day the next day so we wanted to eat and get to bed as quick as we could.  We finished up the delicious chicken meal with roasted vegetables, red mashed potatoes, and rice.  Then we cleaned things up and hung out for a little bit at the hotels heated pool and Jacuzzi.  After getting back to our room, showering, and getting ready for bed, we hit the hay.

Saturday we woke up about 7:30 a.m. and got ready for the day.  The hotel provided free complimentary breakfast so we went down to the kitchen to see what was offered.  They had pancakes, scrambled eggs, and hash browns.  Also after retrieving that hot food, they had toast and muffins in the dining room as well as juice and milk.  In short, we ate very good and got a good jump on the day with full stomachs.

We then headed over to the main office to catch our shuttle to sea world!  It left a few moments after we got there and only had to go about 3 miles north and then we were there.  We arrived just in time to scan our vouchers, print out our tickets, and enter the gates.  After entering we quickly made our way to their main roller coaster “Journey to Atlantis”.  We were the first ones there but the lady informed us that they were experiencing technical difficulties so we would have to come back!  So we went with plan b and started exploring the park.  The day was full of fun and excitement!

In one day we: went on an arctic exploration, viewed the polar bears, hung out with the penguins, saw awesome man eating sharks, viewed the many species of the fresh water aquarium, walked along the north portion of the park, went on the sky ride over the bay, touched sea stars in the tide pool, explored the salt water aquarium, rode the wet rapid ride with some other guests, watched the “pets rule” live show, made our way to Shamu and saw his live performance, split a large double cheeseburger and fries, attended the sea lions live showing, rode the sky tower that soars more than 300 feet in the air over the park, went to a free Spanish concert put on by “Prince Royce”, went to the awesome Blue Horizons dolphin showing, finally rode the “Journey to Atlantis” ride,  saw the otters and the sea lions tonight show, got an opportunity to experience the new sesame street 4-D attraction, and then ended the night with the “Shamu rocks” extravaganza!  It was a fun filled day and we were very tired when we finally climbed into the shuttle and headed for the hotel.  We got to sleep as soon as we could!

Sunday we drove to find the San Diego ward building and attended Sacrament Meeting.  It was nice to sit in the chapel and partake of the sacrament and hear the talks that had been prepared.  There was a very sweet spirit there and the people were very friendly!  The talks seemed to be directed to us, one was on the blessing of having a small child in the home and Kristen and I are definitely excited to start trying to have a baby in about 6 months.  The other talk was on showing gratitude to your spouse which is definitely perfect since we were celebrating our Anniversary.

After church we went back to the hotel to nap a little since we were pretty tuckered out from the day before.  When we woke up again in the early afternoon we headed out to the beach!  This was definitely one of my favorite things because we drove to Mission beach and found a parking spot, strolled out onto the beach, walked along the shore wading in the tide for a few miles, layed on the sand to relax, and formed an amazing sand castle complete with towers, mote, and wilderness! 

After the beach we went to olive garden for our anniversary meal.  The food was pretty good but it was really expensive!  Honestly I think that Macaroni Grill is a better deal for the money and the quality of the food!  Plus the breadsticks at Olive Garden were very sparse and they only brought us a few every time that we asked.  However at Macaroni Grill we always get their delicious bread!  Anyways the food was pretty good and we got a picture together.  Then we headed back to the hotel, hung out at the pool, showered, watched our wedding and honeymoon DVD’s (although the portable DVD player that we borrowed from Stephen really didn’t work that well for one of the DVD’s), and ate our wedding cake that has been frozen for the last year.

Then we went to sleep and got up Monday morning at 7:30.  We woke up went down to breakfast, went back to our room, packed up, dropped off keys at the front office and checked out.  We then drove to the San Diego zoo for our last big event of the weekend.  The zoo was amazing!  It’s no wonder that the zoo is world famous!  They had every animal and I mean every animal!  I wouldn’t be able to name them all!  Some of my favorites were the lemurs, fossas, meercats, polar bears, koalas, kangaroos, monkeys, gorillas, echidna,  and reptiles.  We loved the petting zoo where I got to pet some goats and feed them some hay.  I was not particularly fond of the insect exhibits but they were cool.  We covered basically 97% of the zoo and we were definitely a little worn out!

After stopping at Jack in the Box for some food, we drove home to Arizona and got home at 11:15 at night.  All in all it was an awesome trip and it was great to celebrate our first anniversary!  We were tired when we got home and after getting ready for bed, I went straight to sleep!

Happy Anniversary Kristen!  I love you! J