Happy New Year in Southern Cal

Flying away seems to be the activity of the week. Tim & Arianna flew home on Friday from Maui. We flew home from San Diego yesterday. Katharine, Brian, and the boys fly home from Disneyland today. Today, our Timmy flies off to Japan! Arianna will fly to Japan on Wednesday. Yikes.

12/28: Before flying down to Disneyland, the boys kept busy while Daddy and Mommy packed up the MANY items received over the multiple Christmas celebrations throughout their visit to Washington. McColley continues to demonstrate a real talent for music - he knows the words to quite a few Christmas carols. When Grandma or Grandpa made a mistake singing with him, he'd say "No! Take it from the top!" Brady fit perfectly under the table!

That afternoon, Warren and I started our vacation in San Diego. Here are some of our adventures throughout the week. We stayed at the Loew's Resort on Coronado Bay and passed the Hotel del Coronado twice a day. We even had dinner there one night! Our room looked across a marina, some houseboats, and straight into Tijuana. The sun rose on our side of the hotel - it was gorgeous! It is so fun to travel over the holidays because the decorations are so great! The boats below our room were decorated to the hilt and included a musical Santa Claus. The Hotel del Coronado was outlined in white lights every night - fabulous!

12/29: We went to SeaWorld after picking up our brand new 2010 Chevy Impala, which only had 30 miles on it. We got to see the Shamu "Believe" show, view many aquatic animals, enjoy a Budweiser beer-tasting for lunch, and get completely soaked on the Atlantis roller coaster. We were front and center - a totally stupid place to sit in the winter time. I got really cold afterwards and didn't last too much longer in the park. So, in order to make up for making me SO cold (he swore we wouldn't get wet), Warren took me to dinner at the Sheerwater Restaurant in 'the Del'. Best lamb roast and root vegetables I've EVER had in my life.

 

12/30: We took a trolley trip around San Diego. It was really fun! The route was a bit delayed due to the Holiday Bowl, Balloon Parade, and Auto Show all starting. We spent a little while in Old San Diego. After the trolley trip, we got our car and went to the San Diego Zoo. Parking was the first challenge of the day! Probably should have taken the trolley. The second challenge was to find the elusive, yet beautiful, Snow Leopard. Success was achieved! The third challenge was to find a hot dog to eat. Finding ourselves starving with no dog in sight, we settled for some spicy soup. Upon exiting our snackerie, the dogs began to pop up everywhere we looked - they were in kiosks all over the park. It's sure a good thing we don't depend on our uncanny vision or sense of smell to survive...We ended the evening at Cafe Coyote in Old Town for a Mexican dinner. I was surprised to find that my preferred Mexican restaurant is still the one in our l'il ole arlington. However, we got serenaded in San Diego - not common at home!

 

Will I find him??????? Shhhhhhhhhh.........

12/31: New Year's Eve! We started the day with a gorgeous sailing trip. It was supposed to include whale watching, but as you can see, we were rather limited in that respect. However, the sailing was excellent and the trip most worthwhile. The owner is from Ballard and was excited to have Washingtonians visit - she also gave us a voucher for another trip, if we're able to come back. After a visit to the Cabrillo Monument, we drove out to Escondido to have lunch at the Stone Brewery. Quite an interesting place! When we returned to the hotel, we discovered that there was no place at the inn to eat. It was BUSY! We were fortune to find seats at the tiny bar next to where the bartender and the wait staff were gallantly trying to keep up with the demand. It was a terribly amusing place to be on New Year's Eve! We were very impressed with the efficiency, patience, and good humor of the staff.  After all the activity, we returned to our room to eat Red Velvet Cake and drink champagne. We tried to call our 29 year old daughter at 12:02 am, but neither she nor her husband's phones were taking calls...a mystery. Turns out, she was in the middle of Main Street Disneyland watching fireworks!

 

We weren't picky about the whales...'cuz this was the only one we saw. Very touchable.

 

01/01/10: New Year's Day and Katharine's birthday! We drove up to Disneyland to have breakfast at Goofy's Restaurant with our birthday girl and the entire Maguire clan. So nice to see them! After breakfast, Warren and I decided to take the hop on/hop off tour of LA. We drove through Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and everywhere in-between. Although somewhat overcast, it was a nice enough day to sit up-top for most of the ride. After our LA adventure, we had a nice dinner in Coronado at the Brigantine.

 

 

 

 My foot next to John Wayne's print - small feet for such a big man!

01/02: Time to go! What a nice vacation! We left early on Saturday morning. After stopping at Southcenter for lunch and a new haircut for me (really really really short *and my natural color), I was tired, so took a lengthy nap on the couch under my new cozy blanket/robe. When I awoke, Warren said "We're going to a movie!" We saw Sherlock Holmes, which we'd considered seeing at Graumann's in LA, and both liked it.

01/03: Sleep in, unpack, wash clothes, celebrate Roberta's belated birthday, and start to de-decorate.

01/04: Back to real life for us tomorrow. Happy New Year!