Day 1 we arrived in San Diego at about 10am. Dean was still getting over his cold (yich!), but managed to not be totally miserable on the flight (except that his ears refused to pop for hours after the flight). We were picked up by Dean's 2nd cousin Howard. He took us on a very brief tour of the area because the airport is right next to the dock where the cruise ships and various shops were. He showed us some of the new art that has been put on display near the dock, including this one:
We also stopped at a memorial to Bob Hope that was really interesting. Next we had brunch at a local restaurant. I had the cherry pancakes (yum!) , Dean had the blueberry pancakes, and Howard had an omelette.
Then we went to Howard's apartment (he lives downtown) and met Bernadette, his "roommate". Bernadette is actually a 60+ year old former client of Howard's and very eccentric.
Next, we went on our first attraction - Sea World! It was a lot of fun, but we were obviously in the off-season. Not only were there hardly any crowds, but there were very few shows playing. For example, Shamu, which normally runs about 10x/day in the summer, only ran twice the whole day -- once in the morning before we arrived, and once at 4:30 in the afternoon, just before closing.
The weather was absolutely fabulous. Mid 70s and clear skies. At Sea World, we saw some beautiful beluga whales, manatees, flamingos, dolphins, penguins, and lots of fish. My favorite part was the "Aquarium Del Mar," a beautiful salt-water aquarium with really brightly colored fish and coral. I got tons of great pictures. One of them was this strange creature called a Reef Stonefish:
Towards the end of the day, we saw the Shamu show, called "Believe". Basically it was about how we can do anything as long as we believe in ourselves. Yada yada. Kinda cheesy. But the show was still good. There were 3 killer whales in the show making the jumps and making splashes.
I'll have video up tomorrow. In the meantime, you can look at all the pictures from Day 1.
After we were finished with Sea World, Howard picked us up and took us back to his place. It was really nice of Howard to shuttle us around. It kept us from having to rent a car in San Diego. And it saved us about $200 to stay at his apartment instead of in a hotel. So we were willing to put up with certain inconveniences.
Like the fact that Howard wanted to cook dinner, but didn't get around to having it ready until about 9pm. That's about 4 hours later than when Dean and I usually eat! We were STARVING. But when we finally did get dinner, it was delicious. He made roasted chicken stuffed with apple and rosemary, steamed asparagus, and mashed potatoes. Yummy!
Then it was off to bed for us (stuffed to the rafters.... I'm really ornery about how much I eat before going to bed. I don't like going to bed on an empty stomach, cuz I can't sleep if I'm hungry, but neither do I like going to bed completely stuffed. Oh well!) We slept well. Or at least, I did.
No comments:
Post a Comment