As summer is almost over, I figured I should write the essay that all teachers have their students write when they get back to school….”How I Spent My Summer Vacation”.  I guess I have filled you in on some of our summer vacation adventures but I know you are dying to hear the rest.

After we spent some quality time with the kids, we thought we would give them a break and go pester Gary’s brother for a while.  He lives in Sunny California and he just got his pool all redone.  Nothing better than beach noodles in a pool!  We are staying there for 3 ½ weeks, I hope he still love us by the time we leave :).

So while Smokey was still at summer camp visiting his big brother

Smokie helping brother put away his groceries

we hopped on a plane and flew to San Diego.  We arrived at the airport

Here is that guy again 🙂

to nice sunny skies and perfect weather, because it is always paradise in San Diego :). After we settled in to our new accommodations, we decided to do some sight-seeing.  One of the first places we visited was, what else, a marina!

San Diego Marina

There are a lot more sail boats in San Diego because everything is so far away and it is cheaper to sail than to power boat.  See the Nordhavn?  Second boat back.  Ooooooooh, pretty!  Of course there were some really big boats there too

Really Big Boat

And wouldn’t you know it, another Navigator

Navigator

Not as pretty as ours, of course ;).  After spending quite a while there looking at all the pretty boats we decided we better head back to Gary’s brothers house.  While there, I spotted these bugs

Strange Bugs

There were a bunch of them, always one big one and one little one.  So my mind begins to wonder……is the little bug hurt and the big bug is giving him a tow?  Was the big bug pooping out the little bug?  Were the two bugs doing the nasty deed?  So many questions and no answers.  Any Entomologist out there?

The next dawned another beautiful day.  We decided to do something different.  Where did we go you ask.  Down by the water of course!

Fast Boat

Slow boat

Tour boat

No Body Loves Me Anymore boat

They have free anchorages in this particular section.  Unfortunately, it is filled with quite a few boats that look abandoned or like the grapes of wrath.

Grapes of Wrath

The next day we decided to head down to the swanker part of town, LaJolla beach.  The homes down there are very impressive and so are the price tags.  The city has put in very nice sidewalks along the shore

Nice sidewalk

and while we were walking along, I saw this seal trying to get up on this huge rock

Heading for the rock

Just waiting for the big wave

Whee! Got one!

Almost there

Made it! King of the Rock!

There were a lot of people there too.

People

OK, this picture didn’t look like a lot of people but we were fighting them on the sidewalks. We had decided to go here during the week to avoid the crowds.  But we found just a crap load of people every where we went.  Why are there so many people crowding us?  Don’t these people have jobs?  Oh yah, it’s summer time.  We had to keep reminding ourselves that it was summer and not winter.  Gives you a whole new perspective when you are driving around trying to find a parking spot at the beach and you end up leaving cause you can’t find anything.  The last time we were here in the summer was back in 1981.  At that time we were looking for old cars to buy and drive back, not for some fun at the beach.  Wait a minute, did I just say 1981?  Holy hoot!  That was before the kids were born.  Man, now I’m feeling old :).  Well, we still enjoyed ourselves.

Have you ever heard about that Fung Sway thing with the rocks where people pile rocks on top of each other?  Well they are even doing it here in San Diego

Rock Balancing

Here is a better example,

Much better example

This one kinda puts the other one to shame doesn’t it :).  That’s OK kid, you keep practicing and you’ll get as good as this guy ;).

We saw some other interesting things down by the water.  See that?

Big Honkin Norfolk

That is a Norfolk Pine, pretty cool huh?  We used to have one of these in our dining room. Of course you couldn’t walk under it like these people are, but ours was pretty big too.  See this tree?

Tree????

It’s really a pole covered with fake branches.  Kind of like a fake Christmas tree.  Those Californians are so tricky!

Well, after bugging Gary’s brother for a few weeks we decided we better give him a break before he threw us out in the street.  We rented a car and went to the Phoenix area to visit a few friends of ours that were living year round in Arizona.  Those brave people.  How do they stand the heat?  Well I guess we’ll find out because the temperatures are scheduled to be between 108° and 112°, I hope I don’t melt.