Day 252-259: Mom and Dad are here!

The past few days my parents have been visiting in San Diego, and it's been a lot of fun. I hate having to balance working and spending time with family. I'm dealing with a lot of guilt (which is ridiculous, since I haven't actually seen my parents in almost a year now), but I'm working through it.

First stop on the list of things to do was visit the beach. We opted for La Jolla cove, since it was the only place we could find parking.

I normally avoid taking pictures of people I don't know, because it makes me look like a total weirdo. Since I was far away for the shot of this couple, I figured that it didn't count.

I don't think I'll ever get tired of the ocean.

I took my parents to the cove in La Jolla where seals like to hang out. We were able to get relatively close to them without disturbing them too much.

The seals were colorful little fellas. Okay, actually, the adult seals were large and in charge.

Hello, little baby seal! The wound on his neck breaks my heart.

Dad and his old hat.

The seals were everywhere! Oh boy, did they have personality. They were sleeping, yes, but while they were dreaming they would fidget, scratch, stretch and be cranky with one another. This doesn't remind me of my relationship with Tony one bit. No siree.

Gotcha, Dad.

Finally, I got a smile out of Tony!

The sun set on Coronado, and I became incapable of using my camera :(.

The cactus garden in Balboa Park is a very lovely, and very prickly place.

We can never have too many pictures of Tones, even if he is cranky in most of them.

Yeowch.

This barrel shaped cactus is definitely one of my favorites in the garden. It's just so...round.

Itty bitty bee pollenatin' the cactus.

Macro in-spek-shun.

Sigh. This picture makes my knees a bit wobbly.

Dad's a very curious person. Curiosity does not equal common sense.

I love the little lizards all around California. They are, however, in serious need of a mani-pedi.

Can you believe they've been married for 40 years?!? That's almost double my lifetime. Crazy!

Tony took this photo of a lizard, and I think it's really outstanding. Sometimes my little green jealousy alter-ego likes to rear its ugly head and get cranky about who's the better photographer. Let's go ahead and keep our opinions to ourselves, comprende?

After the cactus garden we went to the rose garden right next door. My momma said that this picture looked like it could go in a magazine. Who am I to turn down flattery, or a second opinion, for that matter?

This is my favorite color rose. Ever.

My mom and I had a little photo shoot in the arboretum of the rose garden. Turns out neither one of us is photogenic. Great.

This picture sums up my Dad very well.

This plant is crazy, it looks like it belongs in the ocean instead of the desert!

Here's a close up of the octopus plant. Further evidence for my theory that this plant actually belongs under the sea.