Julian, CA and Point Loma

While Tony's parents were here, we traveled around to show them some of our favorite places around the county.

Julian, California is an old prospecting town that's now famous for its apple pie (or any pie, for that matter), antique shops and local history. I've visited there a few times now, and I really enjoy all of the cute stores around the town.

I also liked these chickens. They make cooing noises instead of clucking, and are very small. I wanted to slip one in my purse and name her Francis.

We also traveled to the Cabrillo National Monument in Point Loma. I would like to reiterate how much I love the ocean.

I also really loved the succulent plants covering the cliffs. Up close, they looked like they were covered in florist's fake water.

We all had a great time basking in the sun and exploring the coves near the tidepool.

(Crab down there!)

More pictures of the Wild Animal Park to come soon!

Overdue Happiness

Sorry this took so long for me to post! I caught a nasty cold right after Valentine's day, and then I've been playing catch-up on everything that got put on the back burner.

The weekend of Valentine's day (and Tony's birthday) was absolutely wonderful. A great friend from college, Brittni, came to visit and fun ensued. You can read about her account of the weekend here. In case you were curious, Tonster bought me a dozen roses for Valentine's day :).

She gave a very thorough description of the weekend on her blog, but I'm going to give you my take as well.

First, we picked up Brittni from the airport on Saturday morning, trolled around the beach and around Balboa park for a bit, ate at a fabulous vegan restaurant, Nature's Express, and enjoyed the wonderful San Diego weather.

I then cooked for 87.5 hours. Okay, not really THAT many hours, but it sure did feel like it. It was down to the wire, people! I was sweating profusely by the time some of my small group girlfriends arrived. Attractive. They were all excited to hang out with Brittni and Tony, eat good bruschetta, eggplant parmesan, strawberry shortcake and King Cake, and play with Saffron!

Yum.

Sunday morning we went to church, and then ate far too much at the soup/salad buffet, Souplantation. Brittni then needed to run 1 kabillion miles to train for her half marathon (which is this weekend!! Hooray Brittni!). I was all "YEAH! LET'S DO THIS!!!"

1 mile later I was convinced that I was dying. The end. Brittni continued to run, while I decided to write my will in the trail dirt.

At some point we also made a little visit to La Jolla cove and the Children's Pool, where the seals were resting and playing. I wanted to hug them, and Brittni suggested that I should not. I also managed to embarrass myself by attempting to parallel park and ended up diagonal, 5 feet away from the curb with old ladies yelling directions at me. Sigh.

Brittni went to my small group with me Sunday night, which meant a lot to me. I was happy.

Monday we made a trek to Julian, CA to eat some pie, walk around, and then eat some more pie. Then we drove another 30 miles on super curvy roads (yaay) to get to the Borrego desert. We took about 15 jumping pictures, none of which were any good.

We did manage to take this beauty. Look closely at our shadow. Remind you of anything? :)

It was a spectacular weekend, and it made me want to live significantly closer to New Orleans.

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.