San Diego: Lions and tigers and... Shamu??? Oh my!

Close your eyes and imagine with me, if you will... On second thought, don't close your eyes.  That would defeat the purpose of you reading my blog.  Just follow along...

Place yourself in your bathroom.  Grab your blow dryer and point it at your face.  Put your blow dryer on high and hold it there until it gets uncomfortably hot.  Now throw a handful of sand in your face and imagine that you are surrounded with a lovely, well, not so lovely, hue of boring brown.  Brown sand.  Brown plants.  Brown hills.  Welcome to Fort Irwin.

Now, in this little mind journey, let's relocate ourselves.  Imagine: beautiful blue sky, massive palm trees, beaches, surfers, dogs frolicking in the waves, people milling around eating ice cream.  It's a perfect, balmy 85 degrees and when it gets just a little too warm, a cool breeze caresses your face and you sigh happily.  Hello, San Diego!  Practically Paradise, right???


Last week, after we had finally made our way to Irwin, our first order of business was to check out the housing situation.  We looked at eight pretty horrible apartments that were last updated in the late 1980s, had decided that two weren't so terrible and then were blessed with a Saint at the Housing Office who gave us the inside scoop on a townhouse that wouldn't be ready for a few weeks.  It didn't take us long to figure out that this place was worth the wait.  

With our housing settled, my baby doctor appointment finally made, and nothing to do for another week, Joe and I decided that there was no point in hanging out and melting in the desert.  It was time for our first California adventure!  We were off to San Diego.

I will be honest and say that out of all of the places that I have wanted to travel to, California was no where on that list.  With that said, San Diego has completely changed my viewpoint of this chilled out state. 

We loved it.  I'm not sure if it was the stark difference from Irwin or the fact that there was so much to do but hands down, we give this cool city 5 stars. 

Since we are traveling while I am pregnant, there is a need for us to find things that I can actually DO.  As much as I'd love to hang out with my husband, getting crazy and checking out the nightlife, that just isn't possible at the moment.  Instead, we filled our days with visiting beaches (there was a very sweet dog beach that we went to and I'm sure it was the best day of Dobby's life), eating yummy fish tacos (these were surprisingly everywhere), touring Sea World (the sea lions are by far my favorite), the San Diego Zoo (the coolest zoo that I have ever been to), and the U.S.S. Midway (eh... that one was okay).  All in all, another perfect little getaway to add to the many adventures that we have had over the past couple of months.

 

As much as we have enjoyed our vagabond life, I cannot begin to express how ready we are for a bit of normalcy again. I am done with living in a 14 foot camper, in hotels, out of suitcases and backpacks and squeezed in the middle of my hubs and pups. I can't wait to have a kitchen and a bathroom of my own and having my shampoo and conditioner conveniently placed in the shower and not having to make sure I have all of my toiletries in my backpack before making a trek to the nearest shower. Don't get me wrong, I feel so blessed for these adventures... it's just time. :) 9 more days.....