More About San Diego

We went to La Jolla Cove and watched the seals,  

or are they seal lions?
 

We love all the Suessian plant life in 

San Diego.

 

Back in the day, this lifeguard tower at the Cove 

didn't have any windows or a door.  Why is that

significant?  You'll have to email me.

Here's a peek at the Spanish Village Art Center 

located near Balboa Park.  A bunch of artists 

have their studios here.  I love the painted tiles!

I want to start a village like this in Nashville.

Do you think it would fly?

This is just a fun bench at the Art Village.  

It looks like they cut the footboard of a bed

in half and used it for the arms.  The back

of the bench is obviously the headboard.  

Clever!

Here are some hydrangeas at the Art Village.  

I want some blueish purplish hydrangeas.

And I want them now!

Here's a picture of Howard taking pictures at Balboa 

Park.  Later I'll post some of his pictures, they turned out

really good.  He's becoming quite the photographer.

Here's a fun statue I stumbled upon.

The USS Midway is in the background.

This statue is HUGE!

I went back to Old Town again with a friend.  

We went to Bazaar del Mundo, a collection

of very cute Mexicany shops and restaurants. 

I want some steps like these somewhere on my 

property in Nashville!  Do you think they'll

fit in with all the antebellum architecture?

The USS Midway

When we were in San Diego we got to explore the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier turned museum.  She (obviously feminine) was completed in 1945 and turned into a museum in 2004.  It's overwhelming to think of the things she's seen and experienced in her 66 years.

Up until our Midway adventure, the biggest water vessel I'd ever been on was maybe the ferryboat at Disneyland.  Howard had been on the Constellation for his Eagle Scout celebration.

It was hard to fathom that I was on a ship as I walked up and down the 4-acre plane-filled deck.  Howard loved looking at and learning about the planes.

My favorite part was learning about what daily life must have been like for the 4,500 passengers.  I loved seeing their living quarters (squishy for the enlisted men!), the barber shops, the brig, the mess halls, the kitchens, the meeting rooms, the doctors' and dentists' offices, etc.

The kitchen was particularly fascinating to me, especially since my recent experience as girls' camp cook.  Check out these appliances!

These electric pots might have helped with
the marinated chicken.

We definitely needed this for
banana pudding day!

These recipes for 100 would have been incredibly useful!

Check out the quantities listed and then multiply by 45

to feed 4,500 passengers.  Inconceivable!

As I write this post, I'm wishing that I had taken more pictures of all the rooms we saw.

Me, in the brig - for not taking enough pictures.

These are the anchor chains of the Midway.

I borrowed this guy's picture.

Each link of the anchor chain weighs 130 pounds!
This is my picture and my foot.

Here's the machine shop.  This is where my dad

would've worked had he been on the Midway.

There were lots of rooms with lots of...

knobs and buttons and switches.  Oh my!

Painted gray wires lined all the passageway ceilings.

I can't even begin to imagine how they kept track of 

all of them and what they were connected to!

I didn't take a picture of the enlisted men's itty bitty 
living space (doh!), so I borrowed one from this guy.

Howard and I spent 4-5 hours touring the USS Midway and could've stayed longer if closing time hadn't crept up on us so quickly.  It was definitely worth the $18 (per person) admission fee.

Being Tourists in our Hometown

We just got back from being tourists in our hometown of San Diego, staying in hotels and eating out.  I was born and raised in San Diego.  Howard was mostly raised there and coincidentally was born in the same hospital as me - only a few years later.  I'm a cradle robber!  But, I digress.  The last of our immediate families left San Diego about two years ago.  There are no more spare bedrooms or couches to sleep on and no more home-cooked meals. 

At first we stayed on Coronado Island (which is really a peninsula), where Howard and I spent a lot of time when we were dating.  Back in the day he rented a (maybe) 500 square foot apartment - the rent was at least $1 per square foot.  Whenever we visit San Diego, we always have to drive past his old bachelor pad and pay our respects.  This time we noticed that a dinky two-bedroom in the same complex was available for a mere $1750!  (A few days later we noticed the sign was already gone.)

 

Our first meal on the island.  Those waffles were amazing!

 

I miraculously made a healthy breakfast choice,

but secretly coveted Howard's waffles the whole time.

The new and improved Mormon Battalion Center.

We visited the Mormon Battalion Center in Old Town.  I just love what they've done with the place.  It's like Disneyland - minus the long lines and nausea.  And it's free!  The volunteers dress in period clothing and they interact with talking portraits.  There are lots of hands-on activities and interesting artifacts and reproductions housed in inspiring architecture and decor. 

We cruised around Old Town and soaked up some local color.  I was telling a friend, "It's so colorful here!"  She told me that I said the same thing when we were there a few years ago visiting from Boston.

 

Dorothy, you're not in Nashville anymore!

 

I love all the funky succulent plants!

Check out this colorful taco combo. ¡Delicioso!

I'm not really sure of the relevance of having this shop

in Old Town, but it's Howard's kind of shop!

Holes

Have you ever read the book Holes by Louis Sachar?  It's such a clever book full of unexpected twists and turns.  I loved it so much that I read it in Spanish too.  But, I digress.

Lately I've been digging a lot of holes in the backyard.  I've been waiting to do this for YEARS!  It all started when I taught 3rd grade in National City, California.  Friends, parents and students helped me dig a garden in the grass in front of my classroom - with permission of course.  

My students and I learned lots of things about gardening and composting and recycling.  I immediately became obsessed with recycling, but had to wait a looooong time to have my own yard where I could garden and bury biodegradable stuff.

This is a pile of some of the many 'treasures' that the builders buried in the backyard instead of hauling them away.

Making fruit salad with pineapple and watermelon always creates a huge amount of compost.

I'm pretty sure that the earthworms loved this meal!

Pyros in the Hood

Last night we saw many of our neighbors setting up their lawn chairs on the sidewalk, some of them at the corner of our lot.  Howard said, "Could it be that we're so lucky to have a good view of the fireworks right from our house?"  

It turns out that we had front row seats to an amazing show put on by the neighbor across the street and four houses down.  His show went on for over an hour!  And we're not talking sparklers and other wimpy pyrotechnics.  We're talking seriously big fireworks that produce oohs and aahs and cause hearing loss.  We breathed the smoke of these fireworks and felt their shrapnel falling out of the sky.

Here's a picture of the neighbor's trash this morning.  This pile was about four to five feet high, six to seven feet wide, and three feet deep.

I couldn't find his exact fireworks, but to get an idea of what he might have spent on these go here.  It was crazy!