San Diego Recap

I wanted to post a quick recap about D and my first trip sans baby. The in-laws had wanted to gift us with a little honeymoon after our wedding (going on 2 years ago- wowsa!), but at the time we had to pack up a Uhaul and forgo any vacations until after we had gotten settled in Louisiana and figured out D's schedule. For those of you non-military folks, unfortunately he doesn't have the luxury of just "taking off" work. I mean, don't get me wrong, he accrues leave and all that jazz, but there is definitely an unspoken rule about what you can and can't take leave for and with him just really starting his career after being in various Officer's courses and Ranger School for most of the previous year, let's just say he wasn't ready to ask for a vacation. This still annoys me every time we want to do something that requires he take off. Ugh.

Anyways.

Long story short, we got pregnant, Grace was born and life has been busy since then. Earlier this year D's parents reminded us about their offer and then added that they would fly to us and watch G while we took the trip. After some back and forth with D we picked a location, had things scheduled in conjunction with his 2 week Army block leave (a perk!) and off we went. We chose San Diego because frankly we are OVER the heat, but wanted to go somewhere that we could spend most of our time outside. It was the perfect location. After a rough start (a big middle finger to American Airlines) we arrived at our gorgeous hotel, right on the water.

This Dole boat is not our hotel. Ha! There was a dock with a giant ship behind our hotel to the left. It was kind of cool to see it loaded up and after 2 days it went back out to sea. Right behind the hotel, outside the pool area, there was a boardwalk that stretched about 4 miles to the right. We would walk or run it every day...passing docked boats, other hotels, and cute restaurant and shops. The boardwalk was the point of the pic above...

One of D's good friends lives in the area and took us to lunch for the best fish tacos in town. SO good! Then he took us on a drive to check out an amazing coastal view and some pretty incredible houses. We got out and scaled around for some pictures. I have several that turned out really cute of the two of us...that violate D's strict "don't put me the blog" policy. I tried to sweet talk him. It failed. You'd think someone on pain meds (for his shoulder surgery yesterday) would be more relaxed.

Then we headed to La Jolla beach to check out some sea lions and little shops and get ice cream, which was a regular occurrence during the trip. We indulged like it was going out of style.

See the sea lion hanging out in the picture above? What a sweet life. Sunbathing, swimming, just relaxing all the time...sigh... ;)

We HAD to check out the San Diego Zoo and it definitely did not disappoint. I'd have tons of gorgeous pictures to show you, but this is where *someone* (Hint- not me.) discovered that they had left the camera on from the day before and it died. Boo!

We are losers and checked out the USS Midway where we posed like tourists next to planes and cardboard pilots. No big deal.

From the top flight deck on the ship. Wouldn't this look cute framed in a little boy's nautical themed room?

View of some of the bay. We went to Seaport Village for a couple meals (cough-and Ben and Jerry's-cough). We also got to see one of my besties Jen and her BF who was in town for a conference the same week we were visiting! We had drinks one night, went out for dinner another night, and it was just so good to see them both. How random is it that we were both in the same place at the same time in hotels literally next door to each other? Awesome coincidence.

Jen- send me the picture you took of us so I can add it to this post! You made the blog, babe...haha! ;) Seriously...send me the pic!

Giant statue of that famous picture I'm sure everyone has seen of the Navy guy coming home and kissing his lady love. :)


The last night of our trip we went to a Padres game. Made me miss Nationals games back home! I seriously do not like watching baseball, but I love going to games! Weird, huh?

Other than those highlights we got to hit the pool, did a lot of shopping/walking around the Gaslamp District were I stumbled upon a Nordstroms, Banana Republic, and Ann Taylor Loft and played a little game I like to call "buy as much as I can in as little time as possible- aka- before the hubs gets annoyed we are in a store." Anyone else familiar with that one? :) We actually went to the movies one night and saw Horrible Bosses. It was cute and silly, I'd recommend it for a date night movie.

Our 4 day trip flew by, but I can honestly say by the last day we were both missing our little girl and ready to be home. We called to check in once or twice a day every day. It would have been more often if it were up to me, but D did a good job reigning it in to just once. I guess our first mommy-daddy trip went pretty well...but I will say it is going to be our last for awhile. I totally get that couples need time together to keep the romance alive and all that psycho babble, but I already am calling that next summer's vacation will be family style in a beach house and will include an almost 2 year old (holy cow) Grace running around on the beach. Till then we'll just have to keep up the occasional date nights and maybe plan on a 5 year anniversary trip for just the two of us.

But by then we'll probably have another little one I won't want to leave...I'm guessing it will be a vicious cycle for the next several years! Anddd with that thought the quick recap has turned into a long one...oops!

xo,
H