Saturday -the San Diego area!

Welcome to our day in San Diego!

On Saturday morning we stopped at Starbucks then hit the road. Our drive got a little slow due to an accident on I-5, but once we passed that area, it picked right up and was a nice drive! Kristen played DJ with my iPod and we chatted and listened to some tunes.

Just before getting to San Diego itself, we stopped in La Jolla. For you non-Spanish-speaking people, that's pronounced La Hoya. But, just so you know, if you type "La Hoya" in your GPS, it won't show up because that town doesn't exist. But, if you finally figure it out and type "La Jolla" in your GPS, then your handy-dandy GPS will take you right there...
It's a beautiful spot!
Doesn't it look like this picture was posed for a magazine? Nope, this cute couple was just enjoying the view on a sunny day. Perfect bench for wave-watching...

Kristen having some fun on the rocks.
Merilee checking out the ocean.


Beach beauties...

There was a little cove that the seals seemed to really enjoy. We saw a few there and you can see the people having fun watching them. Then, the man standing in the middle started swimming out towards a rock and a few of the seals followed him there and hung out on that rock. It was pretty cool to watch!


A video so you can hear the waves and see the seals. I'm sorry I can't get the salty-ocean-air smell to come through the computer!

La Jolla, California from Kari Swanson on Vimeo.

It was SUCH a beautiful area!! I'm so glad we didn't skip this part of the day!
After leaving La Jolla, we went into San Diego and made it to Old Town San Diego. I had a lot of people telling me to check this place out, and it was worth it! It had the feeling of an old town in Mexico and was full of terra cotta buildings, great little Mexican restaurants, and bright colors. We ate at the place in the picture where there was a really loud parrot sitting directly behind Kristen. It only made her jump once, so we thought that was much better than it could have been. Walking around Old Town was great, and I'd love to go back, but I think I'd plan it a bit differently. It's right in the middle of the city, not too close to the ocean, and we were there in the hottest part of the day. The almost 100 degree heat with the sun shining down on the dark pavement made for a very hot walk so we didn't stay as long as we might have normally chosen to. I better make plans to go back again!

After leaving Old Town, we crossed this beautiful blue and white bridge and made it to Coronado. What a quaint town! This was so fun to see! We parked on the street in front of this great house with lots of character...
walked along a tree-lined street with yards full of gardens...
stopped to smell a few flowers...
and ended up at the Hotel Del Coronado.
There are these little (well, not so little...) cottages/villas that make up the Beach Village. I think we should get 20 or 30 of us to all pitch in together to make it affordable, and hang out here some fun weekend. Who's with me on this idea?
If you've been following my blog for a while, you know I have a love of benches. I'm always looking around for the next great spot to grab a book and read the next couple of chapters. I think this curved bench seems like a fun place to curl up with a novel and listen to the waves in the background!
We went inside and explored a few of the overpriced shops. The big dome area of the hotel is a ballroom/banquet hall with a great ceiling. There was also a really fun, very old elevator that I didn't snap a picture of and wished I had.
We headed out to the water where this little guy had fun walking in the sand.
These taller girls had fun walking in the sand as well!
The sand had this golden sparkle to it, where you felt like you might actually get rich with some golden nuggets. We decided to snap a fun picture, but the waves kept washing up over our feet!
We finally got the picture we wanted! (it might be hard to tell, but the sand really does shimmer!)
I really love waves...
and the silhouettes of people enjoying them!
It was a lovely afternoon!
While we were at the beach, we saw two weddings take place, and saw a bridal party take pictures for a third wedding. I guess it's a popular place!
The bride was beautiful...
and we loved the idea of parasols for the bridesmaids! Very needed in the bright sun!
The short ceremony was very Christ-centered (yes, we stayed around to watch -but so did a bunch of other people!) and I love the view the guests and bridal party had for this wedding!
We left the hotel and walked towards the town of Coronado. It's a quaint town (am I using that word too much to describe our wonderful vacation?) with lots of fun little shops. We wandered in and out of many of them, then decided that we were a little hungry, but after our big lunch, not too hungry. So, it was agreed upon... ICE CREAM for dinner! Yummy!
Can you see the joy on these faces enjoying this wonderful treat?
We knew we still had a two-hour drive home, so we walked back towards our car...
saw some really great architecture...
and beautiful palm trees.
About a mile or two down the road, we found ourselves in the midst of a strange cloud. We couldn't tell if it was fog, a cloud, or maybe even looked like a sand-storm except we didn't get any sand on my car. It turned the sky an eery color and it was weird to be able to look right at the sun with this strange cloud-cover over it. Kristen snapped this great picture!
As we were driving back, we realized it would be a great sunset! So, I got off on an exit and drove towards the sunset. It turns out I wasn't the only one with that idea! We found a ton of cars all pulled over on the side of the road to watch it. Don't you think it was worth it?


Well, we hope you enjoyed getting to see our fun day! We had a blast and are so thankful we got to visit San Diego.