ARCHIVE: California Update

*** This entry was originally posted to LiveJournal July 16, 2007 ***


Pretty soon I will have been back from California for a week. It's about time I blogged about it, huh?

It was a great trip. It really was. Makes me wonder why I've gone my entire working career without taking a proper vacation. Even this, being a family visit, was a bit different from a full-on, regular vacation. But it was closer than I've done before. The last time I went anywhere for a week away from work was the week of Easter 2004, for my trip to Atlanta. And that, for myriad reasons, was definitely no vacation.

Since it was Lilly's first time on an airplane, I really didn't know what to expect. She LOVED IT. Now I know--next time, book her in the window seat rather than in the middle seat. She thoroughly enjoyed the entire trip, actually, and did perfectly fine through the airports, the plane, all the crowded locales we visited, and everything. She was like a little travel pro.

The first day we visited the San Diego Maritime Museum, which consists of five ships berthed at the harbor and open for tours. Sadly, I didn't know we were going to do that--I thought we were just going to have lunch--so I left my camera in the car and didn't get any photos of these extraordinary vessels. Lunch, by the way, was good. I ate thresher shark, simply because I never had. It was very tasty. Anyway, the vessels available for tour were:

- The Star of India, a large cast iron hulled commercial sailing vessel. She was relatively spacious and there was a spectacular view of the harbor from her deck.

- The Surprise, a smaller wooden sailing ship which is the one they used in shooting the film Master and Commander. They had people dressed in pirate regalia on board and they offered Lilly a place in their crew. I think she took them seriously. It reminded me of the time my mom got my brother and me these very official-looking certificates commissioning us into Starfleet aboard the Enterprise. I got terribly upset because I thought I was actually going to have to ship off to space.

- The B-39, a "Foxtrot" class Soviet diesel submarine. Fascinating, but holy crap how they ever got 78 men in that tin can for months at a time I have no idea. Not to mention how they could ever have gotten through all the tiny, raised circular watertight doors between compartments in the terrible hurry that you just KNOW they had to be in a lot. It was interesting how every bit of available space, including the toilet, was crammed with controls and valves and such. It was also amazing to consider how they fed 78 men from a galley in which I couldn't stand up straight and could barely turn around.

- A steam liner, resembling a Mississippi river boat, whose name I can't recall. She was chock full of displays of model ships (amazing, these) and touring her engine room was pretty cool. Beyond that and considering the huge gift shop in her bow, it hardly seemed like being on a ship at all.

- A wooden luxury yacht probably dating to the 20's or so. I don't recall her name either. She was obviously far smaller than the other ships (though obviously far more spacious and richly-appointed than was the sub), but it was still pretty cool.

There was also a small launch called the Pilot which could take you out on a tour of the harbor, but we didn't do that. After that we went back to the house and relaxed. They have a pool that is 40 feet long and a constant shallow depth. We thought Lilly could stand up in it, but it was deeper than Mom thought--the depth is 3'7" and Lilly's right about 4'. So it would have been up to her eyebrows and she wasn't comfortable with that. So she treated their spa like her own little mini-pool, and spent every spare moment the rest of the week splashing and playing in there. They ended up wrestling with the chemistry in the regular pool all the rest of the week so it wouldn't have been available anyway.

The second day we went to Legoland. This visit was characterized by long, very slow lines and rides that broke down. Still, Lilly enjoyed the rides she did get to go on and the areas in which they recreated cities and fine art out of Legos were VERY cool. That was by far the payoff of the visit there for me. They did some truly astounding things there out of little interlocking colored bricks.

The third day was Sea World. John had an injury on his foot and Mom doesn't like to drive in San Diego, so I got to drive John's Cadillac down there (no pressure or anything). This was very cool, and their lines--even for the dolphin feeding--were much smoother and faster-moving. There are lots of opportunities there for interacting with the animals (even if it is just over food), which is great. We didn't watch a Shamu show, but that's fine with me because I'd much rather see sea mammals doing their own thing than doing their human-taught tricks anyway. Lilly enjoyed the Wild Arctic motion-simulation ride that I remembered from my last trip there.

By the fourth day we were all exhausted, so we took it much easier. This was when we took Lilly to Oceanside beach, just about six miles from Mom's house. We took a picnic lunch (Lilly made everyone's sandwiches to custom order) and just hung out there. Lilly doesn't swim yet and I've never learned, so we only went out far enough to let the surf wash over our legs so she could get the feel for that. She spent a LOT of time digging in the sand. She collected a few tiny shrimpy/lobstery creatures which she said she was going to turn loose the next day, but as I feared they didn't even last that long. I got sunburned feet. Yay. As I write this they're peeling. Yay again.

Next day was the San Diego Zoo. Once again, I drove the Caddy into town for that. We used the navigation system, which was fun. Parking was much better at the zoo than it had been at Sea World. At least, once we got through the section right past the gate where they brought about six lanes down into one without clear markers or anyone to direct traffic. That is one big zoo. I knew that, of course, but I got a big reminder. We were there all afternoon and didn't see nearly all of it. We planned out a way to see mostly the animals that we don't have here at our zoo. I like lions (obviously) and elephants and such, but I can see those pretty much anytime. We did not, however, see the giant pandas. That line was very long and did not appear to be moving at all. After Legoland, we'd all had our fill of long and slow lines. We did see some awfully cool stuff, though. I really dig the higher primates--gorillas and bonobos and such.

The day after that we took it even easier. The only excursion we really made was back to the beach so Lilly could visit the gift shops and pick up souvenirs for her extensive list.

The following day was dominated by the trip back to San Diego for the airport. John did drive for that one. Lilly stayed awake for the entire plane ride back, even though we didn't arrive in Indy until 12:50 AM local time. I'm so glad I took the next day off work too. I slept a LOT and didn't do diddly.

In addition to all the running around we did, I still managed to really relax and get some good reading and thinking in. AND some good time with Mom, which was also nice. When I'm farther along in the book I started reading out there, I'll share some of the insights I'm getting through it on here.

So yeah, good trip. I'm already wondering where Catherine and I could perhaps plan to go next summer.