La Jolla Cove

On Sunday when I was telling one of my friends that I had decided to go to San Diego she asked me what fun things I was planning to do. I told her I really wanted to go to the beach and see a whale, since this is whale watching season. It seems like even though I have been to San Diego a lot in the past 6 months I haven't made it to the beach very often, so that seemed like a good goal.

Well, Monday it was rainy and cold and Tuesday it wasn't really raining but it was wet and cold. That left today for our beach excursion. The oldest daughter, the son-in-law and the grandson had been to LaJolla Cove and seen lots of seals so the youngest son wanted to go there. I thought that was as good a beach as any and so off we went.

When we got to the beach the oldest daughter did a fabulous job parallel parking on Coast Blvd. (even though she swore she couldn't do it and got a little freaked out) and we were off to see some sea life.

We watched this group of seals and sea lions from the cliff above the Children's Pool for a while.


It was fun to watch them flop through the sand, swim in the surf and to see the mamas taking such good care of their babies.

Then we decided to move on and see what else we could find. We saw a beach with a few animals and people up quite close to them so we headed down the stairs for a gander.

The seals and sea lions seemed completely at ease with us checking them out. We got close enough to take a couple of pictures and then moved up the beach to let the grandson play with his sand toys.



and to take a few pictures of ourselves.

While we enjoyed the beach, people continued to move up close and watch the seals and sea lions. All of the sudden we heard a voice from the cliff above us, "Ladies and Gentlemen! Please move away from the seals.You are too close. Please move away from the animals."

Everyone looked around to see who was speaking. When it was discovered that the spokesperson was just a regular lady and not someone in authority, everyone kind of just went back to what they were doing.

Apparently, this was not the desired response and the woman decided to get closer to the offenders. She climbed the fence and rushed out to the edge of the cliff above the animals and once again began loudly urging the people to leave. She yelled, she cussed, she stomped her feet and ranted. I thought she was pretty scary and so did the sea lions and seals because all of the sudden they began to look concerned and agitated where before they were quite peaceful. The woman continued to carry on and other people decided to yell back at her. She took pictures of the "criminals" and they took pictures of her. She never aimed her camera as far over as we were, so apparently we weren't on her list of "stupid, idiotic, humans".

I thought it was interesting that this individual sincerely cared about the wildlife and really wanted them to be safe, but in her zealous display she probably caused more harm than good. The mommy seals only felt endangered after she appeared on the scene.

Sometimes I think I do the same thing. With the best of intentions, I rush in and try to enforce my will on a situation and often I end up making things worse. Maybe I can remember this experience next time I want to jump in and "fix" something. Evaluate if it really needs to be fixed and if it does, thoughtfully figure out the best way to handle it, hopefully without raising my voice.

When the excitement died down we climbed back up the stairs and headed over to La Jolla Cove. On the way we saw lots of ground squirrels eating the flowers. They were pretty cute.

The grandson liked to tell them "GRR..." and watch them run. He thought it was so fun until one of them ran down the edge of the cliff out of sight. Then he was really worried because he thought it had "falled down" into the water.

After we strolled through Scripps Park we stopped to watch a big group of seals and sea lions sunning on the cliffs above the cove. As the tide rolled in the waves would come up and splash over them, but they didn't seem to be bothered. We decided these were the anti social animals of the area because their cliffs were pretty inaccessible to the humans.

La Jolla Cove has an underwater ecological area with artificial reefs so apparently it is popular with scuba divers. It was interesting to watch people swim out into the cold ocean to explore. Most of them were clad in wet suits, but one brave soul was wearing nothing but a speedo. Scary!

The grandson got kind of bored of watching the sea life and decided to try his hand at street entertainment. Here he is playing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" on the bench and singing along.

I found him entertaining even if no one else did.

It was a beautiful afternoon and a fun way to end this trip to San Diego.

Can't wait to come back again. Maybe next time I will actually see a whale.

Beach Bummed

Well, the decision was made today that there aren't enough women available and able to go to the beach this year for "our annual break from reality" to make it financially feasible, so our reservation has been cancelled and there will be no Beach Trip 2009. I am truly bummed, but life goes on. Even though I am sad about the end of a fun thing, I am even happier that I got to be included in this awesome activity for the past two years and that I got to share it with each of my daughters. We all have some wonderful memories of our time at the beach together.

Beach???

For the past two years I have spent a week at the beach in June with a few other women. The first year I took my oldest daughter and last year my younger daughter accompanied me. At the end of last year's trip we were informed that the condo that we have stayed in was going to be torn down and replaced with a time share hotel and we would need to find a new place to stay. We were all very heartbroken.

For the past couple of weeks I have heard rumors that the condo is in fact still standing and that a beach trip was being planned. Even though I hadn't been invited I was feeling sad that I had my oldest son's wedding scheduled during "Beach Week" and I wouldn't be able to attend. Today I received a message on my answering machine that the beach trip is on and taking place a week earlier this year (June 6-June 13) and that I am invited to join the fun if I am interested.

Interested??? Why of course I am!

Do you think it's selfish and unrealistic to consider going to the beach the week before my son's wedding? The daughter who's turn it is this year to go thinks it's a marvelous idea. I'm still tossing it back and forth. Decisions, Decisions.

Real or Man-made?

I found this interesting item
on one of my walks along the beach
when I was there this summer.


I find it really intriguing.
I have it sitting by my computer
and look at it everyday.
The base is made of sand
with lots of tiny holes
and seashells.

Some days I marvel at how nature
could create something so unique,
the "tree" is even "decorated".
Then other days I think
that some beach bum
fashioned this nick-knack
for me to discover.

I want to hear your opinion -
Real or Man-made???

As fun as the beach?

I just spent approximately what it cost me to go to the beach for a week at my friendly, neighborhood dentist office getting a new crown on my tooth. I'm glad I have good insurance or it would have cost me a lot more! After noting this similarity between the two experiences, I decided to think of some other ways they compare. Chalk this contemplation up to life being pretty boring sitting in a dentist chair for 2 hours.

First of all, I fit about as well in a dentist chair as I fit in a beach chair, however dentist chairs are easier to get out of and they move up and down and recline. Beach chairs can also recline, sometimes by choice and sometimes because of faulty construction.

Both experiences include a bright light shining over my head. At the beach, the light wasn't always visible and it wasn't adjustable. The dentist office light was plenty visible and can be adjusted although it seems that the preferred adjustment is "shining directly in the patients eyes". I think it is actually suppose to shine in my mouth, but my mouth and my eyes must be pretty close together. A plus at the dentist office is that I don't get sunburned if I forget to wear my sun screen, but I did get to see the dental assistant wearing some funky looking "sun" glasses while she blasted ultra violet rays into my mouth at one point.

I think I appreciate the apparel at the dentist to that at the beach. The dental dress code is all about covering up, complete with face mask and latex gloves. The dress code at the beach is usually little more than the equivalent of a face mask and a couple of gloves, strategically placed.

Getting wet is included in both activities and can be unexpected in both cases. While my feet were usually the victims at the beach, my face was definitely the victim at the dentist. The crashing sound of the waves could very easily be compared to the surging sound of water being blasted into my mouth, and they are both a lot louder than I think they should be and tend to easily escape their boundaries.

I think those are most of the comparisons that I came up with. As the actual dental work progressed it became a lot more easily compared to demolition and construction than to a day on the beach. I would most definitely recommend spending your $275 on the week long vacation and not the two hour torture if at all possible.

Unwanted beach souvenir

I came home from the beach with one souvenir that I really didn't want. On the up and down rollercoaster of weight loss in my life it seems like lately there has been a lot more up than down. I have been telling myself that there is a certain weight that I refuse to weigh more than ever again and I have managed to stay under it for quite a while. Well, when I weighed myself this morning all those miniature candy bars, delicious desserts and fabulous meals that I so enjoyed this past week didn't seem so enjoyable any more. There was that number on the scale that I swore would never appear again! I was not really shocked but definitely not happy. I wish food was not such a big issue in my life and that I could seem to exercise more self control, or maybe just exercise, but wishing really isn't going to change anything. I need to once again recommit to making some much needed changes. Why, oh why, do our choices always catch up with us??

One of my good friends shared this picture with me of the CORRECT WAY TO WEIGH OURSELVES. It gave me a good laugh. Maybe this is the actual problem. I am not overweight. I was just never taught the right way to use a scale. Don't I wish?!

Side trip to Mexico - almost

Heading home to Arizona we had 5 people in one of the ladies Nissan truck. The youngest daughter suffers from car sickness so she ended up in the front passenger seat - the navigator spot. After filling the truck up with gas at $4.49 a gallon we were all a little sticker shocked and apparently not thinking as clearly as we normally would have. We headed down the road making all the right turns, or so we thought. We were all talking and/or reading and traveling along at a steady pace. On the freeway they have signs that tell you how many minutes it will take you to get to certain locations. We passed one that said 17 minutes to the Mexican border. I commented on how strange it was to be so close to a foreign country and how weird that seemed to me since I have never been to Mexico. It was hard for me to believe it was just down the road. Well, low and behold, about 17 minutes later guess what wasn't nearly as far down the road as it should have been? We noticed the international border signs at about the same time the navigator pointed out the LAST US EXIT rapidly approaching on our far right. With some quick and "completely safe and legal" maneuvering on our driver's part we were able to reach the exit and be saved from having to wait in a very long line just to explain that all we really wanted to do was get to Arizona and could we please just turn around. I wanted to get out and take a picture of the Mexican flag waving in front of us, but our driver felt that we had already spent enough time on our sight seeing adventure and wouldn't even stop, so this picture will have to suffice. This is pretty much what it looked like. After we got headed in the right direction and were finally on the road we really wanted to be on we began to wonder what we were thinking. We probably could have found the daughter a very willing husband there at the border and taken him home with us right then. We considered turning around and going back, but for only a second. The rest of the trip seemed highly uneventful after our exciting beginning and with only about 105 potty stops, give or take 100, we arrived back home to the blistering heat of Tempe, AZ. I would say that I am already looking forward to next year's trip, but who knows what next year will bring?

Hurry up and wait

My daughter came up with the title for this blog when we rushed to get up and packed and every thing loaded in the vehicles for the trip back to Arizona and then all sat and waited when we found out that one of the cars had a flat tire. It took a while for a decision to be made about the best course of action, but eventually AAA arrived and the problem was taken care of. Making group decisions seemed to be one of the downfalls of this trip to the beach. One of the ladies said it was kindof like trying to herd cats and I think that creates a very accurate picture. When you get a lot of very capable mothers together, who are use to making most of the decisions in their lives, you get a lot of opinions and they aren't all usually in accordance with the other. I like to call it "too many chiefs and not enough indians", but that probably would be frowned upon as not being politically correct. My daughter felt like she had 10 moms at times on this vacation, but I think we all still managed to have a great time and are sorry to see it end.

Ocean view?

This house is just down the street from where we stay in Carlsbad and across the street from the beach. We have walked or driven by it numerous times this week. What I wonder is why do people go to the trouble of building a house with huge, beautiful windows to take advantage of their ocean view and then NEVER open the blinds? Perhaps this is a second home and the owners weren't there this week. I hope so because otherwise it is a waste of a lot of windex.

All good things must come to an end

Well, I am sad. Very, very sad. Not just because today is the last day of my vacation at the beach with my friends, even though that is enough reason to be sad. The even sadder part is that we found out that the condo we are staying in is scheduled to be demolished and a hotel is going to be built in its place. Before next year at this time our "beach bunny bugalow" will be no more. I have only come here for 2 years and this news breaks my heart, but some of these women have been staying here for 13 years and I can't imagine how they must feel. I hate "progress". Especially when it includes tearing down a pefectly good building to build another one in its place.
We're looking for a new place to call home. Anybody know of any nice, cheap oceanfront property for rent?

Thursday night at the San Diego Temple

I love the temple. I love the way I feel when I attend the temple. When I sit in the celestial room it is much easier for me to see myself the way my Heavenly Father sees me. I feel His love for me there better than any where else in the world. Tonight a few of us had the opportunity to attend a session at the San Diego Temple. It was a small session and we felt very needed there. I have always thought that this temple is one of the most beautiful. It looks like something you would see in your dreams. Now I can say I have been inside this ediface and it is as beautiful on the inside as on the outside. The celestial room is majestic, high ceilings and gorgeous fixtures and the same wonderful feeling that can be found in all the temple celestial rooms. There is an atrium at the top of the temple where you can stand and look up and see all the surrounding spires of the temple through the windows. I could even gaze up and see the moon from one spot. It was wonderful! The only thing I didn't love about this temple were all the stairs. Stairs everywhere! However, even they added to the beauty of the whole experience. They looked so elegant.

The daughter's dolphin calling ability

There are not a lot of rules that we have at the beach, but there are a few. One of them is that if anyone spots a dolphin out in the ocean from our balcony that they inform everyone else, unless of course everyone else is asleep. I enjoy going out in the early morning and watching the waves, from the deck, while I read my book and have spotted a few groups of dolphins, but I haven't shared the experience because I have been the only one up. My daughter doesn't think this is fair, but if I tried to get her up and outside, by the time she got there the dolphins would be gone anyway. This afternoon I was typing recipes into the computer and she was watching TV. One of the other ladies came and stood by her, looking out the sliding door and said to my daughter, "Can you please tell a dolphin to swim past right now so I can see one before we have to go home." Being the accommodating child that she is she said, "Dolphin, swim past right now so Sis. ____ can see you." Sis. _____ gazed out the window for less than a minute before she said, "Look, there's a dolphin." At the same time, 2 other ladies who were sunning on the deck turned around and said, "Do you see that dolphin?" We all enjoyed watching it jump through the waves for a couple of minutes before it was gone. I never knew the daughter had such a talent!

Not just all fun and games

Lest you all think that I'm just spending all my time this week basking in the sun I will share with you some of my less fun activities. I have appointed myself the official trash woman of the group. I carry the full bag down the stairs and to the dumpster on a pretty regular basis. I don't want you to think that I am too noble though. I have an ulterior motive. We have a big bowl full of miniature candy bars sitting on the counter. Every time I take the trash out I reward myself with a candy bar. I wish that was the only time I stuck my hand in that bowl! I also have another job that I am responsible for. Perhaps all of you middle age women can relate with me when I say that sometimes getting my bathroom needs met on a vacation is difficult. The other morning I was very grateful to finally get some much needed relief. However, when I flushed the toilet things didn't go so well. No problem, I thought, there's a plunger right here. Well,I plunged and flushed and pailed and plunged and flushed until I was sure there was a line outside the door waiting for the bathroom. Finally I had to admit defeat and share my problem. The plumbers, apparently in CA they travel in teams, arrived pretty quickly and dispatched the plug along with some unsolicited advice on what to flush and what not to. What I flushed definitely needed to be flushed. The toilet must hate me for the pain I caused it because it works fine for everyone else, but when I use it it plugs up every time! And yes, I do know how much toilet paper to use. The plunger and I are developing a very close relationship. Don't tell my hubby. Then today the whole lid just jumped off the toilet when I got close to it. I think it has it in for me.


From the picture you can see that the trash needs taken out. It's candy bar time!

At the beach a pair of us are responsible to cook and clean up one night while we are here. Tonight was our night. We decided to make Pima Tacos. The aunties would have been proud of my daughter. She did an amazing job. I was in charge of the Fruit Pizza which turned out pretty darn good as well. I love only having to cook once this whole week. What a vacation!


Perhaps we should have put an elastic in the cook's hair before she started. What do you think?

Death defying feats

I am not a risk taker. I like my very peaceful, quiet existence. I have no desire to sky dive, bungie jump, ride a motorcycle... My idea of living dangerously is doing Suduko in pen. Do you get what I am trying to say? I am a chicken! Today my daughter talked me into doing not one, but two, things that were way outside my comfort zone. The first step outside my idea of normal was two-fold. It started with me actually putting on a swimming suit for our afternoon trip down to the water. I quickly topped it with a t-shirt and a pair of shorts, but none the less, this was a big step. At the beach, I dropped the shorts and marched bravely into the surf. Really, I ran so that no one would see me in a bathing suit. I got up to my waist before I totally freaked out and saw my life pass before my eyes. I don't know why water scares me so much, but it does. Needless to say, I turned around and marched right back to my towel. Lucky for you, no one took any pictures.
The second risk occured on the way to the water. The beach is just down our steps, around the corner and through a parking lot. There is a steep hill on the far side of the lot that the surfers use to access the beach. Those of us with any sense at all go left, about a block, to the ramp or right, about a block, to the stairs. Well, being a teenager, my daughter decided that we should go down the hill since it would be so much faster and require less walking. I said "Go ahead, I'm going to the ramp." Down she went. I watched her and decided that it didn't look as hard as I thought it would be. Down I went. My heart was in my throat as I climbed and slid and slipped and tripped and made it all the way to the bottom without killing myself. I am not very good at looking straight down and not thinking I am going to fall on my face. After our time in the sun we headed back up the same way. For some reason, when I can't see the drop I am a lot braver. Anyway, like I said, I enjoy my quiet, peaceful life. I have taken enough risks to last me quite awhile.

Tide Pools

This morning the weather was beautiful. The sun was shining, but it was cool and breezy. I put on my new green outfit and my daughter immediately asked me if I was trying to look like foliage. I guess it was a little too green for her liking, but hey, I like green. A group of us decided to take a trip to the tide pools that are about a mile or so up the beach from our condo. By the time we all got ready it was low tide time so we decided to drive instead of walk. The daughter was very excited about that. We had so much fun collecting rocks and shells and enjoying all the little sea creatures that were out and about. The little hermit crabs were cool and I liked watching all the crabs running around sideways.

Crying on the beach

A bunch of us went down to the beach this afternoon to enjoy the sun and the surf. I was reading a book that my oldest daughter had recommended called "Magic Hour" by Kristin Hannah and enjoying it quite a bit. She had already warned me that it was going to make me cry and that I would know when to do it. The closer I got to that moment that I knew was coming, the more I tried to talk myself out of it. I already thought I had figured out what was going to happen, but I had also figured out how the problem was going to resolve its self. I kept telling myself that it was going to turn out fine and that I didn't need to sob. Well, just as I finally realized that the tears were going to run regardless, all of my companions decided it was time to pack up and leave the beach. I wanted to finish my book. I was so close to the end. I told them to go ahead and I'd be up in a little while. They all loaded up all their stuff and headed out just as I burst into tears. I wonder how many people around me on the beach thought I was crying because I had been abandoned. I was going to tell you if I was right about how the book ended, but I guess if you really care you'll have to read it yourself. Anyway, I had a good cry, whatever the reason.

Boogie Boarding at the Beach!

I bet you were all really exited when you read this blog title and thought you were going to get to see pictures of me on a boogie board. Too bad. No pictures of me. Just the teenage part of this team. If I were on a board, who would take the pictures??


Actually, I was going to post the video of her on the board and then off the board and being rolled over and over by the waves and taking people out, unfortunately I was laughing so hard while I took it that most of the action takes place off screen due to my bouncing movement. Too bad. It really was pretty funny. Perhaps someone else should have been responsible for the photographic documentation after all.

You want what?

So, a couple of the ladies drove to the McDonald's drive thru to get some ice. We do it all the time at home, 2 bags for $1.29. "May I help you?" "May I have 2 bags of ice?" Long pause. "2 what?" "2 bags of ice, please." Long pause. "2 bags of ice?" "Yes! 2 bags of ice." Long pause. "You want 2 bags of ice?" "Yes, please." Long pause. "2 bags?" "Yes." Long pause. "Please pull forward." At the window. "You want "2 bags of ice?" "Yes, thank you." "2 bags?" "Yes." "We don't sell ice." Who woulda thought McDonalds doesn't sell ice in California? Luckily, with all the speaker yelling, some people walking to their car heard that they needed ice and told them where there was a 7-11 to get some. All the McDonalds workers lined up at the far window to look and laugh at the silly women from out of town.

Information for Inquiring minds

Today we all went to church here in Carlsbad. We were a little surprised when we started reading the bulletin and learned that it was Fast Sunday, since we had all had Fast and Testimony meeting last week on the first Sunday of the month. We wondered if we had run across an apostate group of church members, but we quickly discovered that their stake had had stake conference last week so Fast Sunday had been pushed back a week. I always appreciate how similar LDS church meetings are regardless of what part of the country you are in. The important things are done the same, you recognize the personalities bearing their testimonies - they just look a little different and have different names. It's easy to feel at home. Many of the testimonies born today referred to the tragic death of a child in the ward. It was obvious that this experience had touched each of the ward members as well as the community. Of course, possessing the inquiring mind that I have I was very curious and wanted to know what more details. Apparently I passed this trait on to my daughter because as soon as we got back to the condo we both headed to the computer to google the name and get the rest of the story. It is amazing to me how easily accessible information is in today's world. In a matter of moments we found several newspaper articles and learned that the little boy was 2 years old and had run in front of his neighbor's car and been hit. It was very sad, but from what we heard at church many positive things have happened as a result of this accident. The counselor in the bishopric shared how the bishopric had been praying about some concerns they had about their ward and then tied in how this experience had helped to alleviate all of the problems that they were focusing on. I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for each one of us and I am looking forward to the day when I will finally understand and see the obvious wisdom in his plan for myself and those around me. Until then I will just try to have faith and strive to learn what it is I am suppose to be learning as these members of the church seem to be doing.

Baby Blankie has seen better days

Ever since my second daughter was born, she has been quite attached to her blankets. The first one she loved, I made for her. It had baby Minnie and baby Daisy with a pale purple polka dot background. She took it everywhere with her until she was about 18 months old. That was when she decided to put it under the Christmas tree in a box on our driveway that was waiting for a second hand store pick up. It wasn't until after it disappeared that we figured out this story from her limited vocabulary. No more blankie.

Next came the one that she still uses today. It started out cream colored with pink antique toys on it. Her Grandma Johnson made it for her. It has been with her in all the important places she has visited. It's even been places I haven't been, like Hawaii. I use to steal it while she was asleep and then while she was at school (when she hadn't stuck it in her back pack) so it got washed occasionally. When we got ready to leave for California this morning, there was baby blankie ready for a new adventure, although it's been to California quite a few times before. I hadn't really seen the blankie since she moved to her apartment and although I knew it was on it's last legs I was sad to see how far it has fallen. There hasn't been a recognizable pattern on it for a long time but now it is so gray and thread bare you wouldn't be able to see it if there was. I guess since she is going to be 20 quite soon it deserves to be a little worn out. It has had all the color and stuffing loved right out of it. I'm glad she's had it to help her feel safe and secure all her life