GlossyVeneer

We got up and ate the (not that impressive) breakfast at our hotel. And then we were off for our destination of the day… the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Part of me was kind of chuckling that a childless couple in their 30′s was headed to a theme park, but as Bethany pointed out… it’s not a theme park, it’s an extreme zoo.

We saw lots of animals, I think we circled every area of the park several times. And we had to stop and “oooooh” and “aaaah” over the baby cheetahs several times. We ended up spending a lot more time at the park than I initially thought we might, simply because we had fun and were enjoying ourselves.

We did pause part way through the day when I learned through Twitter that Michael Jackson had passed away. It seemed so unbelievable that we had to sit on a bench and scroll through our iPhones to find out if it was true. But it apparently was… it took a little more time to figure out that Farrah Fawcett had passed away that morning too.

They had a special exhibit at the park called “Dino Mountain”. It was filled with robotic dinosaurs and information on each type. A special activity for kids was set-up with a “passport” through the exhibit where you could collect stamps for each dino you saw. Well, I was a good little student and got all of my stamps.

It was funny watching some of the kids doing the assignment. Some kids were so meticulous to make sure their stamp matched up with the box exactly. Other kids stamped the spots in the book, not caring to put the right stamp in the right box. It was cracking me up to see how different personalities emerge. I would have been the meticulous kid.

We were exhausted by the end of the day from the heat, so we found an interesting little italian restaurant near our hotel. It’s basically in an old house and all the employees speak Italian. And our waiter… he was pretty dreamy. Kevin agreed… he’s one of those European cliches that you hear about on TV and books, with long hair and perfect skin and a lovely accent.

I fell asleep pretty earlier because I was so beat, plus I wanted to get up early to go running the next morning.

I have several vacation days to use before the end of the fiscal year at my work. And it’s either USE them or LOSE them. I have a bad habit of never taking much time off throughout the year and I tend to accumulate a lot of leave. Even with our staycation and a trip to DC a few weeks ago, I still have a few more days to get me down to the maximum amount of vacation leave I can carry over from year to year.

Kevin was supposed to be out of town for work this week, but that job got pushed back and suddenly he was free. So we decided to take a spur of the moment trip to Southern California.

We spent the day driving to California yesterday and boy, did I go into Twitter overdrive. I love that I can use Twitter to randomly spout off things that perhaps I could use to remember my trip. But also, it sure makes the time sitting in a car go by a lot quicker. I don’t recall having ever been that entertained while sitting in a moving vehicle for that long before. (I’m a very fidgety traveler, being in a car too long makes me ANTSY!)

The app Midomi for my iPhone especially provided me with a lot of fun. The app allows you to tap the screen, it will listen to a song playing and return the artist/song title information to you. The main premise is to help with those “What’s this song?” type inquiries. But I even use it on songs I know, just to perhaps find out a little bit more information (lyrics, year, etc.)

Yesterday we listened to a bunch of mix CD’s I made from ’97-’99. My husband grabbed a stack of them for the trip and I had a lot of fun reliving the compilations I’d put together. And I also had a lot of fun using Midomi to see if it recognized the songs and to share the songs with people via Twitter. So much fun that the people behind the app started to follow me on Twitter AND sent me a message telling me that I was awarded the black belt for using their hashtag so much!

We took a small detour through Orange, CA to get an afternoon snack at Bliss Frozen Yogurt. Kristin, from Meringue Bake Shop, has mini-versions of her cupcakes on sale there so we sampled some of those and had some yogurt. Yogurt that my husband called “the most delicious frozen yogurt he’s ever had”. I loved the mini versions; I could get a little bit of cupcake, share multiple flavors with my husband and not feel like I’d over-indulged. We tried the red velvet cake and I must admit, I have missed the flavor of cream cheese frosting, haven’t had that for a long time. We also tried a watermelon cupcake and a cookies & cream-type cake. The frosting had a really nice, fluffy texture.

We went to the Rock Bottom Brewery in the Gaslamp district because some of Kevin’s colleagues from the San Diego office recommended it. I ordered a chicken wrap sandwich on really tasty flatbread with tasty avocado inside. I need to buy some california avocados here… kind of a “when in Rome” type thing. Is it their season now? In fact, I just want to find a farmer’s market. I love getting fresh produce and if there is one on Saturday I could hit it before we leave town!

After wandering for a bit we decided that we needed some more sweet to round out our day. I’m trying really hard to live by the rule that vacation eating means no guilt and anything goes. I’m always way too conservative. Anyway, a quick Googling suggested Extraordinary Desserts. Without learning much about it, we decided to just give it a shot. It’s a cute little place with a line out the door and all they serve is desserts. Tarts, pastries, cake, cookies, brownies… with a little dash of coffee and tea to accompany. We got a couple cookies to try. One was a chocolate tea cookie and the flavor was a little too strong. But the chocolate chunk/cherry cookie was delicious.

The day was long, but relaxing and enjoyable. Now we’re getting ready to go at it again. The husband is getting annoyed with me that I’m sitting on my computer with my hair all wet and not making any motions to get ready for breakfast. Guess I should get moving, huh?