Highlights

EARLY MORNING FLIGHT

We woke up at 3 am and left our house at 3:50 to get our car parked, shuttle to the airport, check in, get through security and board our plane by 6:15 am. Everything went smoothly. This was Caylin's first flight and she was pretty excited. We arrived in SanDiego at 9 am, shuttled over to the rental car place and were headed off to SeaWorld by 10 am.

SEAWORLD

We spent all day Thursday at SeaWorld. We had lots of fun. The animal shows were pretty amazing. The rides were fun. We got soaking wet but dried out pretty fast. Because it was a little breezy we weren't able to do the sky tour gondola across the bay, oh well. The underwater shark walk was pretty cool. Jeff and I didn't like the simulated flight across Antartica very much - we both had to close our eyes!

DIAMOND HEAD INN

We found this great hotel on the Mission Beach strip, in Pacific Beach - 'PB' to the locals. It was like a small apartment and was steps from the beach, literally right across the walk from the stairway down to the beach at Lifeguard station 26! The boardwalk went for miles along the beach. This particular area is popular with the surfers, they were fun to watch. We tried some boogie boards. The kids had fun with that.

OLD TOWN AND FUN ON THE BEACH

On Friday we went to Old Town. We met some of our family at the Mormon Battalion Visitor's Center then went to some of the shops, the open air markets around town. They followed us to our hotel and we played on the beach for the rest of the day. After dinner we walked out on Crystal Pier and watched the surfers, the fishermen, and watched the sun go down.

THE WEDDING

Saturday, April 26, 2008... my baby brother's wedding day! It was a beautiful day for Russel and Melinda to be married. The San Diego temple is just spectacular. The reception was held outdoors at a home in Rancho Bernardo - friends of Melinda's family. Megan caught the bridal bouquet! (She's not supposed to do that yet!)

SAN DIEGO 7th WARD

We attended Sacrament meeting at a church just a mile away from our motel. It was a beautiful old building. The chapel had a high wood ceiling and a wonderful pipe organ. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the prelude! When the Bishop opened the meeting he welcomed the visitors and at the 'risk of embarrassing them' - asked us to stand. Half of the congregation stood! It was pretty funny. He thanked us for being on time and setting a good example of going to church on our vacation. He said, "If it wasn't for our visitors we might just have to shut down!" Over the next 15 minutes quite a lot of families shuffled in. The chorister was fun - she directed the congregation as if they were her choir. The ward choir sang Homeward Bound during the meeting. It was really beautiful. It started out with solo flute then added the piano. There was a female and a male soloist also featured in the piece. A different lady conducted the choir. I enjoyed watching her. She was very passionate and had definite flair. This was a highlight of my day!

BALBOA PARK

This was our last adventure in San Diego. Balboa park has museums, performing art venues, gardens, the SanDiego Zoo, and many other attractions. We visited El Prado pedestrian walkway. This was built for the 1915-16 Panama-California Exposition commemorating the opening of the Panama Canal. The architecture is beautiful in the Spanish-Renaissance style. We also toured the Desert and Cactus gardens. You could spend several days just exploring this park! After a late lunch back in Old Town it was off to the airport to head for home.