Cabrillo National Monument

Sunday afternoon we met everyone at Cabrillo National Monument.  This is one place that the Schumacher Family has not been to yet.  The monument is located on Point Loma.  There was quite a long line of cars waiting to get in, but we just waited.  Since this is a National Monument, Mom used her senior park's pass which saved us the $5 entry fee.  I got through the gate and just followed the traffic down to the bottom.  I was surprised that my phone welcomed me to Mexico.  Finding a parking space was a chore, the first parking lot was full and had to wait for people to either move so I could get a space or move so that I could get out.  We found a space at the second lot, but didn't see the others.  That was when we realized that we should have went up to the top to the visitor center.

Made our way to the visitor center and we saw Mary, Ed and the girls.  It wasn't too long before Katie and the boys arrived.  We had a good time walking around, visiting and seeing the sights.  We were able to get the 4 generation picture here and also a photo of Mom with her granddaughters and great grandsons.  Unfortunately Lexie & Charlie couldn't join us as they were busy elsewhere.  Lexie had a prior committment on the same weekend that we arrived.  That gives us a reason for another road trip.

After visiting Cabrillo, we had dinner with Bob & Patty Payne.  It was a surprise that Sharon and her family were there as well, so we got alot of good visiting in with the relatives.  The time sure did go by fast.

Here are some photos of our fun.

Libby's favorite cousin



4 Generations



Granddaughters & Great-grandsons

Gruncle Ed

Balboa Park

Sunday morning and we had time to waste before meeting with Mary & Katie at Cabrillo National Monument.  We decided to visit Balboa Park for a few hours, didn't want to sit in the motel and do nothing.  At first we were trying to figure out how to take the little train to the park.  Mom had remembered that the train would pick you up by the hotels, but that is not the case now.  The hotel will shuttle you to where you can catch the train.  If you rode the train from stop to stop it would take you about 2 hours.  We decided to skip this option due to our time frame, so we just drove to Balboa Park.

Finding a parking space was pretty easy, not too much traffic out.  Mom said on Saturday the parking lots were very full.  We just wandered around and looked at things.  There is a Japanese Garden that would be fun to go through, but they are doing construction so some things were off limits.  Will have to visit when construction is complete.

We walked around, looked at the very interesting buildings.  I'm going to have to find out what kind of architecture that the buildings are so ornately decorated.  We did want to go through a museum but the admission price was $17 per person.  That seemed a bit pricy to me for the little time that we would spend, so we went through the free botanical garden.  It was fun walking through and looking at all the flowers with their colors and lines. 

We spent about three hours in the park, took a coke break at the Japanese Garden area, then we made our way to Cabrillo.  By this time the parking lots were pretty full and more people were out and about.  We had fun.  Made it to Cabrillo and met up with the others.

Here are some photos of our short visit to Balboa Park.

Sea World

On Saturday we went to Katie's house to visit with Alfred for a bit.  I think it was easier for Katie to have us come in short spurts instead of all of us at once.  Mom had stuff to drop off for Andrew and the items for a mini baby shower for Alfred from the Gmas.  Jennifer and I went to Sea World.  Jennifer would come on the trip but we had to do something fun.  We left Gma at Katies so she could get some Ggma time with Alfred.

Jennifer and I had a good time, we saw the dolphin & Shamu shows.  We didn't ride any rides just walked around and looked at all the exhibits.  It was fun and we enjoyed ourselves.  We also got a bit of shopping done while at Sea World.

Then we all met up at Katies to decide what to do for dinner.  Katie went to the Science Museum with the rest of them and she was pretty tired when she got home so her family opted to stay home and rest.  Ed spent time with the guys, so the rest of us girls at dinner at a little restaurant.  It was nice, we ordered a meal for 4 people and we had plenty to feed all of us.  We got a half chicken, two different pasta dishes, a salad and the delicious breaksticks.  We had left overs which Mary took home with her.

Here are some photos of our Sea World outing.

Tea Party

We arrived on Friday afternoon at the Schumacher house.  Ed dropped off his bags as he was staying at Mary's house for the weekend.  We pulled up into her driveway and the girls were out waiting for us.  They just got home from picking Gracie up at school.

Libby had worked in the afternoon setting up a tea party for us.  It was very nice and she went to alot of work.  The tea party was a nice event after driving all day.

Mary led us to our hotel in San Diego.  Gracie stayed with us and helped carry luggage inside, while Mary went to Katie's to pick up Henry.  Katie went to her doula group meeting to show off Alfred.

We went and ate supper at Applebee's, had a good meal and the little kids had a good time.

Tea Party

Learning how to play Angry Birds Star Wars

Checking out the tv in our hotel room

Ta Da

San Diego Road Trip

A new car and new baby in the family means a road trip.  This was our girls trip for the year and we had a good time.  Jennifer and I left for Meeteetse on Wednesday.  Gma wanted to take us out to dinner so that she could ride in my new car.

We left Meeteetse bright and early on Thursday morning at 6:00 am.  We stopped at Little America near Evanston for lunch and gas stop.  From there we made our way to St. George to spend the night.  We stayed at the Days Inn just off the interstate.  We were supposed to get free internet but Mom and I both had a hard time getting connected.  I was able to for a bit but I was bouncing off the Wendy's internet.

Friday we didn't have to get up so early, we were on the road by 8:00.  I love driving through the Virgin River Gorge.  Everytime I go through there it just looks so different.  Mom was busy taking photos.  We stopped in Las Vegas to pick up Ed.  My GPS on my phone got me where I needed to be.  First we had to run some errands with Ed.  Dropped Eden off at the day care then we had to go to downtown Vegas and drop off a car seat for the girl who would be watching Eden during the weekend.  That was a part of Vegas I have never been too.  Ed's friend works in a coffee shop so we got a coffee for the road.

We made it to Mary's in the afternoon.  Libby had set up a tea party for us and it was a very elegant tea party.  We had real cloth napkins, a lace table cloth.  Not only did we have tea but we also had food, cake, ice cream, vegetables, pancakes, burgers and such.  Dropped Ed off as he would be staying at the Schu Inn for the weekend.

We got cars loaded up and then made our way to San Diego.  I followed Mary to the hotel.  While we were getting checked in, she went to Katie's house to pick up Henry.  Katie went to her doula group to show off Alfred.  We ate dinner at Applebee's and had a good time.  After dinner the three of us went to our motel, while Mary's group went to Murrieta.  Mom and I had a cocktail in the lounge.  For a Friday night it sure was a busy place.  We had to wait to get a table.  I had a mai tai while Mom had a lava flow drink.  Mom's drink was free.  The bartender said that since we had to wait and were inconvenienced that he gave us one drink free.  After two long days of driving the cocktail was very delicious and welcomed.

The GPS on my phone was fantastic and it got me to where I needed to go all weekend.  My only complaint is that she didn't give me enough advance warning on what lane I needed to be in.  I like lots of time to get into the right lane, didn't want to have to cross 5 lanes of traffic all at once.