San Diego - Dia Dos

Pardon me for the delay.
Life after vacation is busy.

But here we are at day 2, reminiscing about our great get away.

Richard stitched four pictures together

taken from our balcony.

The Marriott Marquis and Marina.

{is that the sunrise? or the sunset?}

The day started with Richard heading off to start his conference
with the American Physical Society, Division of Fluid Dynamics.

He had to give a presentation on the Point Wise Entropy Generation Rate

{crossed eyes}

Here's just a picture of him at his lab 

in front of the tunnel full of mineral oil and lasers.

I always grew up wanting to marry a mad scientist.

Meanwhile, back on vacation...
The rest of us did a lot of sightseeing.

Michelle and Mitchell

spooky stalker mom in the back...

Walking around downtown,
eating at IHOP Express
{not the best}

shopping in a downtown Albertson's.
{SOOO cool}
You would park in an underground parking garage.
Then take a cart up this moving escalator ramp,
without the stairs, obviously.

It felt so reminiscent of my mission in Pennsylvania.
The mission president {or you might say the Lord}
assigned me all green and vulnerable in the downtown of Pittsburgh.
DOWNTOWN! wet my pants, I was scared.
I am a small town girl with a graduating class of 52.
But I came to love city life and this was no different.
Dirty, exciting, and expensive.

We walked a lot, drove more, and then Richard came home for the afternoon.
I guess they like to roast graduate students for fun during their presentations.
So he was ready for a relaxing day.

We swam, that's right, SWAM! In the middle of November!
That's crazy talk!
Mitchell even got in, the cute little guy.
But, I didn't take a picture.
Believe me, it was cute.


Here he is sneaking some snacks, though.
I love this kid.

Now being hungry, we asked our concierge for a good family restaurant.
He sent us to Sloppy Joey's.
We took a bike taxi! {I thought of Kramer the whole time}
The lady pedaling our family of 7 {remember we had sister and cousin too}
could barely talk or breath, but she earned a nice tip.

Then we arrived at our family restaurant
with the Scarface poster by the front door,
and our waitress strolling out in a sports bra and mini skirt.
{ok I'm exaggerating, but only a little}
I don't think our concierge has any kids.

But what glimpses I got of the other restaurants/bars,
maybe it was as family as it gets in the Gaslamp Quarter.

The food was very delicious.
I had a pasta bolognese sauce with veal.

Richard had to dislocate his jaw to eat his ginormous hamburger.

Now,
The craziest/funniest part of this day involves a little train
that ran right in front of our hotel.
We promised the Thomas obsessed Parker that we would ride it.
So we did, after dark, knowingly board the public transportation system.

And then it begins...

Richard looked at the map and suggested to take the short little loop
starting on the green line at Gaslamp to Santa Fe Depot
get on the orange line back to 12th and Imperial
and then the green line back again to our hotel at the Gaslamp area.

Fooey, I thought, Parker really wanted to ride on the train, so let's ride!
ALL THE WAY AROUND aka the BIG LOOP.

well, hind-site tells us a lot of things. 

Richard's loop would have taken, at maximum, 30 minutes.

My suggestion...

well, 

it started with a college student {admittedly drunk} showing Sinclair pictures

on his iPhone of his nephew, his niece, his breakfast... etc,

we are offered a deal on stolen goods

{which the woman eventually traded for a pair of shoes}, 

we eavesdrop on an animated conversation that a person is having,

only to realize that she isn't actually talking on a bluetooth,

"Flo? Flo-o?"

we openly and shamefully gawk at the man who is confusing his bench for a rocking chair,

Then about 12 walking miles from our hotel, 

a man on the intercom says, 

"Due to construction, this will be the last stop of the night."

We stare in disbelief until we hear the announcement again.

we then get off the train

in the middle of a city we've never been too

and get onto a BUS attempting to all stay together

until we get detoured to another train station that will take us to another junction

where we exchange trains again,

meanwhile Michelle and I are being asked for information on where we are going,

and in my head I respond, "I'M FROM IDAHO!"

meanwhile Mitchell is being a sweet little doll,

meanwhile Colette is throwing a fit,

and meanwhile Parker is on Sinclair's iPhone playing Subway Surfer, 

a GAME about being on a train chase,

and he's not actually paying attention to the fact that he is on a real live train.

Are you confused? 

good, now you are right up to speed.

We finally get off the train at our last junction, 

the train we need to get to our hotel is about to leave, 

so we start running across road construction signs and train tracks,

and Parker excitedly exclaims, 

"THIS IS JUST LIKE MY GAME! 

Except we aren't running from the cops! 

We are running to catch the train!"

That comment alone made the night worth it. 

We couldn't stop laughing.

Then crazy-smoking-homeless-man-talking-to-a-bush says 

he kidnapped a boy and won't be guilty.

So we run faster.

That really wasn't funny.

THREE and a HALF HOURS later we return to our hotel.
{BIG SIGH!}
I don't think we stopped laughing for a long time.
What an adventure.

So far we've been in a van, a sky tram, a double decker bus, a helicopter {ok it wasn't in the air}, a bike taxi, a city bus, and a train.

I saw a lot more of San Diego today than I bargained for.

We were really lucky that we didn't get hurt.mugged.lost.separated.
I cringe to think what could have happened.
It's one of the biggest, "What was I thinking?" moments, thus far, in my life.

Needless to say,

I am no longer allowed to make suggestions for the rest of the trip.