San Diego!!

June was a month full of travel for our family and now it's time to get caught up on our "globe-trotting" experiences!! 

During the first week of June, Jason's mom came out to watch the kids so that Jason and I could go on our first vacation together since having children. Jason won the "Leadership in Excellence" award at work (top 1% of employees) and was given an all-expense paid trip to San Diego for him and a guest. It was a perfect way to also celebrate our 10-year anniversary back in March (we all ended up getting a nasty stomach flu during our actually anniversary week, but we knew we had this trip to San Diego in June to look forward to so it wasn't too horrible!)

Citi did a great job of wining and dining us while we were there (seriously there was A LOT of alcohol available....too bad we couldn't get the money they saved from our sobriety!!)

We flew in on Monday afternoon and stayed at the Hyatt Grand Regency Hotel right on the San Diego Bay. We explored all around the area that afternoon and evening and enjoyed this little rooftop party that night. We only lasted until about 9 p.m. though since we were still on East Coast time.

The next day we had a service project where we helped build wheelchairs, put together military care packages, and decorated stuffed animals for the Boys and Girls Club. That afternoon Jason and I headed over to visit the Midway Battleship...

View from the top deck of the Midway...

The take-off/landing area had all kinds of military aircraft to explore too.

The ship's kitchen area (I thought these mannequins were kind of creepy...actually I think most mannequins are pretty creepy!)

The sailor bunks on the ship...I would not have handled this well!!

That night we headed over to the Miramar Marine Base for dinner and dancing. Here's little tiny me next to a Marine aircraft. We saw lots of aircraft maneuvers that night too.

On Wednesday we were able to explore Balboa Park and some of the museums there. Living close to Washington, D.C. makes us a bit spoiled by the Smithsonian Museums so these museums really weren't too impressive. It was nice to not have to battle any crowds though and the architecture around the park was gorgeous!!

Every morning we would go running together along the San Diego Bay (a luxury in itself since we usually have to stagger our runs so one of us can be at home with the kids). One morning we saw a Navy ship returning to port. It was HUGE!!

The conference was officially over on Thursday morning but we paid to stay one extra night since we knew this might be our one and only shot at being in San Diego. We took a trolley tour all around the area which was a lot of fun. Here we are going across the Coronado Bridge...

We got off the Trolley in Old Town and loved visiting the Mormon Battalion Visitor's Center (it was seriously one of the best and most kid-friendly visitor's center I have been to!)

And the architecture fit right in with the rest of Old Town...

A little shot of Old Town San Diego. They have converted this whole street into what it would have looked like in the 1800s when San Diego was first settled. This was actually our favorite place to visit in San Diego!

That afternoon we headed over to Coronado Island. You can see the famous hotel in the distance with the red roof...

The beach was gorgeous but COLD...definitely cooler that the Atlantic Ocean we are used to at the Outer Banks!!

The view of our hotel from across the Bay at Coronado Island...

The view from our hotel room at night. We loved staying at the Hyatt and lived it up since it would normally be way out of our price range for a hotel stay!

We headed back to Maryland on Friday after five wonderful days together in San Diego. The weather, views, and sight-seeing were all perfect and it was rejuvenating to have it just be the two of us for a few days. Grandma Call did a great job with the kids while we were gone and it was fun to be reunited with them again when we returned.