San Diego

 Last January Ben and I got to travel to San Diego for a Valley conference.  Poor Ben was stuck in classes almost all day most days, but we did have time for some sight seeing.  It turns out that I LOVE San Diego!  It was such a fun, beautiful city.  We did the trolley tour around the city (twice), went to Balboa Park, the gaslamp district, I got to go to the Mormon Battallion and loved every minute there (I wish we could go again), and even got to go whale watching.

The whale watching was probably my favorite thing (since our dive got cancelled due to rain and high seas).  What an awesome experience!  On the way to find whales, a pod of dolphins was playing right next to the boat.  (We were lucky to rent a small rib boat instead of having to go on the huge sight seeing boat with 200 other people)

Even Pete did well, even though he's about as terrified of water as I am.

There's the back of one of the whales diving to go back underwater.  Our cameras were too slow to get amazing pictures, but that's ok.

On the way back in, there was a series of docks completely covered in sea lions.  It was a great day for sea life.  I love marine animals of all kinds.  As I said, I think the whale watching was my favorite!

 We got to stay at the hotel Del Coronodo (the company paid...  no we wouldn't be able to stay there normally).  The history there is really interesting.  All of the owners, movies and movie stars, fun corridors and rooms. 

We also got to visit the Midway.  I love history and the sense of pride it instills in our country to be able to visit a grand carrier like this.  It was fun to listen to people who had served on it talk about the different areas with the audio tour, and to see people who had served on it there to help answer questions as well. 

We have been really blessed to go on these trips the last few years with the company.  We owe Wayne and Ronda Andersen a lot and are so thankful they have taken us, especially me since I am not the one sitting through the training meetings!