Sunny San Diego Weekend!!

We had originally thought of going to Seattle this past weekend, but at the last minute decided to go some place sunny and a little further south. We found San Diego! Thursday night we booked our flights which were going to leave Friday night around 7ish...we booked our hotel, had a list of sites we wanted to see and started to pack!

While I'm not working this summer, I am still doing a full load of classes and was trying to get my homework done when Mat called me around 1pm on Friday saying that there was an earlier flight that looked more promising for us to get on. Mind you, I was still trying to pick up our apartment (who likes coming home to a mess??? Anyone??), finish packing, and get three days worth of homework done in one (this was the weekend's worth, not me slacking for three days...just clarifying :) ). I told Mat to check with his supervisor about the later flights and see what he thought. Meanwhile, knowing the way Mat thinks, I made sure the bags were packed and the apartment was picked up before sitting back down to get to my homework. It wasn't but 5 minutes after sitting down that Mat called and said, "we're leaving in ONE HOUR, and have to be at the airport NOW!" Talk about rush! I loaded the TrailBlazer, grabbed the trash to take out and flew (as much as I could) to pick Mat up. We dropped off the car, grabbed the shuttle to the terminal, ran through security (it's a lot faster with Mat's fancy employee name badge) and ran to the gate. We made it with 5 minutes to spare their departure, but it wasn't all peaches and cream...the ticket counter lady gave us a tongue lashing on "flying stand by etiquette" - after apologizing continuously and promising we'd never let this happen again, she gave us our tickets and we were on our way!

After flying Southwest time and time again, flying Continental was a whole different experience! We watched Valentine's Day on the way there, of course had the nice complimentary beverage, but overall, the staff was great and I'm not being totally biased since Mat's working for them...(the way back to Houston, was even better....keep reading!)

We got to the airport and went straight to the hotel to drop off our bags. They were also fantastic! Fully ready to provide restaurant guides, directions and FREE food coupons! The time difference was the biggest challenge for us. We landed a little after 3pm (pacific time), but to us it was after 5pm. By the time we dropped the bags off, we were starving! So we decided Friday we would grab dinner and go for a walk down to the bay. It was pure amazing!!! It was 20 degrees cooler than Houston and it was wonderful!!!

Here are pictures from Friday....

This was on our walk down by the bay.

The sailboats...

When water is involved, Mat can't seem to help himself and jumps right in!

Need less to say it wasn't very warm...

Saturday was our BIG day!

We went to the USS Midway, which is a retired aircraft carrier that is now a museum. Basically, anything that has to do with planes, Mat was game! We spent a couple hours touring the ship,seeing all of the planes and hearing stories from the volunteers. One of the neat experiences had to be hearing about the different parts of the ship, by an older gentleman who served on the ship in the 70s - it was such an experience hearing about his own personal experiences. We even had a few photo opportunities...:)

This was the best shot of the USS Midway we got, it was HUGE!

This was the same model of plane used in the movie, Top Gun.

Mat inspecting the plane...

It's slightly hard to see, but this statue was just across the harbor from the USS Midway.

This statue is based from the picture that was taken in Times Square in 1945.

After the USS Midway, we went to Anthony's Fish Grotto for lunch. It was recommended to us by a high school friend that lived in the San Diego area for a few years. It was mighty tasty! 

After lunch we decided to make our way to Old Town. Side Note: When we travel we normally rent a car. For the summer, we have decided to cut costs and use public transportation or just walk (unless it's just not able to get us to where we need to be). We got our exercise in this weekend! We walked just about everywhere! 

After a little shopping and exploring of Old Town, we made our way to the Mormon Battalion Museum. It just opened earlier this year and was AMAZING!! (For more info, go here.) It was full of talking pictures (literally), superb special effects and overall, a wonderful presentation of the experience and story.

This is the museum from the outside.

After the museum, we caught up with an old friend of Mat's, Saez and his brand-new wife, Stephanie! They were just married this past Tuesday and were in San Diego for their honeymoon! We took them out to dinner to celebrate! It was full of good stories, laughs and fun! They actually live an hour north of us back in Utah, but haven't been able to get together much. It was a sweet surprise when we realized we were both in San Diego at the same time!

Sunday:

With flying reserved, you have to take your chances on the flights with the best openings. Ours just so happened to be the first one of the day. We had to leave our hotel at 5 am. Even though it was earlier, the day got sweeter when we were able to fly FIRST CLASS.

What a treat!! We had a cushy seat with a ton of leg room, direct TV the whole trip, hot towels (yes, they do exist and not just in the movies!) and a HOT breakfast that was actually quite yummy!

Here we are with our yummy omelets with ham, potatoes au gratin - fresh fruit and yogurt!

This beats cereal any day! :)

We were quite spoiled on our first flight adventure, but we had a great time either way!