Link to San Diego Facebook Pictures

Today was our first day in San Diego.  Matt had to wake up early (around 5:30 or 6:00), but we slept in until 8:30ish.  His dad is in town for a little while as well – they recently did a 100 mile hike in the John Muir wilderness.  They summated 6 mountains in 7 days, the highest being about 14,000ft above sea level – the highest in the continental US (Mount Whitney).  Molly and I got up and then needed to move my car.  I parallel parked it on the street late last night, but it was only a 2hr parking spot from 8am-6pm.  I moved it to a nearby park called Balboa Park, which we also would like to check out.  Molly and I walked the 15 minutes or so back to the apartment, then started a load of laundry.  We went back out again, to the car, because we decided to check out Point Loma and Cabrillo National Monument.

I wanted to include a picture of the Honda looking at the Pacific Ocean!  We made it!

We got our first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean, and felt the first breeze from her as well!

I could have fallen asleep on the bench that overlooked that ocean – it was so relaxing and tranquil that if I would have had two trees, I would have set up a hammock and went to sleep.  Molly and I got some good pictures of the area, and headed towards the history museum at Cabrillo National Monument.  They had a lot of artifacts which showed how early ship-captains would navigate the seas, using the stars and constellations to stay on course and also to tell what day / month it was.  They also had early maps of the US / Central America / South America, and based on the technology that was available at the time, they are pretty accurate / amazing to stare at.  I am gaining a newfound respect for previous cultures, and especially the feats that they could accomplish with what limited technology they possessed back in those days.  It makes me wonder how long modern humankind would survive or flourish without all of our modern conveniences.

After Cabrillo, Matt got off of work and we found a better place to park my car.  This was a bit far, so Matt offered to give us a ride back to his apartment.  When we got there, we decided that we were all hungry, and the scene was set for chicken and waffles.  We made a quick trip to a local store around the corner, got chicken and waffle supplies, and came back to have a feast.  Now we are all sitting here, bellies full of chicken and waffles, and enjoying the day.

We just went to the local skatepark to watch Matt skate.  I would have skated for old time’s sake, but I didn’t want to risk hurting myself and not being able to try and surf tomorrow.  Matt did some really badass tricks, which made me nostalgic about my old skating days.

Next we went out to Balboa Park, in the heart of San Diego.  This park was very clean and also HUGE.  They had various museums – the natural science museum, auto museum, and more.  We didn’t check any of those out – we just wanted to walk around and enjoy the weather.

After the park, we went to the Naval Base to see all of the ships!  I think we’re about to go out to eat some burritos at a hole-in-the-wall Mexican place.  Should be awesome!

We want to go surfing with Matt tomorrow.  He has the day off, so hopefully we can find a good spot and a decent deal on a surfboard and wetsuit rental.  Should be an experience!