Well, Jeff has been after me for a few days now to get on here and tell you about the rest of our San Diego trip. I guess he figures that if he has to go back to work, I can write a couple of paragraphs :)

So, Monday we arrived in San Diego, and Tuesday we went to the zoo. Wednesday was Sea World day. This was our favorite place. We ended up seeing the Shamu show, dolphin show, and sea otter/seal show. We always sat in the soak zone so that we could see, but ended up picking good seats---we never got more than a splash. It sounds like that would be sad, but it was kind of a cool day. Some of our favorite things to see other than the shows were the shark exhibit, the dolphin exhibit, arctic animals exhibit, and the rides.

The shark exhibit was great--you got to go through a tunnel with the sharks swimming all around you. It was a really neat way to see them. I was surprised at how big some of the sharks were. We have a short video clip, but I don't know how to upload it, maybe Jeff can do that later...

The dolphin exhibit was really fun because you are right up next to them. If you were brave enough, you could pet and feed them. I wasn't brave enough. Jeff tried to touch one, but there were a couple of people next to him that had food--that was apparently more exciting than just getting touched--I know, hard to imagine!

The arctic animal exhibit was fun as well. We went on the simulated helicopter ride to get in to see the animals. I was a little leery of it, there were signs all over the place saying if you get motion sick, don't get on. For those who don't know this fancy little tid bit about me, I get motion sick VERY easily. In fact, I have all my life, hence the nickname Baby Barf-a-lot. Anyway, it was the first place we stopped and I figured I could deal with it. Ha! I ended up having to close my eyes for most of it and concentrate really hard on not loosing my breakfast. It was a good thing that the beluga whales, polar bears, and giant walrus were really cool to see :)

Jeff was dying to go on the couple of rides that Sea World sports, so after letting my stomach settle for several hours, I finally consented. The first ride we went on was on a big inner tube rafting down a little river. It was OK, mostly for the kids to get wet in. We also went on their Atlantis ride. Another interesting tid bit about me, I don't like to be scared out of my wits. So, I don't enjoy really scary movies, and I have to talk myself into roller coasters. Atlantis is a series of small coasters. The worst part for me was the initial incline, you get to the top and think that you are going to drop, but then you don't. You go around a corner and then drop. So, I had been preparing myself for the drop and thenthere wasn't a drop...just as I was getting comfortable we hit the drop. I don't know if Jeff will take me on another roller coaster any time soon! Jeff thought it was great though. I will admit that now that I know I can live through it, I might have enjoyed myself too.

On Thursday we ended up back at the zoo. We hadn't been able to see everything on Tuesday because Jeff wasn't feeling well. (Luckily we got it taken care of!) We ended up being able to take the Skyfari to get to part of the zoo we hadn't seen. I thought it was great! It created a nice breeze--it was a lot warmer that day than it had been on others. It was a really fun way to see some of the zoo, and also some of the city. We got to see some cool animals that day too. We saw the hippo, a bunch of gorillas, the giraffes again (they are Jeff's favorite!), and the polar bears because they were right at exit of the Skyfari. Somehow it still took most of the day to see the last bit of the zoo, in fact, we ended up walking about 5 miles everyday we went out.

Friday was our anniversary and it found us at the Wild Animal Park. It is run by the San Diego Zoo, but is about 35 miles further inland. They pride themselves on having really big enclosures. The park is huge. We did the African Safari, I have to say I was highly disappointed not to have the official safari hat on when we went. The zoo has a tour that takes you to see the different habitats of Africa and the animals that live in them. It was a guided tour, and was really interesting. It was neat to see some of the animals up close, and to see some that were basically extinct. My favorite part of that tour was seeing the Norther White Rhino. The WAP has two and another zoo has 6, but they don't think there are any in the wild. I am always amazed at how big some of those animals are! After the tour we got a closer look at some cheetahs, lions and both African and Asian elephants. There were a couple of baby elephants, both born in the last year. They were so cute! They seemed so tiny next to the adults, pretty ironic since they were over 200 pounds when they were born :) We got to see an elephant training show, which was interesting. I always think things like that are interesting. At Utah State I had to take a behavior modification class where we trained rats to do stuff. I like to pretend like I know what the trainers are doing :) We also went on the balloon ride in the park. It was a helium filled balloon that was tethered. It was pretty exciting! The only other things around the park were a couple of wineries, which made for a breathtaking view.

Even though we were able to do lots of cool things at the WAP, I think this was our least favorite place. Mostly because the enclosures were so big. I am sure that it is great for the animals, but it makes seeing them a lot harder. We hiked about half a mile to the tiger area, and then you couldn't see them. Kind of disappointing. But, that's life I guess.

Since it was our anniversary, we went out for a nice dinner. We decided to try a place I had read about in a magazine, the article listed the top ten steakhouses in the nation. We happened to be really close to one of them, so off we went after getting cleaned up. I have to say that we both had a heart attack when we opened the menus. The first thing I saw was $270...luckily it turned out to be the caviar. It was a really nice little restaurant, very cozy. The food was excellent as well. (This picture is us back at the hotel after dinner) Sadly, we got lost on the way home. It took us about 10 minutes to get there and then an hour to get back after dinner! Someone didn't bring their GPS unit to make sure they knew where they were going, and wouldn't stop for directions... On the bright side, we got to see the airport, and some of the bays around down town.

Saturday found us sleeping in and packing. I was sad to have to go back to normal life. In fact, I tried to get Jeff to turn around and go back for one more night, but he missed the 105 temperatures of Mesa too much to be persuaded. We got back into town around 6 pm and have been catching up on things ever since. Our primary class was crazy--too much Father's Day candy or something. I am still working on getting the laundry done. It seems like we use so much more while on vacation! (We even ended up having to drive over to the beehive clothing to buy some garments while in San Diego! Jeff forgot the camera though, so we don't have any pictures...) I did get the shower room cleaned out again. It filled with stuff when we cleaned the add on room...funny how that happens! Speaking of laundry...the dryer just beeped. Off I go!

Sea World Pictures

More pictures from our trip, this time from Sea World.

San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park Pictures

I have uploaded an album of pictures we took at the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park. Link: http://picasaweb.google.com/henry8minus1

Or Slideshow:

(Some of the) Photos from our San Diego Trip.

I have found a place to post pictures on the web. I have upload some of the photos we took at the San Diego Zoo. I will be uploading more in the next few days.

Here is the link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/henry8minus1

It also lets you create slideshows, so if you are too lazy to click on the link above just sit there and watch all the pictures below!!!

Sunny San Diego

Michelle and I are in San Diego enjoying our vacation. We drove here on Monday. I was able to use my new toy, my GPS unit, on the way here. I had plotted the route we were going to take, and it was fun to see how far we had left to go, average speed, and elevation as we drove. Michelle made fun of me because of my ingenious contraption to hold my GPS above the dash of the car. They sell holders for around $40, but with imagination, a shower caddy, paint stir stick, and three rubber bands you can make your own!

Yesterday we went to the San Diego Zoo. We had a lot of fun. Some of my favorites were the polar bears, giraffes, and the sea lion show. Again I took my new toy to track our course. Below is the "track" we took through the zoo with some of the pictures we took. We hiked 4 miles as we walked around the zoo. Michelle and I are going to try to publish a bunch of the pictures we took to a website, and will update you when we do. (If anyone knows of a good photo publishing website let us know in the comments.)

After the zoo we went to the beach to watch the sun set. We also found a little Greek/American restaurant on by the beach and had dinner. It was a good day!!!

A Step in the Right Direction

Since moving in to Michelle's grandfather's house we have be doing and putting off a lot of different projects. One project I had started back before Christmas was putting a new threshold board between the living room and the add-on room. There had been one when we moved in, but it was cracked and quite a little bit disgusting. Here is a picture of the opening with no board.

You can see that the bottom of the opening is just concrete. So the new board wouldn't crack like the old one did I cut a piece of carpet to use as padding between the board and concrete. When I was cutting the board I was extra careful to cut it square, however when I tried to test fit the board I found it didn't fit. It turns out the opening is not square, so I had to do a little trimming and got it to fit good. After a trip to Woodcrafter's for some oak plugs to cover the screw heads and then a trip to Home Depot to get the right length of screws I was able to finish the project.

I think it turned out really well! I think I will get a board to go under it to cover the step and it will look really good. We wil just have to see how long it takes me to get around to it!!!

A Few Silly Things...

So, I have been awake for a few hours now for no apparent reason so I thought I would jot down a few of the funny things that have happened while I wait for someone else to wake up. It is no fun working by yourself in the wee hours of the morning...sorry Dad for making you do it for so long!

On Wednesday evening, Becky, Jeff, and I decided to go swimming at the local wave pool as we have season passes and it is June. It was a cool day (for Phoenix in June anyway) topping out at 92 degrees. It was also a blustery sort of day, but I figured we would do fine. I am loathe to admit that we weren't. We got to the pool, jumped in, swam through two wave cycles and had to get out due to being Popsicles. That totals about 22 minutes. I can hear those of you living in winter wonderlands laughing your brains out! All I could think the whole time I was trying to stop shivering was how much my family would make fun of me if they only knew. I am ready for a few jabs :)

On Thursday I decided it was time to stop waiting for Jeff to start cleaning out the add on room. I thought for sure that he would be quick to get working on it since it will the rocket room--at least until it is the sewing room :) Alas, having a rocket room wasn't enough of a motivation. So, I got in there and put the Christmas decoration boxes back onto the shelves, broke down a million boxes, and got a ton of trash out of there. It didn't seem to be making a dent. I started to look around for something else I could do--there was no way I was going to try to get the tools organized!--when I noticed that there were a bunch of half finished projects from around the house just taking up space in the room. One of those projects were the already painted doors to the built in shelves in the bedrooms. They had been painted for months and months (and months!) but hadn't been put back up since we needed some new hardware for them. Jeff said he checked at Home Depot, but they didn't have the right kind and the only place that had the correct hinges was the Woodcraft Store. Luckily for me, I had found one on an adventure to get a new tire for the car a few weeks back. So, when Jeff got home I packed him back into the car as soon as he put his lunch box down and off we went to get some hinges, another shelving unit for the add on room and some water. I would just like to mention here that we already knew what we needed and where it was, so I was thinking that this would be an hour trip at most and then we would be able to get a bunch of stuff done when we got home. How wrong I was.

We got to the Woodcraft store and found the hinges, but they only had gold hinges. All of the other hardware on the units was silver so we stood there for a long time debating what we should do. Buy it and replace all of the hardware, or let the doors sit on the floor for another month while we order the correct color from the catalogue. I finally decided that I just wanted them put up, so we picked up the packages and headed for the register--but wait! Jeff needed to just check a couple of things. You see, he and my Dad get along grandly. I am very thankful for that most of the time...except when it comes to woodworking and electronic toys :) While we were home Jeff and Dad made a couple of bows, they also made bows and pens the last time we were home. I am now well versed in the things Jeff needs to make those things...too bad we don't have a place or the money for a home wood shop. If we ever fall into massive amounts of money, I'll know just where to go to spend it :) Finally I dragged Jeff out of the store, and we made a quick stop at Costco for the shelves and water...we ended up with a car washing kit and tool bucket as well. Not a bad day for the handyman so far. We ended up at Home Depot so that we could get some handles for the drawers of the built in, and low and behold they have the correct hinges! Jeff apparently never looked down :) We had another debate about what to do. This one was shorter--we are taking the gold hinges back.

Once we got home and ate dinner it was getting late, so we thought we will just put the doors up. That was a quick job, everything just had to go back into holes that were already there. Ha! Jeff and his huge muscles broke the head off of a screw as he was putting the handle back onto one of the doors, the hinges weren't exactly the same and so things were crooked as we tried to use the old holes and a magnetic closure has magically disappeared. Luckily we have a billion screws and nails from things, so that was a pretty easy fix (I really thought we might have to head back to Home Depot for a minute. We have found that rarely does a job take only one trip...) New holes were drilled where necessary, and the closure will have to be replaced if it doesn't turn up, but the door closes. You can't ask for too much more than that!

This fine morning finds the add on room still not done, a pile of cardboard in the back yard, and I am still the only one awake! I think that I might have to go jump on Jeff so something gets done!

Pomp and Circumstance

Last Thursday my sister Sarah and I flew to Michigan for a major event in the family: our baby sister graduated from high school. (Don't worry, Jeff was there too, but he came a day later.) Now, there are still three brothers left who need to graduate, but the last Coons girl graduating was a big deal. We got to attend her graduation party on Saturday evening. There was a pirate ship moon walk and a cotton candy machine--what more could you ask for?

The actual graduation was on Monday. This one was just as steeped in boring tradition as all the others I have attended...it seems that it is time to make them less painful! It should be a celebration, not a nap time. Not to worry though, we all made it through without too many drool spots on our cloths. As an interesting side note, Ashley's graduation was exactly 10 years after my own.

It was freakishly humid while we were there, so my hair was lovely the whole time. It's a sad life. On the whole, it was a much too short visit. There was so much going on from the very first day that it seems like I didn't get enough time to just hang out with everyone. I got the feeling that my family felt the same way, since our brother Spencer sent a text message after we had all landed asking if Sarah, Jeff, and I could just turn around and return to Michigan. If only it were so easy!