Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Happy Anniversary

August was our 34th wedding anniversary so we decided to celebrate in a cool location, literally. We packed our bags again and headed to San Diego this time. The El Cahon pass had been closed for a couple of days due to a fire so we headed straight south through Needles and went clear down to Blythe before heading west.
 It was quite the drive on a road that looked like it followed a cow path and didn't get leveled one bit before paving! The speed limit was 55 of course but getting stuck behind so many semis all searching for detours too made that about right. Lots of traffic at least until Needles. It thinned out after that.
 We came to this amazing area that was pure sand everywhere. Very cool. We drove about 1 mile north of Mexico as we were heading west. It was a pretty fun drive even if it did cost us more time. We finally got to San Diego and checked into our cool room. 

It was a brand new Marriott brand, The Pulse right downtown by the Gaslamp District. What was nice is we parked our car and didn't move it until Saturday! So that night we headed out to dinner and ended up at the Melting Pot because Mendis has never been there and I wanted to check it out.
 It was totally fun but completely over priced of course. 
But now we know and what the heck, it was our anniversary!
Friday we spent the day at Old Town. We shopped and wandered all around there. I even found a penny smasher there for the grand kids. We had lunch at the Mexican restaurant there.
We went over to the Mormon Battalion visitor's center. I think the church does a really great job of making it fun for everyone especially the kids.
That night we met up with Carolyn, Brent, Rachel and Spencer for dinner. Since we were meeting at Buca de Beppo we got the booth in the booth in the kitchen. It was pretty fun to be in there but it wasn't as action packed as I thought it would be. They must do a ton of prep before service because it was pretty under control. Good for them not us lol.
It was a great dinner and really great to see them again. 
 After dinner we walked down to Ghirardeli for ice cream treats. Can't beat that!
Saturday morning we had scheduled our time share blurb. Fortunately we didn't buy more points but we did buy a four night vacation to use next year. Unfortunately we are going to have to do another presentation but at least Marriott is not pushy. The rest of Saturday we spent most of the day watching the Olympics and being lazy. It was great. Then we got the car and headed over to Cornado to look around a bit. Then we went over to C Level for dinner.
 Dinner was great and even though you can't tell by the picture we had a great view of the water. Enjoyed dessert especially since it was a trio of creme brulet. We love that. The next morning it was time to leave. Even though we had a great time it was actually time to go.
 Driving home the El Cahon pass was finally open but driving through we could see the effects of the fire. It had been huge and pretty devastating. The worst was the Summit Inn at the top of the pass which was a Route 66 land mark.  
It was a great anniversary trip. The weather was perfect and believe it or not it was great to get away even though we hadn't been at home too long. Here's to a great 34 years and a whole bunch more!!