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!!

It's the End of the Road

There's nothing more dad to me than to come to the end of a vacation. I was going to say especially one that was so fun but every vacation we take is so much fun. It's not that I don't like to go home but I just love vacations. And in the summer who loves to go home to the heat!! SO we left Omaha and hit the road going west instead of east. 

This is a fun arch crossing the freeway by Kearney, Nebraska.

We spent teh day driving to Denver and made great time. We saw a little forest fire right in Denver that was probably caused by a lightening strike. We got into some stormy weather with some rain here and there and lightening. We love that! You could even smell the fire from our room which is a bit nerve wracking but it wasn't a problem after all. We had a good dinner at Carrabas and were off early the next morning. Driving on the I-40 is so beautiful through the mountains. It has everything. There are tunnels galore, huge mountains (especially being back east), cool air and gorgeous scenery.

I love the mines and ghost towns in the mountains.

 

Then there's tunnels and more tunnels. Who doesn't honk going through them?

It is a little tricky honking through this huge Eisenhower tunnel so we keep it down in there but...

When we go through the Glenwood Springs canyon it's bitter sweet. It's so beautiful but it's also the end of the forest!

As we left the forest and mountains we looked forward to a quick stop in Grand Junction for lunch and a quick break. We also had one more pretty part of the trip.

We love the reef area. The rocks are so pretty and we love to drive through the grand reef. And as luck would have it there was more rain to enjoy for the last day of traveling. Nothing beats driving through the rain and gloomy skies.

We drove through the rain and had dinner in St George. We made pretty great time because we drove into the drive way about 9 that night. We just got our suitcases into the house in time for a power outage to hit. Seriously? So that kept us busy for a couple of hours and then we knew the party was over. Back to our life. Christina left the next morning and I went back to work. We were so blessed to have such a great vacation. It was a blast. We didn't know just how blessed until the weekend when I took the car in for an oil change and found out our back tires were balding and had bubbles on the inside! Whew.

Hanging out in Lincoln

This morning we had our last sleep in of the trip. We picked up Hayden from selling and met Meg at Costco. We made a day of it in the samples while we waited to get Hayden and new phone and give his old one to Chris. After the great phone swap we had lunch so Hayden could get back to work. We decided to go to Lincoln as well so we could meet him easier for dinner. There was lots to see in Lincoln too.

 

 Our first stop of course.

There were trophies galore. They even had their 3 heisman trophies displayed in a special room as part of a video tribute. They popped out briefly so you could see them from a distance. It was pretty cool. We enjoyed taking a tour of the stadium.

The weight room was fun to see of course.

After checking out the Corn Huskers turf we decided to do a little antiquing. Yup we are hooked.

Surprisingly enough we didn't buy anything. Again too bad we couldn't haul it home.

We drove downtown and got a look at the state capital building.

It is a most unusual capital building. Very cool I think.

After the tour we had time so we went to the public botanical gardens. They were really nice. A little oasis in the middle of the city. We got out and walked around and enjoyed the flowers and people watched.

 We picked up Hayden who had a great day of sales and went to dinner at Cheddars. We had a great meal and made the trip back to Omaha later that night.

Sunday in Winter Quarters

We really enjoyed going to Hayden & Megan's ward in Chaco Hills. Everyone there was friendly and seemed really nice. After church we thought we'd go to Winter Quarters and check that out since we've never stopped there before. The visitors center is open so it was the perfect Sunday activity.

This was outside of the visitors center. 

 

Gotta get a group selfie!

We took a tour inside and learned some interesting things about the pioneers that went through here so long ago. They sure went through alot back then.

 

They even had these cute wooden miniatures for the kids to play with...or the teachers.

Just across the street there was a memorial to the pioneers and the cemetery right beside the Temple.

The stain glass windows in the Temple looked beautiful. I bet they are gorgeous from the inside.

I thought the detail work in the doors was very beautiful too.

After a lovely afternoon of visiting the Temple area we headed back to a wonderfull dinner Megan made us of chicken burritos. It was awesome to see fresh veggies again like lettuce and tomatoes. She made some yummy oreo truffles that we ate a ton of too. We got to laze around and take advantage of the wifi and just hang out and visit.

Then to be extra charitable we let them beat the heck out of us in rumikub. Great fun even if we lost.