San Diego

Kevin's birthday was on the 13th and we decided we would spend the day in San Diego. Every once in a while it is fun just to be a tourist and I have found when people live near tourist attractions they very rarely go check them out for themselves. We didn't want to fall into that catagory so here is what we did:

We started the day off in Old Town San Diego at the Whaley House. Apparently, San Diego is full of haunted places, but according to Travel Channel's America's Most Haunted it is the number one most haunted house in the United States. Some believe it is because the owner of the house chose to build it on the site where several hangings took place. The woman who greeted us as we entered the house stated that she has worked there for four years and has seen and heard her fair share of strange things. One of the rooms upstairs was made into a theater for plays for the Whaley family to bring in some more income. Our greeter said that someone came in and took pictures of that room and when he looked at the shots he took they looked different then the stage in front of him. The woman did a little research and found that the stage in his pictures was the stage as it used to be....before they rebuilt it. Pretty crazy! It was fun to walk around that read all the creepy things that had taken place, but Kevin and I agreed that we didn't feel anything evil in the house. (Which was a relief :)

Next we went down by the water and went to the Maritime Museum. It is a collection of different ships and a soviet submarine that you can tour. We started with the Star of India which apparently, is the world's oldest active ship. It was kinda neat to see these boats up close and personal because the only boats of this magnitude I have seen have been in Movies and speaking of movies one of the ships we went of was where they filmed Master and Commander. I haven't actually seen that movie, but if I ever do I can say I have been there! The Soviet Submarine was pretty cool..and claustrophobic! I could never live on one of those things. Not just because you are under water most of the time and can't escape, but it seems like every 10 feet you have to crawl through a hole. I can just see a lot of people banging their heads if there was ever any kind of crisis.

Our last museum was the USS Midway. It is a HUGE aircraft carrier that was just recently turned into a museum about 5 years ago. In 1945 the Midway was commissioned as the largest ship in the world for a decade and it was the first too large for the Panama Canal. It was also the first carrier to operate extensively in the sub-Arctic. There was way too much to see and learn about this ship which is why I was glad they had an audio tour. You could just walk up to different areas and they have numbers posted. You type in the number to your headset and they will tell you what it is exactly you are looking at and they also had actual people that lived and worked on the Midway talk about personal experiences. We walked around for a little over two hours and we probably could have spent more time, but we knew our parking meter was way over due. Plus, I felt like my feet were gonna fall off because of the constant walking all day.

Before we left San Diego we stopped at the Gas Lamp district for a bite to eat. I really wished I wasn't pooped out when we got there.....there were SO MANY shopping opportunities. Overall our day trip was a nice experience. I love feeling like you are able to get away even if you are only a little over a hour away from home. It wasn't a typical b'day for Kevin. We didn't have a family gathering, but I hope he had a good one anyways.

Steering the Star of India

"Give me a ping, Vasili. One ping only, please. "-The Hunt for Red October

Locked up in the USS Midway's jail

View of the flight deck from the tower

Kevin acting as "mini boss" in the control tower

This is cute and giant statue we saw across from the Midway

What is new with us?

Well....hmmm lets see. One thing that is pretty exciting is that Kevin has been reunited with the (hopefully 2nd) love of his life. His 1969 Dodge Charger. When we moved here to California over two years ago we left it with a paint and body shop to get well...paint and body work done :). Kevin knew the guy that owned the shop and he agreed to store the car for us while we sent monthly payments for his work. After all this time we have finally paid everything we owed and the car has come home. Now it just needs an engine, transmission, interior, electric wiring and appartently tons of other things. Yeah, basically it is a pretty shell right now.

Kevin is looking online everyday for deals on car parts. He is so excited to finally get to work on his car after all this time. I think it is great for him to have a hobby like this. It will help him de-stress from work and have fun at the same time. I have a feeling this car will be a part of our lives for a long time.

Another thing I am excited about is that I have officially paid off my old student loan. YAY! It is just one less thing I have to worry about and pay each month. I actually just used the money I got paid for some photography I did for Kevin's magazine. I figured it was extra income so I just put it to good use. Next we are gonna tackle kevin's truck loan. I know there will NEVER be a time when we are fully out of debt, but I want to get as close to it as possible.

Lately, I have been feeling like the walls of our apartment are closing in on me. It is a cute two bedroom, but I just don't have room for everything. We finally found a nice affordable rolltop desk on Craigslist and picked it up a couple of days ago. That way we can move the computer in the living room and have more room in the second bedroom. That will be nice.

What else is new? Oh yeah I'm pregnant just in case you didn't know :)