Valentine's Day in San Diego

For Valentine's Day, Gavin and I took a trip over to San Diego for three days! We left on that Sunday morning and took the five hour drive to the coast. When we arrived, we parked the car and walked to the Broadway Pier to catch a ferry over to Coronado Island. The timing was great because we were riding the ferry as the sun was going down. The little island had a number of touristy diners and shops, so we entertained ourselves by just walking around and enjoying the atmosphere. We ended up enjoying a romantic Valentine's dinner at the local KFC and Taco Bell (one of those two for one fast-food restaurants... ya know, the eighth world wonder in the eyes of all boys (my version of J.Crew and Anthropologie under one roof)). We took the ferry back into town and strolled the streets. It was the perfect Valentine's Day!

The view of San Diego from the ferry.

One of many pictures we took of ourselves!

On the ferry ride back to the city.

Sailboat

The sailboating section deserves it's own title because this little adventure was the inspiration for the entire getaway. Gavin began researching rental prices and locations for almost two weeks before the trip so that we would have the best conditions including mild traffic and the best shot of taking our boat out into the open sea. We rented a 22' sailboat from Mission Bay; it was a great deal! We rented the boat for 4 hours, and we were given a map with instructions. I really should have taken a picture of the map because the lady took a sharpie to the entire bay showing all of the places we could and couldn't go. Naturally, she took the sharpie and put a giant X over the causeway leading out to sea. And, naturally, Gavin pointed us directly to the causeway. The wind was mild, but it began to pick up right about the time we were almost 4 miles away from land! We hoped to see some whales, as it the middle of whale migrating season, but we had no such luck. We had a great time none the less!

He is in heaven.

King of the ship!

He even let me drive!

Taking to the sea... he kind of reminds me of Gilligan in this picture.

I was a natural if I do say so myself. I was the perfect skipper, or first mate, or both... I'm not yet learned in the area of sailing terminology.

On our way back through the causeway to return the boat. The wind had really picked up at this point. This is a good shot of how big the waves were getting.

On our way back in, I spotted some seals bathing themselves on this bouie (I have no clue how to spell this word, and neither does Google according to my search). They made the strangest noises!

Back in the harbor. It was so much fun! This is about the time that Gavin asked me, "Were you nervous going through causeway with so much wind?" To which I replied, "It didn't occur to me to be nervous... Were we in danger?" Gavin laughed and confessed that we were in fact in some dicey and dangerous places, and that he was nervous to whole time. Lesson learned... sometimes oblivion is a safe and happy place.

The San Diego Zoo

This was my one request in the planning of our trip. And it was worth every penny! This zoo is phenomenal... they had every animal you would hope to see, and even some animals you had never heard of. The zoo was huge, I even found it difficult to navigate with the convenient color map (no surprise from my father, I'm sure). Gavin and I had very tired feet by the end of the day.

This picture was taken in front of the meerkats... they were so funny to watch.

We actually had to take the sky buckets to get to the other side of the zoo.

One of the many beautiful cats in the zoo.

Gavin's favorite attractions... monkeys! Seriously, I couldn't get him to walk away, and he would waltz on by the larger attractions like they were commonplace. He was amazed at how they could jump from twig to twig without falling to the ground. It was fun to watch.

More meerkats... they have a lot of personality.

Gavin's response to the camel: "Eww..."

One of my favorite pictures from the trip.

Little fact: Gavin is afraid of snakes, very afraid. He looked through the glass, made a frightened little boy face, and said, "Let's keep moving!"

The lions were amazing! This is a picture of the trainer feeding the lioness. They have huge heads! It really made me miss Africa (I am planning on adding a few Africa postings before too long).

Sad faces... vacation is over! But, our adventure to San Diego was really just leaving one paradise to visit another. And since I don't have a job, my life right now is really just one big vacation anyway. Thank you Gavin, for a wonderful Valentine vacation!