This past weekend we had the chance to get out of Los Angeles. Of course, L.A. is so big that it took us two hours of driving to get out of the city. Yet, we triumphed on our drive south towards San Diego.
We found it a little funny what a vacation really was to us at this point in our lives. We have been so busy lately with our preparations to move overseas. Just a week ago we finished a class we were taking that lasted 16 weeks. We were so thrilled to be done with homework... and then the box arrived. The box contained all of our training materials for our TESOL training this summer. Each of us have six books to read and about as many papers to write before we start training in late-July. So, in the midst of all this we just wanted some time to really enjoy doing nothing much.
Brian had some plans up his sleeve. He knows that one of my favorite things to do is to go to the movies. But, in L.A. that can cost anywhere from $11-$14 per ticket. That's a little out of our current budget. Lucky for me Brian won a work contest at the coffee place where he works. Since he sold the most pounds of coffee in the month they awarded him with a $25 gift card to the movies! Brian is such a good husband that he let me choose the movie. I jokingly suggested the chick flick "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past." He wasn't too excited but was willing to go. See, great husband! In the end, we saw "Star Trek" and used the extra money on the gift card for some ice cream (one of my other favorite things) at the concession stand.
On Saturday we slept in! This was a great treat for me since our 16-week class was on Saturday mornings, I hadn't had a chance to sleep in in quite some time. I hope that one day we will have children, and at that time I know that sleeping in will be a thing of the past. So, for now I'm going to really relish it!
After lunch we went over to La Jolla. Brian had pre-paid for us to rent snorkels and masks to explore this cove where there are a lot of tiger sharks! They are the little ones that you can pet. When we arrived at the rental place they told us that the visibility was really bad that day, but they would give us a big discount on renting a kayak. We agreed! When we told them we'd have to go back to the car to get our wallets to pay for the upgrade the guy looked at us and said, "Don't worry about it." Yippee! We only paid $14 for the snorkels and masks but got to rent a kayak for the same price (normally $45). I love a bargain!
Next, I squeezed myself into Brian's wet suit. It was made for a man and took a little cajoling to fit my German-heritage hips into. I'm so grateful Brian brought the wet suit for me because the California ocean is never very warm. Once we were all suited up we headed to the beach and out to sea on our kayak.
What a beautiful day it was! Along the coast near the beach are caves where birds are perched on all the ledges in the rock. They kept swooping just over our heads. On one of the rocks was a huge family of sea lions. There must have been thirty of them! It was so fun watching them. The alpha sea lion was barking at the people watching. There were a lot of baby sea lions. Some were fighting, some were just playing in the water with their momma sea lions. Ah, nature! How we love it.
After we returned our kayak we decided to swim and play in the waves. Brian taught me how to body surf! I found it challenging to swim and play in the waves without my contact lenses being washed out of my eye balls, but somehow managed to end the day being able to see. The waves were great on this day. What a joy it was to really take advantage of a beautiful beach in California before we leave.
On our way back north we visited a friend for dinner and ate our weight in bread sticks. Yum, bread sticks. This is one of the many foods we will miss while in China. We're also going to truly miss all of our wonderful friends and family.
Now, we are back to L.A. life, the box of books and all the preparations to move...
