Tidbits Time

And it comes faster than I expect it. It's like today is Monday and all I hear about is how everyone is so mad, and how much they hate Monday, and then I blink my eyes and it's Saturday again. That just leaves me wondering, "What happened to Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday?" But no matter, if it's Saturday might as well enjoy it. That's why the plan for tonight is to finally go watch Toy Story 3. All I keep hearing is how good that movie is.

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Borrowed this from the Interne. That is my idea of an awesome ice chest.
I would like to thank yesterday's monsoon for messing up my car. The light coat of dust you left all over it is trying to make a permanent home there, but it's not taking any new tenants, so no thank you you will soon be evicted. If it wasn't cause right now it's too hot to be out there washing cars you would already be gone. Well, it's only about 109 degrees today, but it really feels like if it was more. I love these hot summer days, what I don't love is how my electricity bill jumped from $85.00 a month to $333.06, and probably more next month. Not happy, not happy at all.

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I am happy to report that I feel the very and exact opposite way. lol I love
everything.

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Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear princesa
Happy birthday to you

And may more

Yes my princesa turned Five years old today and she was pretty happy about it. She knows her fiesta will be next week, so she is cool with that. In the meantime she patiently awaits.

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Mustang an Iconic Car.

My baby!
My 1993. Fox boddied Mustang.
Well it was bound to happen, this thing was just there waiting for me and it seemed nobody else would dare touch it cause it was to be mine. So, at least for now I already enjoyed it for a day, I am turning in some more paperwork today, etc, etc, and hopefully this baby will finally be mine, mine, all mine. It certainly makes a great addition to my stable, two ponies and a Bronco. Now if only the Bronco would work. lol

My son keeps asking himself where he went wrong because I continue to buy Fords instead of his beloved Chevys but come on, a Mustang is like apple pie, is an icon that comes second to none. There are Camaros, and Corvettes, but then there are the iconic Mustangs and there are in a league all its own.

So, cross your fingers everybody and lets hope I don't have to return those keys tonight.

Here are some great looking ponies.

I love the paint scheme on this one, I would love for my Fox Body Mustang to look like this. Ummm maybe it will.
Dressed in black.

Pretty in pink.

Knight Rider.
Saleen!

And now I am proud to present to you my new baby, a second pony to enhance my stable.

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Day Three - The San Diego Zoo

So, day one and day two had been pretty hectic but now with our guests back in L.A. and everybody else either going back to Sea World or to the beach we headed for the San Diego Zoo. This was far from a stressful day, actually although tiring because of all the walking up and down the hills and slopes that are part of the park, it was stress free.

How can you not feel stress free in an environment like this.
Just a stroll in the park. Again a stroller with a cooler full of water and sodas was all we had to deal with. I didn't know what to expect, I only visited the Los Angeles Zoo once many years ago and I have never been to the Phoenix Zoo either. I really expected it to be stinky and stuff but I was really surprised at how clean the park is, and that includes the cages.

For sure a highlight of the day was feeding the giraffes. This giant but gentle animals were more than happy to take the biscuits off our hands with their very long tongues. The kids for sure loved it.

Dropped it the first two times. He had it right after the third attempt.
Then there was the crazy orangutan that rolled from one edge of the cage all the way to the other end and then back. Homey orangutan had got be very dizzy when after what it seemed forever he decided to sit against a tree.

This guy rolled all over the place before he sat there to rest. Probably dizzy too.
In the end it was the monkeys that gave the biggest show, ewwww. Not to be outdone they decided out of the blue and without fair warning to give us a lesson in how to do the nasty monkey style. I'm sorry it sounds explicit but truth is it was funny because well they are monkeys just monkeying around. lol

Bad monkeys, bad monkeys. Next time get a room.
If you never been there, this place is huge and yes they do have double decker buses that give you tours and probably take you all over the park, but we decided that walking was the way we wanted to experience the zoo.

We easily spent a good eight hours there, we caught a kids show and took them to the petting zoo, went on our mandatory souvenir and t-shirt shopping and off we went back to the hotel.

All said and done we had a really great time.

The plan was to go to the hotel change into warmer clothes and to go back to Seaport Village to watch the fireworks. What was I thinking? I don't go anywhere on the fourth of July in Phoenix because of the insane crowds and traffic, what made me think that it would be easier in a place like San Diego?

Well, needless to say the rest of the night was a blur.

And just to end this weekend tale, day four, the day we had predestined to go to the beach and maybe cross the bridge to Coronado Island is... yep! A blur too.

Here are some shots that I really like:

Diego, the polo player.
This magestic creature was just there posing and displaying its beauty in front of everyone.
Oh no! I'm going to be puree.,
You don't go to the zoo to have them play in a playground but gosh once they saw it that's all they wanted.
These photo ops are just to cool to pass them up.
The spider and the fly.
Me petting the goats.
Savannah sitting on one cool bench.

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San Diego - Day Two

I Believe! Do you?
SEA WORLD

Yes I believe that to get to Sea World from Chula Vista the co-pilot (I will not mention a name as to not hurt any susceptibilities) first have to grab the pre-printed directions and follow them step by step and from top to bottom to direct the driver (in this case me). In a few minutes it was like, oh yey the San Diego Zoo, we are here! Oh wait, the co-pilot first has to make sure to grab the correct map and directions for Sea World and not for the Zoo. Well not all was lost as the zoo was to be the next day's destination and at least now we knew where it was.

So, we get to Sea World and follow the endless amount of orange cones on the floor which eventually led us to the dungeon of parking lots, way, way at the end. I guess that was their idea of giving us a warm up and a taste of all the walking we would be doing all day long.

So I parked the van, and open the rear door to get the stroller and the cooler which would be coming in with us. I felt some heat coming from the bottom of the van but really didn't think anything of it. Then a good Samaritan told me that the keys were still hanging from the ignition switch, I said thanks and proceeded to pull them out, I closed the doors and off we went.

I immediately started capturing image after image. I had never been to Sea World but I was fortunate enough to visit Marineland at least three times before it was finally closed forever, so the feel was like I had seen the shows except obviously they are more updated. The kids kept choosing the soak zones for us, luckily I escaped getting wet but some of us looked very prepared just in case.

Dear Twitter, I'm telling you if my beautiful new yellow sweater is soaked with fish smelly salty dolphin water, I am sending Jose the dry cleaners bill.

This is what happens when you want to seat in the "Soak Zone". Yeah! Like if they cared.
After this we all decided to go eat. The kids being the fast eaters that they are, decided to go on the rapids ride and get soaked some more. Which meant a trip to the parking lot, remember the dungeon parking lot we were sent to? Yep, that one, we went to get the kids changed and as we get there we noticed that the engine in my van was running. What the heck? Yep! when I pulled the key from the ignition switch in the morning it was still running, that means that my awesome van was idling for at least seven hours and only half a quarter gas was burnt. Of course someone is not going to let me forget that for a long time to come and will continue to laugh everytime the story is told.

@jose- you would say something like that. Next time ill write dear twitter why did jose leave his car on for 7 hrs at sea world lol

@jen - It was a test of endurance, the car has to match the owner. It passed with flying colors. :)

All in all, a wonderful day watching all the shows, I bought a nice sweater for Diego for $35.00 only to lose it within the hour. (That one still hurts) The sky was overcast and we still got totally sunburned. Saw most of the shows and ate all day since we bought the all day meal passes. Moved the van from the dungeon to a more VIP parking space. Bought souvenirs and pictures, and in the end even got to see the fireworks. And yes, at this time we were very tired.

Once back at the hotel, our guests were leaving us and returning to the L.A. area. After the goodbyes we went in to rest in anticipation for day three.

The Sand Diego Zoo.

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So, one of our three guests was told that I am a blogger and somehow she correlated the blogging world with Twitter. "What do you mean you blog? Is it like Dear Twitter?" she said. So now you know why all the Dear Twitter captions on the past post and this one. Once she started there was no stopping her. It was Dear Twitter this, Dear Twitter that and I was the center of it all so I warned her and told her that if she kept that up I would blog about her and put her in my blog.

"I dare you, I dare you" was her reply so since I keep my promises here she is, my new friend Jennifer whom somehow during this trip thought she was the sheriff.

To quote her: I'm available and single and ready to mingle.

But in all honesty, it was really nice meeting her. This trip definitely left a ton of good memories and I am sure there are more to come in the near future.

I positioned Diego in a way I could get these performers in the shot and they automatically lowered themselves to be in the picture.

Awww, a kid at heart!

Shamu!

Joe Cool!

The crowd!

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San Diego - Day One

San Diego.
As I said before, what started as a trip for four escalated to a trip for about 30, that's just how we roll. Granted there was no way we could be together but the idea is to experience the same place at the same time as a family vacation, and in that sense we accomplished that goal. Sea World in San Diego California was the place of choice.

All of us took advantage of the holiday weekend except Nikki and Loyiel. We all took Friday off so our three day weekend turned into a 4-day one. Seven of my ten grand kids went and I was in charge of one of them. People let me tell you the term "Grandpa" came out of this little boy's mouth well past 500 times during the four days and not to mention the brief moment at Sea World were I actually saw all the rest including my honorary grand kids. As of this weekend the word Grandpa took a whole new meaning.

Only quick food stop on our way over to San Diego.
So we made it in pretty good time, I found out that I have to learn to eat on the go to shave some time of the traveling time. Ha, there goes my "The getting there is part of the the fun theory". But hey, it worked and we got there, it was good that I shaved some time of the traveling time because I needed it to unload the van from the plethora of luggage I was carrying. The term better more than not enough (luggage) took on a whole new meaning as well. It's all about new experiences and new ways and one common outcome.

We were waiting for three more people that were going to meet us from the L.A. area. Luckily we didn't have to wait for too long as they got there pretty quick.

Dear Twitter:
I am waiting for these people that I have never met in my life. Who are they? Where do they come from? What do they want with me? OK I am lying, I know one of the three.

After the proper introductions, we all jumped in the van and headed for the Gaslamp District. I had heard this was a place to visit but what I saw reminded me too much of the Stapples Center in Los Angeles or Westgate City Center in Glendale, Arizona, that it didn't really caught our attention.

Dear Twitter:
If the sign on 5th Ave looks like a STOP sign, it probably is. Please make sure to completely stop and not just totally pause.

So, no, we did not stop and instead headed towards Seaport Village. Now here we got lucky to find a parking spot right away. Then we proceeded to go and explore. This place had everything I like. Restaurants, attractions, vendors, and plenty of things to photograph. It felt like a mini Venice Beach to me, although we all know there is no contest, Venice Beach has no equal.

Scene from Seaport Village.
We walked up and down, we ate and none of us got food from the same restaurant. Some wanted pizza, some wanted chicken wings, others wanted Greek food, and some of us had fish tacos. Then we proceeded to do some shopping and some more photo ops. I even visited the Harley Davidson store which someone tried to conceal it from me. The nerve!

My kind of store, my kind of shopping.
Not to stop our day there we decided to head towards Old San Diego. I would have never known about this place if it wasn't for our pseudo guides a.k.a. our guests. We couldn't find parking here either but finally right on the center of the little strip where all the stores are there was a spot and me being the good parallel parking expert that I am immediately filled that one void by the sidewalk.

This was a total surprise, this place was awesome. Plenty to do and see here.

Dear Twitter:
Remind me to stop feeding the seven year old boy in your custody or we will regret it later. Fair warning!

This lady had no free time on her hands, she sold tortillas corn or flour that she made right there while you waited. I think it was a dollar a piece. They put butter and chili on them, but she also had chocolate and strawberry flavored tortillas. I tried a strawberry tortilla and I loved it. Oh and don't let me forget about the buñuelo I bought from there too and for the kids churros, fresh churros that were better than my favorite Costco churros.

Here we also did some shopping, from T-Shirts to gifts, to drinks and so on.

Dear Twitter:
Please, oh please do not lose the six year old child in our custody... What? We did! I think we did, but I found her, so dear twitter I am the hero and have not been rewarded. Just know that I intend to collect. lol

Wow, play by play of a four day vacation is hard and to some it may be boring but to us that went the memories will stay in our memory banks for a long time to come. We finished the night on a bad note. While we decided to go out for a last dinner of the day, more like a supper since it was late, we went ahead and order our food and this trio came and started serenading us with some romantic crappy music that I requested so I could sing along, while my seven year old stow away whom had been eating all day decided that the restaurant was as good a place as any to throw it all up, and I mean all of it. I was proud of myself because I was so concerned about everyone else not starting a chain reaction that I kept covering it with napkins while he happily kept throwing up now all over me. Ha and I didn't even gagged once. Now doubt I am the man.

Ja,ja, the poor musicos did not sign up for what was about to happen right in front of them.
When I came back from the bathroom from practically giving this kid a bath and washing all his clothes as well as mine we went back to the dinning room where our food was being packed to go. The mess had already been cleaned by our brave (he had no choice) waiter so needless to say he received a considerable tip from me and then from all of us from the food.

Dear Twitter:
This was the most expensive uneaten dinner that almost was. Thank you seven year old little dude.

Back at the hotel the food remained in the boxes and all seven of us decided to crash and rest for the next day.

SEA WORLD

Dear Twitter, I am wearing this disguise while eating my churro because I don't want them to recognize me later on when I regurgitate it all over the restaurant.

Dear Twitter:
From our L.A. guest
Why am I sleeping on the floor of Chula Vista hotel almost touching heads with this man I don't even know.

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Vacation

So can I be a little kid at heart and be excited? Not only have I never been there but to be there for the first time with so many loved ones is definitely a highlight. We normally do this on our yearly Knott's Berry Farm trip but this year due to the three new additions to the clan we had to miss it. So just to prove a point and to show you how we blow thing out of proportion what started as a simple outing for four turned out into a full blown family vacation and some 20+ of us will be going.

Overwhelming for some, I say yes but I think that with a little effort and lots of understanding not to mention some more family members from California things once again are looking good and we are set to go. I must say there for a while things almost went south. Wait, we are going south, no, more like south west but oh well we are going and that's all that matters.

Without a doubt we love to go out together even if we all leave on our own and at our own pace, and when we get to our destination if we can snap a group picture we'll be lucky because once again we all divide into smaller groups as we all have different ways of pursuing our fun.


It seems the only the only place we will have in common is on Saturday as we go to Sea World to visit Shamu. Sunday for my tiny group will be a day at the San Diego Zoo and Monday we will go to the beach to admire the ocean for a while before returning to Phoenix. Hopefully our Friday will be spent shopping for souvenirs and stuff. If things go at least half as we have them planned it should make it for a good short vacation.

A definite highlight should be Saturday at night as Sea World will have fireworks, I am expecting that there may be lots of people but hopefully it won't be too crowded. In any case I am going with a mindset of lets have fun regardless of.



So... San Diego, here we come! I am totally excited about Sea World and The Zoo but at the same time dread all the walking we'll be doing. I know at the end of each day we'll be super tired and those hotel beds will be just an added attraction and a sight for sore eyes.

Yes, I will most likely blog about it and will post lots of pics sometime on Tuesday when I am back. So stay tuned!

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