More Vacation Pictures

This batch is mostly pictures of us at one beach or another.  We spent a short time on a beach in La Jolla, California where the kids enjoyed the waves and we saw a distant brown smudge on a far rock that was almost certainly a seal.   In tamer waters we spent some time on Devil’s lake as well as Lake Superior.

Devil’s Lake

Devil’s Lake is the best swimming beach close to our cabin in Danbury and we managed to get there to swim a couple of times over the summer.   Though our vacation is over and we are back in the heat and humidity I still have quite a few pictures from vacation so expect a few more posts.

Kai and Nora at the beach in La Jolla

Here is a video of us at a beach in La Jolla Shores.  The waves were a bit much for the kids so Crystal was doing her best to keep them out of the water.  As I took the video I was standing in the (freezing) water up to my ankles – the dialogue is a bit hard to decipher due to the wind but it all revolves around Kai and Nora busting me for standing in water when they can’t.

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Birch Aquarium and the USS Midway

The last day we spent in San Diego we visited the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla which the GPS Navigator pronounced phonetically as La Joe-la.  Kidding aside, driving in new territory with a GPS Navigator is such a marvel of the modern age.  No more fiddling with maps ahead of time, just jump in the car and go!   I remember our very first GPS was in a car we rented in Germany several years ago.  I swear when we missed a turn the German woman’s voice would get a disappointed edge to it as it recalculated our route.  Not so with our current model.  Crystal programmed in an Australian accent for our current unit and it never runs out of patience.

After the aquarium we let the GPS direct us down the coast for a visit to a beach – we figured it would be a shame to have visited Southern California without at least being on a beach for a few minutes.  The beach was nice but the water was pretty rough with  signs posted warning of dangerous rip currents so we kept Kai and Nora back as well as we could.  The water was freezing so I’m surprised that they wanted to go near the water at all but they were keen to get their feet wet.  One bonus was the seal we saw sunning itself on a rock a little ways from shore.

Our last major stop of the day was the USS Midway – a carrier put into service shortly after WWII which saw its last action during Desert Storm.  Now a museum it was amazingly well done.  If you are ever in San Diego I highly recommend this attraction. They had actual aircraft up on the deck spanning the years the carrier was in service and the self-directed audio tour was top notch.   I’ve never been on a carrier before and I was blown away.  Kai too.  He was most taken with the missles and bombs; Nora’s big question was “where do they brush their teeth?”  We thought it would be a quick walk through and we’d be on our way before the kids got bored but we ended up staying a long time – especially on the flight deck with the planes.

Enjoy the pictures!

Legoland and the San Diego Zoo

On our vacation within a vacation we took a trip to San Diego for a few days.  One the main attractions was Legoland which we figured would be right up Kai’s alley (which was correct, of course).  We also visited the amazing San Diego Zoo and had dinner with Monica.  Enjoy the pictures!

Vacation 2011

Our annual vacation started mid-July this year.  We got in a visit to Arlington, hosted some visiting family and even squeezed in a trip to San Diego for a vacation from the vacation.  Mixed in there was a fair bit of cleanup from the July 1 storm that felled a tree on the garage and another against the house.  The rest of this summer will have a slower pace as I recover from a hernia repair surgery.  I had initially thought that the repair from last summer failed but apparently the issue was with a brand new hernia nearby.   Anyway, recovery from this one is going much better than last time.

Here are some photos of the trip over to Danbury as well as our visit to see the Wiemanns and Posts in Arlington on our first weekend back.  Enjoy!