January 2009-San Diego
Over Martin Luther Weekend we decided to take a few extra days off and spontaneously booked a trip to San Diego. This was Alisha's first trip to California so she was especially excited since she'd always dreamt of going there. To save money, we stayed at the International Youth Hostel in Point Loma. Staying at a Hostel was a first for Alisha so I wasn't sure how she'd like it. The place was super clean, in a really convenient location and we met some neat people every morning while making breakfast. We'll probably stay there again since we liked it so much and the price can't be beat.The weather was perfect, well because it's San Diego and the weather is always perfect there. We of course had a great time, because again it's San Diego and how could you not have a great time.
We bought one of those Go Cards that inlcludes admission to a million things and you pay a set price according to how many days you want to do things so we did a two day and crammed as much as we could in. We went kayaking in La Jolla and looked for leopard sharks, unfortunately all we saw was a bunch of seaweed. The water was pretty chilly but we got used to it. La Jolla is absolutely beautiful and the views of the town are great from the ocean. Alisha really loved La Jolla and said she could totally live there. Yeah, me too, if we won the lottery! Later that day we went whale watching and saw a bunch of dolphins and a few amazing whales as well as sea lions. The narrators or oceanographer people who pointed everything out to us were hilarious and made the trip very enjoyable. We really loved looking back at the San Diego Skyline, especially as the sun was setting.
The next day we went to the San Diego Zoo and Balboa Park as well as the Wild Animal Park which is pretty far outside of San Diego and totally feels like you are on an African Safari. Later that day we headed to Coronado Island. Coronado was one of my favorite parts of the trip. We rented bikes and road all around and had the most amazing frozen yogurt from one of those yogurt places that Cali is known for but I can't remember the name right now. We rode around for a few hours and then soaked up the magnificent west coast sunset right on the beach. Afterwards we ate some delicious half price appetizers from the Hotel Del Coronado while sitting on the beach around their fire pits and listening to the crashing waves. It was so relaxing and nice! The trip was short but jammed pack full of good times. Right before we headed to the airport we got In-N-Out burgers one last time. They are hands down the best burgers ever. If you haven't tried one yet, you must!
February 2009-Colorado Ski Trip
We went on a ski trip with Holly & Chris Hettinger and their friend Dave. It's a package deal where you ride an overnight sleeper bus from Kansas City to Colorado. The sleeper bus was hilarious! When we first got on we sat in these little booths that seat 4 people (2 on each side) and a table in between where we played games. Most of the evening I couldn't for the life of me figure out how the bus could sleep as many people as were on there since each bench that sat 2 people looked like it slept one person. Oh boy was I wrong! We had no idea how small the beds would be. Imagine a toddlers bed and then imagine sharing that with another adult and then having two more adults above you on another toddler bed that's only about 2 feet above yours. I'm so glad I brought tylenol pm, my sleeping mask and ipod so I could pretend I wasn't crammed into the tiniest space ever. I actually slept pretty well except when I woke up to Holly saying "Sir, Sir that's not a bathroom!" over and over. It turns out one of the other passengers was a little intoxicated and ended up urinating behind our bed instead of in the bathroom right in front of him. It's a great story to tell.
We stayed in Keystone went skiing there as well as Breckenridge. As far as the slopes, I liked Breckinridge better cause they had a lot more mountains and options for our beginner/intermediate skiing abilities. The keystone slopes weren't hard but they were so long that it took 45 minutest to get down one slope. I thought my legs were going to just give out. Alisha did really well for her first "real mountain" skiing and I thought I did well for not having gone skiing in 5 years. The trip was really fun and we of course had fun with Holly, Chris & Dave. I loved being in the mountains with all the snow. It would have been nice to have more down time to snow tube, shop, and relax but since we had the ski passes we want to use them as much as we could.
