San Diego

Steve and I have been long awaiting our trip to San Diego. The time finally arrived and as scheduled Steve left leaving me with the kids for one additional night before I left town.

After packing, dropping of kids at my brother Randy’s house and not doing a good enough job leaving the house clean, I was out of time and headed to the airport.
I had a quick flight to Vegas for a quick layover then an even quicker flight to America’s finest city, San Diego. That’s how it was supposed to go anyway. It actually happened like this…

I began my quick flight to Vegas by reading “Paths of Glory” by Jeffery Archer. It’s a historical fiction novel about George Mallory who may or may not have been the first person to summit Everest. No one knows for sure because he died on the mountain. His frozen body is still up there. (I highly recommend this book. The most worthwhile book I have ever read. I should mention that I haven’t read that many books.)

Anyway…I was sitting next to this couple and as I glanced out the window at takeoff I noticed the man next to me was reading a book related to climbing too. So naturally, I questioned him about it. We struck up a wonderful conversation about mountains and rocks. Turns out he and his wife were just rounding out two weeks of vacation. They were in Utah and surrounding states hunting rocks, gems, and minerals.

I told them about Alyssa’s obsession with rocks, gems and minerals. They were very impressed and gave me a nice piece of blue agate they had found in a remote area of Wyoming near Kemmerer to give to her.
Also, they instructed me to take it to a rock shop to have it cleaned and buffed. We ended up talking the entire ride and exchanged e-mail addresses. Alyssa will be very excited to receive her rock.

Upon landing in Vegas I bid farewell to my new friends. I went to check out my flight, which was supposed to be leaving shortly. Nope. Apparently there was some problem with air traffic control in Kansas City and my flight was delayed just three hours or so.

Since there was nothing I could do, I helped myself to a comfortable airport chair near a Wheel Of Fortune gambling machine. For the next three hours I listened to its sound effects of the big wheel spinning and the fake audience getting excited and then let down when there was a bad “spin”.
Someone did end up winning about $100 though, so that was pretty exciting. Mostly I just read my book. I really enjoyed the uninterrupted reading time. I also had the pleasure of eating an $8.00 Subway turkey sandwich. It was a very magical time. I really feel like I found myself there in the Vegas airport.

I finally did get to board my plane and fly off to San Diego shortly after 8 p.m. We had planned to have a lovely dinner somewhere, but by the time I actually got there everything was closed. So I settled for eating a yogurt Steve had gotten for me to eat the next morning for breakfast. He didn’t get any spoons though so I ate it with a coffee stir stick provided by Marriott. Thanks JW.

The next morning I was excited to live my day in solitaire. Steve was in classes all day so I just planned to be by myself.

I swam in the big pool. I lifted some weights in the workout room. I read. I ate. I shopped. I napped. It was all so wonderful and relaxing. I was eagerly awaiting 5 pm when Steve and I and his group of Intermountain peeps were planning an exciting evening which included a water taxi to Coronado Island and dinner at the Hotel Del Coronado.

However since this was the trip of supposed to do and not actually…I woke up from my nap and decided to go sit out by the pool. I noticed that I had no power in my room. No lights, no TV, no AC. I didn’t know if it was just me or the whole hotel. I went in to the hall and discovered it was pretty dark too. Plus the elevators were not working. A staff member pointed me to the stairs. Obviously not used by guests unless there was an emergency.

Once downstairs I got a text from Steve saying the power was out to the whole of San Diego county. That’s when I started to worry. Where was my next meal coming from? I had no food storage or lanterns or any kind of provisions in my room. No stores or restaurants could be open if the power was out.

Shortly, Steve came out of his conference sessions and we soon met up with our group that was supposed to be headed out to Coronado Island. We decided that leaving would not be wise when we saw all the streets were totally gridlocked. Cars everywhere, not moving anywhere.

After some debate, which included the idea of being amongst the first to begin looting and generalized rioting (which I must admit was my idea) the groupthink took us into the nearby Gas Lamp District in search of…I don’t really know what the group was really after I just knew that this girl needed her some food to eat before it all got snatched up. As I feared all the stores and restaurants were closed up. Most of them had security behind the front door, which sent the message that any looting would have to be done by someone braver and more intent on doing it than me.

We got to Ralph’s (aka Smith’s) and found it to be closed tight. The only thing that was open were some bars. We really weren’t ready to throw in the towel on that one yet so we decided to go back to the hotel to see if they would provide us with some food.

On the way back we noticed a grungy little deli that had a line of people buying stuff inside. I was thrilled. I was starting to get very nervous about my next meal and possible a few more meals following that. When I saw I could buy food, we jumped at the chance. I bought two smallish sandwiches. In the spirit of hoarding, I also got some chips, bananas, ice cream and sandwich cookies. I figured that much food would hold us for 24 hours if needs be. This nice haul of snacks cost $18.50 cash-only. I’m sure the cashier made the price up—but he did surprisingly provide change for a $20.

We shamelessly took our haul back to the hotel. Most of our group didn’t have the same kind of panic reaction I did. (I worry a lot) They didn’t buy the provisions when they had the chance. They were optimistic that the power would come back soon and we’d get out the the Hotel Del or somewhere nice after all.

Steve ate a pint of cookies and cream ice cream as we walked back to the hotel.
It WAS melting. I would have done the same—but my Twix ice cream was extremely sweet even by ice cream standards, so I could only force about a quarter of it down my throat at 5:15 while walking quickly through the Gaslamp Quarter.

As food was becoming such a precious commodity, I tried to get some of Steve’s auditor friends to finish my ice cream with no takers (yet). With the ice cream, we probably had more than enough calories for the day already. But food panic started to set in. I did just read the Hunger Games and Katniss would definitely have shoved all the ice cream she could find down her throat.

We were relieved to be back at the hotel because the city was just…nuts. Traffic around the whole city was total grid-lock.
It was obvious that with no power in the whole city meaning no stoplights or gas stations that could pump gas that there were going to be a lot of angry and stranded people.

The hotel was all abuzz when we got back. It had been quiet and very calm when we left. This time all the guests were out of their hot rooms looking for the same thing as us. Food. It was dinnertime after all. We decided to take up residence in the pool area. The same idea everyone else in the 3000 room complex had. Also, in the spirit of hoarding, we managed to conquer enough lounge chairs to accommodate our group.


The hotel also began to offer discount hamburgers to guests. Those who elected not to participate in the deli grunge opted to get in line for hamburgers.
Our group took turns standing in line for food while the rest of our group did our best to hold on to the lounge chairs.
Jen started looking at me with "Hungry Eyes" so I quickly handed over my ice cream.

The line was long when they got in it, but later it got longer, then even longer than that.
Our group probably waited 2 hours for food, many others in line later than them must have waited 4 hours for the opportunity to buy food.

We sat in the pool lounge and ate and talked and wondered how long this emergency situation would last. We heard rumblings that the power outage was not limited just to San Diego, but to parts of Mexico, Arizona and New Mexico. We heard it might be a long time. More than 24 hours before power was restored.

We also heard it might be related to some terror plot. It was very difficult to gage what was really happening. No way to know for sure. Cell phones weren’t reliable making any calls. Most texts were going through though.

After several hours I did get a call through to Randy who told us what was happening, and when power might return. We learned it would probably be the middle of the next day. I felt okay about that since I knew we had enough food to last that long.

After several hours together talking and laughing and sharing conspiracy theories about what was causing the outage we decided to go back to our rooms for the night, but not before we settled our conspiracy theory that there was a real-life Ocean’s 11 happening on some Indian Casinos.

We were lucky because our room was on the 3rd floor. But the others in our group were on 11 and 21. I was glad not to have to climb stairs for an hour to get to the room. Steve was kind enough to go to our room to get me a few things during our evening by the pool. I’m not sure he would have been so willing had we been on the 23rd floor.

At around 9:00 p.m. we decided to call it a night and head back to our rooms.
Here is the view of the city out the front entrance of the hotel.

We made it back to our room and looked at the skyline.
Mostly black. The only light was the red lights on the tops of buildings, you know, for safety.

Here is the Coronado/Harbor View.
Mostly just lights from boats.

We also heard a lot of police and fire sirens in the city.

On our way back to the room, we heard rumors that there were some live outlets. So Steve got his charger and we searched the hotel for the alleged outlets. We found one in the gym, so we spent about 45 minutes charging Steve’s dead phone.
There we were, Steve sitting on a Reebok Step and me lying on a yoga mat, eating our (very soft) Hagen Das ice cream bars rationed to us by some hotel employees in the lobby. In the food shortage, we both managed TWO ice cream treats in just a matter of hours. Way net positive calories for the day—probably even more than a fancy restaurant would have been. Leave it to me.

Steve found that cell calls didn’t work, but the mobile internet did. San Diego 10 had the best news updates.

Our room was very dark so I just laid down and went right to sleep. I woke up in the middle of night to use the bathroom and tested the light and found it to be operational. What a relief. Steve woke up shortly after that and saw the TV had a red light on. He turned on the TV to channel 10 (which on our TV was channel 11—go figure). Their local news anchors were dressed and reporting. . . on the opening day NFL game played the night before (not the historic outage).

The next morning the TODAY show was reporting from the Gas Lamp District, the same place I would have looted if I had been brave enough. The power outage affected 6 million people in California, Arizona and New Mexico. It was caused by one employee’s error in moving some equipment and caused what should have been a minor outage in Yuma Arizona, but for some reason it had a domino effect on the power grid. Also, it was the 6th largest outage ever.

In all, it could have been much worse. I did however get jipped out of a fancy dinner and the Hotel Del and I DO expect the universe to make it up to me somehow.

The following morning I spent in the pool again taking advantage of the large pool which I had all to my self. Steve surprised me by joining me. He was supposed to be in some additional conference sessions but because of the power outage and airport closure, many of the speakers were not able to make it to San Diego in time to speak. So he came and swam some laps.

After our pool time we went on a 2 hour Harbor Cruise on the Cornholer.
I mean Hornblower.
The boat looked a lot like this.

We took the cruise with Steve’s friend from work Jonathan and his wife Heather. Some how I didn't get a photo of them with my camera. Oops.

The boat trip was rather interesting, especially if you were a senior citizen. We did see an awful lot of navy ships.
The USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier had triumphantly returned that morning. It was pretty exciting to see it. I got a picture the day before of another ship coming in. All the sailors were on deck in their white uniforms and the tugboat was spraying water out.
I won’t lie, it was a pretty patriotic moment.

Here are some other highlights of the boat trip.

A new boat being built.
They build it right on the harbor and shove it in the water when it's done.

Hosptital Ship.
The Mercy, she helps in disasters like Earth Quake in Haiti.

An America's Cup Race Yacht.
Pretty Cool to see.

We were promised Sea Lions too.
Here they are, a little of the gross side, but sea lions none the less.

The trip got even better when we bought a refillable souvineer cup.
Between the two of us I bet we had a dozen DP refills.

We went right under the Coronado Bridge.
Pretty cool. It's very big!

After we got off the ship we found this monument made after the famous photo.
We just had to it.

After the cruise I took the group to the Greek Island Café as recommended by Bob and Hana who have sworn up and down for years that this was the best Greek food around.
They were right! It was tremendous! They had Fiery Feta which was their creation of feta cheese, cayenne pepper, tomatoes and other delicious spices. Holy Cow.
It was one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten.

After lunch, we shopped around a little in the Seaport Village which I actually really enjoyed. I normally don’t care for little shops, but these were especially quaint. According to our Harbor Cruise Master, Seaport Village was designed by Disney Imagineers. No wonder it’s so perfect. We bought some souvenirs there and were very happy with our purchases.

The next stop on the agenda was San Diego Old Town.
Here we are waiting for the light rail train to get there. We had to transfer trains and it was kind of a pain to get there, but I had never been before and wanted to see it this time around.

The trip did not disappoint. It was very interesting and unique. I wish I were BIG.
Get it?

Lots of shops to buy cheap junk and lots of restaurants. We hoped to have dinner here, but weren’t all that hungry. We decided to let our appetites ripen and kill some time by visiting the Mormon Battalion Visitor’s Center.
It may have been the best part of our trip to Old Town. They have a brand new building and a brand new interactive exhibit. If you haven’t been there, it’s worth the trip and that is coming from someone who is totally uninterested in the olden days. It was hilarious and interesting and just plain fun. A must do.

Plus, they gave us some coupons for dinner.
We ate at a fine Mexican restaurant called Miguel’s.
The food was really tasty and the portion was actually quite small. Since we shared a dish, we weren’t stuffed and got a fresh piping hot tortilla from a neighboring restaurant and ate it as we walked back to the train.
We went back to the hotel Happy, full and exhausted.

For our last morning we wanted to make sure we fully enjoyed the fabulous pool, so after stopping by a coffee shop for a Belgian Waffle and Bagel, we took up residence in the lounge chairs and read and enjoyed the sun and sea breeze.
It was wonderful. I wished we'd had a whole day to do just that, but I really was starting to miss my kids at this point and I was ready to head back home to them.


We said good by to the beautiful pool and pool area that had been our home for the last three days and headed to the airport.

We had a longer than expected layover at the Las Vegas airport. We found this advertisement. Only in Vegas.
If we'd had more time, i'm sure Steve would have insisted I take him there.

We finally arrived home at around 11:00 p.m. We were supposed to be home at 8:00p.m. It was frustrating, but nice to be back with my kiddos.

They ran out to greet us and dragged us back into my parents house as fast as they could. They had a surprise for us. It was a....Salad. All with produce they picked from grandpa's garden.
Grandma even let them cut up the veggies. They were so happy as they watched me eat it.
Nothing like a mid-night salad.

They were so excited about the prizes I had promised them. I was equally as excited to present them to them. I had found at Seaport Village some little lady bug necklaces that came in a lady bug velvet box. AND...I found an identical glass "Lady Bugsie" to replace the one Alyssa had lost more than a year ago. She had requested this be her prize,but I told her there was no way I'd be able to find her a glass lady bug like the one my dear friend Amy had brought her from Cape Cod. As fate would have it. I did. No child could have been more happy with any other gift.


They deserved the prizes too, because both of my kids got the stomach flu and threw-up while we were gone. Isn't that so sad! My sweet sister and law and brother along with my mom took care of my sick kids for me. I am so grateful to them.