San Diego ~ 2009

Will I ever feel caught up with blogging? Probably not since I realized I have our 10-year college reunion and Lake Tahoe trip that still haven’t made it on a blog page. They both occurred in 2008. That might be past the point of no return? But for now, here is a post from the business/fun trip we took in early October to San Diego.

Wade and his dad (Poppy) were going to a conference there, so MoMere (Wade’s mom), Tate, and I all tagged along. I had never been to San Diego before and have to say that I fell in love. I’m pretty sure it’s fair to say that they have flawless weather. And when we were there, the locals were saying it was cold. Sunny with highs in the low 60s. To me it was perfection.

The trip started off on a good note with Tate doing great on the plane. What a difference from when we flew with him last year. This time around, he was so excited to ride in an airplane, and he really got it that we were up in the sky. He loved looking out the window, reading the SkyMall magazine, and eating lots of snacks with chocolate milk.



And bless this child…he even took a 2-hour nap!

The trip was great all around. We only had one mishap. We forgot the umbrella stroller. He rarely uses it anymore, but when we’re doing a lot of walking around, there are times when it’s pretty much critical. And with Wade being in the conference most days and me being pregnant, I really didn’t want to have to carry 30+ lbs. around a lot. So the wild goose chase began. We searched all over the downtown area the first night there to find nothing resembling a stroller. The nearest Wal-Mart was a $50 cab fare away. I was getting nervous.

We had some time before the conference began on Sunday, so we all headed over to Coronado Island. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. I’m pretty sure I could live right there. The hotel was impressive. And I loved walking down on the beach.

This may look like a picture mid-tantrum. Not quite. This is what Tate does when he is over-the-moon excited to be on a beach with waves and sand. He throws himself onto the sand and rolls around in it while squealing and laughing. I cleaned out sand for days.

Keep Off? These Strzineks are a bunch of rule breakers. :)

And eureka! We found the one and only shop that rented strollers. It ended up costing $45 (nice), but there were no other options. And we never saw another stroller shop the rest of the trip. So glad to find this place.

For the ride back to the hotel, we decided to live like the locals and took the bus. Not sure the last time I was on a city bus since they don’t have any around where we live. Despite that it takes about four times as long to get where you were going, I was impressed. And Tate of course thought it was pretty cool.

After dinner that night, we headed over to a Ghirardelli ice cream shop. The picture doesn’t even need much of a caption. Except maybe a 2 y.o.’s version of heaven. We did stop him about half way through as he would’ve eaten every last bite.

So once the guys were off to learn everything you wanted to know about clinical research (crazy fun!), we headed to the San Diego Zoo. After hearing about it forever, I had pretty high expectations. But I have to say, I quickly realized that we are pretty spoiled with our own local zoo. It’s so much easier to get around and really just about the same types of animals. It was still a really fun day.

Tate’s favorite part may have been riding the Skyfari Airtram that took you from one side to another.

The rest of the trip was spent walking around downtown, the Gaslamp Quarter, and the pier right by the hotel. We found a little park for Tate to play cars and throw the football for hours (infamous stroller in background).

A fun night for me was having dinner with my freshman year college roommate, Jamie, who now lives in the area. We hadn’t seen each other in almost 12 years and had a great dinner with hours and hours of catch-up conversation. How did I not take any pictures?

And for the last night, Tate stayed with Wade’s parents while they sweetly let he and I have a night out. We walked around and had dinner on the waterfront.

Wade loved all of the history around since it’s such a military city/port. Here is a huge statue of the famous picture “Unconditional Surrender” from WWII. I love the photograph, but if I was that girl, I’m not sure I would want something depicting my feet in such an enormous way. It was really kind of odd-looking to be that large scale.

And for the final day, we got to finish all the modes of transportation taken so far (plane, bus, taxi, train) with a boat ride back across to return the stroller on Coronado Island.

Then it was time to head back home. We all enjoyed spending time together, and Tate loved having a few days with Poppy & MoMere. It was a beautiful city and a really fun family trip!