A Visit From Minnesota and A Visit To Minnesota

Chrissy and Molly got out of the cold Minnesota winter to spend a long weekend in SanDiego and David and I were happy to be their 'tour guides'.
The girls came armed with a list of 'must dos' that they found on the Internet. One of those was to have a drink at the Gaslamp Quarter. The Gaslamp is an area filled with bars, restaurants, shops and bars.....and bars and bars. Not much opens until evening and so one night we went 'clubbing'. OK so not really, I mean me clubbing, please. But we did head down and our first stop was Dick's Last Resort. Dick's is a bar and restaurant and is a hell of a lot of fun!
Here we are walking down the street

And at one of the many micro breweries in San Diego. I was just amazed at all of the choices there are if you are a beer drinker. I was also amazed at the cost of a bottle of Beck's NA....$6.50. How in the heck do people afford it is what I wonder. It was a riot but by 9:30 this 'clubber' was danged tired and ready to go back to the room...it was not to be. The girls kept me out until 11:30.....
Another place that we wanted to be sure that they got to was Point Loma and Cabrillo National Park.
I love these Bird of Paradise, they do photograph well.
To the old lighthouse we went. This is from the top of the spiral staircase looking down. I bet they are really glad that I did not see fit to spit right at the moment:)
I have been to Cabrillo a number of times but have never been at low tide. This time the tide was low and we were able to 'play' in the tide pools.
The tide pools provides cool structure
Interesting 'things' under the water
Nice color
And there is always a Sea Gull just waiting to have it's picture taken
Another thing on their San Diego list was to go whale watching. The day was beautiful and we saw a couple of whales up close and personal. HOWEVER...my camera had been malfunctioning and it choose this day to really call it quits. Hence I missed many great 'tail' shots and shots of the whale surfacing. I did get this blow, but that's about it. I was ready to throw the danged thing in the sea.

Almost more exciting to us were the dolphins that swam alongside our boat for the longest time.

And no trip to San Diego is complete without a trip to the 'Del' and Coronado Beach where the sand has black streaks in it as well as gold flecks. A great place. They do in fact have an off leash dog park on the end of this beach, more about that at a later date.
Chrissy was drawn to the ice cream shop in the Del.
Like all other things at this hotel, the ice cream is pretty darned spendy. If you click on the picture you should be able to see the prices.
Both Chrissy and Molly fell in love with San Diego, what's not to love, and they say they will be back.

So from the warm to the cold I went for a long weekend. Missing my girls in MN I hopped a flight to see them. Having not seen them for almost three months I couldn't believe how much they had changed. And of course I had camera in hand most of the time (thank goodness it was an easy fix and I did not have to throw it in the ocean).
Attempting to take a family picture with a two year old who does not often sit still and a 7 month old who doesn't stop babbling is interesting at best. I just shot continually and this may be as good as it gets
Shelby Marie is one of the most content kids ever. Her and her sis may look alike but they certainly are two different kids.
I was happy to see that Julia had not forgotten her Grandma...phew.
These two get along wonderfully. Julia is a great big sister and Shelby watches her every move.

I was able to go to Julia's gymnastics with her and her daddy. Here she is doing her stretches. It was at about this time that Julia told her daddy that she wanted Grandma to help her thank you very much! It was fun....times to treasure

When we got home the gymnastics continued. Julia jumped for the chair to the ottoman and then onto her chair. Yep, she is always in motion.This was actually my last trip to Lenny and Kelly's Nicollet home and my longtime home as well. The house was my folk's when I was in high school and after my mom passed Lenny and my dad 'traded' houses. Len and Kel have sold the 'homestead' and are moving to Prior Lake. Lots of happy memories in that house and some not so much, but it is only a house and I still have my memories....