Vacation: Days 1 and 2

This year for our big vacation, Jeni and I chose sunny San Diego, with a day trip planned to LA.

The first day was mostly a travel day stopped by the WallyWorld and pick up some essentials and get our bearings. We went downtown and shopped around in their historic gas lamp district. We were not that impressed. It was basically just block after block of restaurants, which is fine, we just weren't hungry.

The second day we started out by going down to Little Italy for their Saturday Farmers Market and to explore the Little Italy area. It was pretty cool. We ate at a restaurant called Filippe's Pizza Grotto. Great food, the smell of various, fresh cheeses in the air, abysmal service. They did however have ample wait staff, too many wait staff in wait. It was great opportunity for me to teach Jeni some of what I've been learning in my MBA classes as we discussed the Principle of Diminishing Returns and as she had to go ask our waitress if she was ever going to wait on us. She said no, but that's a different story.
We were then supposed to go snorkeling (something neither of us had ever done) in the La Jolla Cove and caves, but when we got there, they said there was a small craft alert and it was too windy and zero visibility underwater. So, no snorkeling for us. We instead watched a little football back at the hotel and went up to the top of Mount Soledad. It was a really neat view from up there as you could see all of metro San Diego. The unique thing about Mount Soledad is that it's a war memorial, but not just to those to died in battle, in honors those who came back as well.

Then off to Sunset Cliffs for, what else, the sunset. It was just like you see in the movies, with the ocean ending at a wall of rock and cliff.

A couple more quick notes and some pics and I'll continue describing the rest of the vacation in the next couple days.

-I really like Charger and Padre gear. I'm not really a fan of either team, but I don't have anything against either one and I thought they do a do job at being creative with their logo and having a couple different color schemes for each team that mix things up a bit.

-The city was laid out very well. Despite how spread out everything was and how open the area felt, it still didn't take long to get anywhere and the drivers are much better than drivers in other comparatively sized cities. They change lanes a lot, but it's manageable.

Below is a picture from Sunset Cliffs. Click on the picture for more pics from days 1 and 2.

Riding Sparkles on the trail

Over the holiday weekend Phil & I had the opportunity to go horseback riding at Jerry Cooper's Ranch - Black Horse Run. Let me just tell you it was a pleasure to meet this man. He was kind & gentle with the animals. He made sure that both Phil & I felt comfortable on the horses before taking us out on the trail. The ranch is not that far off of Fairview Road but on the trail you feel like you are so much further out from the city. There are beautiful trees & a lake as far as you can see.

During our trail ride Jerry told us about a previous ride where he had seen a baby black bear run across the trail. You could tell that he just loved doing what he does. We had such a wonderful time & plan to make it back out to Jerry's ranch in the near future. His prices are also quite reasonable. For both of us to ride for an hour it was $75 and the more people that go, the lower the prices are. So if anyone is interested in a group ride (..lifers?) let us know & we'll go enjoy some time together at Black Horse Run.

Jerry Cooper - #864-505-7920

Deal of the Day

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend! We had a wonderful day off of work, more about that soon. But now - the Deal of the Day - CVS Photos - Add 50 4x6 prints in your cart, enter promo code 50get20 and pay for only 30 prints . And right now all prints are only .15/ea. so go & get those holiday photos uploaded!

Tales from the trip

Savannah- Glad we went it was good to get away but there were some disappointments. Here come the negativity: ;)

the "dueling" piano bar we went to check out was a step below upstairs @ Wild Wings including a "divorce party" like a bachelorette party but she was wearing a black veil & the group were all wearing black. I'm not making this up. The pianos didn't duel so much as take turns playing different songs.

Hotel room - we only had to pay for one night because we had free night points stocked up from Wyndham Rewards fka TripRewards. First room had ants crawling all over the air conditioner. Second room was perfect

Eating in Savannah was difficult for every meal. The advertised restaurants in town were mostly overpriced & had long waits due to the holiday weekend. Our eating schedule was totally off beginning the day we arrived in Savannah having us eating lunch between 2 & 3 and dinner as late as 9 one night.

Southern hospitality at all places that we went to (exception being Paula Dean's) was lacking BIG TIME. Including the visitor's center. They had pamphlets on a tack board that you had to ask for & one was called "Park Smart". So we asked the guy behind the counter for one & he says ,"I'll tell you how to park smart, it's free after 5 downtown". We were kind of taken aback & didn't get the pamphlet. We got back to the car & were discussing & decided to go back & park because HELLO where do we park BEFORE 5pm?

Tybee Beach was great. We went & toured a lighthouse (yes i went up the stairs but not out on the ledge) and just chilled at the beach for a few hours. We had planned to go to a highly advertised restaurant.. our lack of planning got us again. we went, just beating the dinner crowd (actually were there by 6) sat down & realized ummm we don't like seafood. LOL. We already knew that but they had no FRIED seafood. That is the only kind I will eat. Takes that whole fish taste out of eating fish. :) So we left & went to a restaurant back near the beach that had no wait time & had fried seafood. It was a good meal & we were able to sit & watch the traffic leaving the beach rather than being stuck in it.

You have to get up pretty early in the morning .....

.... to eat at Paula Dean's restaurant. Very early. Jeni and I visited Savannah over Memorial Day weekend, more on that trip later. One of the things we wanted to do while there was to eat at Paula's restaurant, The Lady and Sons. Jeni is a big fan of Paula and I like to eat Southern cooking, so it was a win-win, we thought. (We've also listened to her autobiography book on CD on a trip, so we felt connected to her). However, they don't take reservations in advance. Every morning at 9:30 am, the hostess comes out to her stand and starts taking names and giving out times for that day. We thought we'd saunter up there around 2 or so and be able to get a dinner slot. Not so. Booked for the day. The hostess said we should come back the next morning [pause] between 7:30 and 8 and get in line if we expected a reservation. [insert Phil jaw drop here] So, the next morning, we got there about 7:40. The line was already well formed. In fact, at 7:40, we were 64th in line. No, I didn't count, the guy behind me did. By 9:30 when the hostess did come out, the line wrapped halfway around the block, crossed the street and wrapped 3/4 the way around the next block. When I say 3/4 the block, I mean, 3 of the 4 sides of the block were all line. We did get to eat there, however, we needed an early time because we wanted to go to the beach that day, So, at 10:10 when we were given our 11:00 time and had to be back there at 10:45 again for opening bell and to get in another shorter line of all the 11:00 times, we didn't have much time to go and do anything. I can tell you that by 10:50, all the times for the day were gone and hundreds of people were then turned away. [As a brief aside, people are stupid. Like I said, this is a LONG line, and yet, I can't tell you how many people just walked up to the front of it and asked if this was the line to get reservations. Um, no, it's that really short line 3 blocks away. It isn't the long line that starts in front of the restaurant at the hostess stand, that wouldn't make any sense. Then, after the hostess is there, countless people just walk right up to her and ask for a time. Can they not see the line of people? In fact, this is such a problem, that they actually have two hostess. One to take peoples names from the line and one to stand there and turn the idiots who can't see the line away and tell them how a line works.] So anyway, as I'm sure you are all wondering, yes, the food was great. The fried chicken on the buffet was piled high and was delicious. Probably the best restaurant fried chicken I've ever had (still can't beat Grandma's), and everything on the buffet was excellent. Neither of us were fans of the hoe cakes though (cornbread pancakes). The biggest letdown factor for us is that hardly any restaurant could live up to the essential 3.5 hour wait we had. We are glad we went, but be prepared to wait if you go. Below is a picture the line with Jeni asleep in it soon after we got there. And also a picture of fried chicken on the buffet.