Angela Stadium!

After leaving San Diego mom & I made our way up to Long Beach for the motorcycle show.  On the way she had to stop in Anaheim and pick up tickets for the Supercross.  When we drove into the parking lot I noticed that the stadium had been named for me!

AWESOME!!

That evening my dad drove down and we met up with Mark & Karen.  Mark is the guy that my dad did his 4-corners trip with.  What a great character!  Such a great storeyteller and fun to listen to.  His wife, Karen, was very nice too.  Always cool to meet new, interesting people!  The motorcycle show was fun but I think Les would have liked it more.  He has the bike bug more than I do these days, but I know that when we get back we'll both be getting our motorcycle licenses. I couldn't let him do it without me!

We stayed Friday night in Long Beach and then headed back up to SLO on Saturday.  Sunday was spent putting up Christmas lights on my parents' house and I did a bit of yard work...more on that in the next post ;)

I couldn't help it...

As much as I LOVE California, I also love Italy.  I couldn't help but want to visit Little Italy in San Diego.  Mom and I stopped and grabbed a coffee on our way out of town and took a bit of a walk with our cameras.  It was so cool to be able to read the signs there and know what the different restaurant and shop names meant.  For example, one of my favorites from living there was Gelato Vero - True Gelato, aka, the real stuff!  here are a few of my pictures from that morning...

Closeup of the mosaic on the Little Italy sign in the previous picture

A mural on the side of the building by Vanessa Lemen

Cefalu! I know EXACTLY where that is!

I Dream of Wine

More Sea World Pictures

Emperor Penguins

Beluga Whale

Walrus, underwater

The next few are from the Shamu Show:

 

Inside the acquarium:

Flamingos with their beady little eyes

Swimin' with the Fishies...really big fishies

The highlight of my trip to San Diego was a day at Sea World.  It wasn't the usual day at an amusement park, we got to play with dolphins!  My mom, two of my aunts, and I signed up for the Dolphin Interaction Program and got to squeeze ourselves into wetsuits and actually get in the water with the dolphins! It was so cool!  The only downsides were that it wasn't long enough and we didn't get to actually swim with the dolphins. We did, however get to pet the dolphins, learned hand signals to make them do tricks, feed them slimy fish, and other fun stuff.  Here are a few of the professional pics from our time.

Mom and Chow-Chow Dancing, Aunt Chris and Autumn (the trainer) in the background

I got to dance with Stymie

Mom & Stymie

Gives a bit of perspective on how BIG dolphins are!

Me & Stymie

Chow-Chow's jumping skills with Cyndy, Mom, Autumn, Me, & Chris looking on

Cyndy, Mom, Me, & Chris HOLDING Stymie

She was HEAVY!!!

Playing withthe dolphins was such a cool experience!  I think actually swimming with dolphnins will need to be added to my bucket list.  I heard that you can actually swim with dolphins in Cabo...Mexico here I come!  More pictures from Sea World to follow in the next post...still have a bit of editing to do.

Life in the Edna Valley

I am sitting in a local coffee house trying to figure out how to catch up on a week and a half of blog posts.  Normally I wouldn't have that much to write about at home, but my CA travels have been fun and exciting and I want to share!  The problem is that I have so much to share that it is almost overwhelming.  I guess I should just pick up where I left off...a week ago Sunday, before mom and I left for San Diego.

Sunday evening mom and I *had* to stop by Edna Valley Vineyards, a winery just down the road from my parents house.  My mom has become the wine courier for our SoCal family.  Mom gets a discount on wine at the winery because she is a neighbor, cool huh?  And they make awesome wine.  While she was picking up several cases to take down south I grabbed my camera and wandered a bit.  It was a beautiful day, but a bit hazy.  I still managed to shoot a few good pics.

 

Such fun!  I love wineries and vineyards.  So beautiful!