Monday, December 31, 2012

San Diego Day 1 (December 31, 2012)

Monday, December 31, 2012
We went to Laura and Robert's for breakfast this morning.
She made pancrepes (a pancake/crepe derivative) with a wonderful fruit salad. We got to meet Laura and Robert's chihuahua, Henri, and the labradoodles they were petsitting who were named Carter and Rosie.

We also got a tour of the amazing home they were housesitting. The canyon is gorgeous and the house sits on a hill. The doggies like to play games with squeaky toys and fetch. Kris or Robert would throw the toy down the canyon and the dogs would fetch and retrieve. They were fantastic pupperdoodles.

Laura, Robert, and Henri next drove us to see Mount Soledad and the Mount Soledad Memorial. The views were fantastic.



Along the route, we narrated Henri in French. It's pretty hilarious to narrate a chihuahua in French. He has quite a personality.
Our next destination was La Jolla (pronounced La Hoya). There are incredible coastal views here and a wonderful beach. You could see the Torrey Pines State Reserve, and we got to see the art museum where Robert and Laura got married.






At the children's beach in La Jolla, there are a bunch of wild seals. They provided us with a lot of entertainment. Kris and I love animals, and, while a lot of the seals were sleeping, there were quite a few moving around.


Look at that face!

Holding his flippers together.

Oops...he had an itch.




There were some pelicans and other water birds too.
Back at Hillcrest/Mission Hills, Laura made a great pasta lunch for the lot of us before Kris and I went to Point Lomo.

Point Lomo includes the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, Cabrillo National Monument, Old Point Lomo Lighthouse and assistant keepers quarters, whale watching, tide pools, and more.

The cemetery is a geometric wonder. So many straight lines delight the eyes. The headstones are are made of the same material and engraved similarly.




They go for as far as the eye can see and cover both sides of the street.
Up at the lighthouse, you can take a tour of the lighthouse and keeper's home. They have a great informational display. It's worthwhile to take the self-guided tour and read the explanatory material.


We had fantastically clear views of downtown San Diego and could see all the way to Tijuana, Mexico.
After visiting all of these areas, we stopped to view sunset on the Sunset Cliffs.








We went back to spend New Year's Eve at Laura and Robert's. Skitler finally got to meet Darlene of the Darlene Chronicles at the party.
Darlene (pink peep) and Skitler
After fireworks went off, Rosie and Carter decided to come inside. Watching Henri play with Rosie and Carter provided endless entertainment. To see this tiny chihuahua command dominance over two bear-sized dogs was something else. They would be playing fetch with the squeaker toy, Carter was always fastest to get it, but Henri would seriously take it right from Carter's mouth. Poor Rosie never got the toy.
If Rosie somehow got the toy, at first she'd never let go. Henri tried various tactics to get the toy from Rosie. After multiple tries, he started barking at a really high octave. It completely worked! Rosie would get startled by the barking and let go.




When Carter would play with Henri, he was such a gentle giant. All three dogs are great! We had a fun evening.
We all threw the toy at some point.







Happy New Year!