San Diego

I have never been to San Diego and so we thought it would be a great idea to include it as part of this trip. Half way through our trip we drove the 2ish hours south to San Diego. I slept for much of the drive so don't really remember any of that or the scenery though I'm pretty sure there wasn't much to see along the I-5.
We stayed in a great Marriott which was well located to be our base for exploring the San Diego area. Lucky me that someone thought this out in advance of our trip!! :) We spent some relaxing time at Torrey Pines beach which was a 5 minute drive from our hotel. This beach stretched for miles and there are supposed to be some good trails around, but we didn't have time this time around. The water was cool, but refreshing. After our beach time we drove down the coast to explore the area. We drove through La Jolla on our way to Point Loma and then downtown San Diego. We stopped for lunch in Point Loma at a seafood restaurant....now usually a seafood restaurant will have one or two token non-seafood dishes for those who don't eat seafood, like me, but end up at their restaurant. This place had one option, a chicken Caesar salad and I really didn't feel like eating that and besides I couldn't wait to get away from the "lovely" overpowering smell. There was no planned option B but we happened upon a Mexican restaurant called Miguel's Cocina, which turned out to be a fantastic lunch with a great view of downtown San Diego from their outdoor eating area.

We visited the Cabrillo National Monument at southern most part of Point Loma. The monument commemorates the first time an European expedition set foot on the west coast of the US. There was a $5 entry fee into the park but it did allow for repeat visits, not that we planned to come back. The park gives you wonderful views of the coast and you can see US Airforce fighter jets take off from their base nearby. This turned out to be a neat little stop.

We visited downtown San Diego during the day and also returned on a Friday evening for dinner and explored the Gas Lamp district on foot. This area comes alive on a Friday night with people out and about everywhere. Every restaurant lining the main road had outdoor seating which was pretty full. We ended up eating dinner at an Italian restaurant called Chianti. Now when a restaurant is named after an incredible wine region you just expect the food to be just as incredible and this place did not disappoint. We got a table on the patio out front and this provided for some good people watching opportunities too, like when a Ferrari pulled up and was told by the police he couldn't park where he wanted and he took 10 minutes to make his way across the street to park all the while revving his engine. Twice now on this trip have we dined on some really incredible Italian food. Highly recommend this restaurant when in San Diego. We also walked through a Marriott hotel in the area which is in a former bank building. The cool thing about this hotel is that they preserved many of the original parts of the building including the bank vault which is now a meeting room and still has the old safety deposit boxes attached on the walls. It also has the old telephone rooms with working phone and work areas. It was really neat to see.

We visited SeaWorld because its admission was included in our City Pass. I had never been, and so was curious to visit but also have mixed feelings about the whole concept. The park is very well laid out and designed and kept very clean. One thing I found annoying was that they don't have very many water fountains in the park. We wanted to refill our water bottles instead of buying water so having water fountains for this purpose would make sense especially when they are trying to teach about planet conservation. Seems logical to me that you wouldn't force people to buy multiple drinks on a hot day only to discard the container. Anyway, I digress. I enjoyed the exhibits, was a little saddened to see the killer whales and dolphins doing their shows in the size of pools they had. While the shows themselves were entertaining and it gives an opportunity to see these animals "up close" it breaks my heart to see these majestic animals out of their natural environment and put on display day in and day out. I don't regret going, I'm glad we did, I just had mixed feelings about it. They do put on good entertaining shows, but I also think about the welfare of the animals and what SeaWorld's intention is when the current animals pass on.

Our last day was spent at Del Mar beach. This is another beach that stretches for miles and is very popular. It took us about 45 minutes to find an appropriate free parking spot; parking near the beach and park was outrageously expensive. It was worth driving around looking for a free spot though. The water was great for playing in the waves. There were plenty of people trying to surf and body surf. There were also some stand-up paddle boarders beyond the break of the surf. We saw a couple weddings in the park. What a picturesque place for a wedding. We relaxed and took in the vitamin D before heading to a restaurant on the boardwalk for a light snack before dinner. A family friend of Z's lives in San Diego and he invited us over, so we enjoyed a lovely home cooked meal at his place that evening. It was a lovely way to end this vacation.



Torrey Pines beach

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Universal Studios

We drove to Universal Studios for the day. I had never been here, while Z had been there a few times before. I was a little apprehensive going on all the rides so I ended up skipping a couple which Z did by himself. When we arrived we went straight to the Studio Tours which Z says usually has a long line up. It took us about 10-15 minutes to get on which was very reasonable. The tour was really cool. We got to drive around the various sound studios, got to see parts of the set from The Grinch, Desperate Housewives, War of the Worlds, and many other facades of building which were part of many movies including the City Hall from Back to the Future. We experienced a 3-D Jurassic Park meets King Kong production, a Mexican flash flood, an earthquake in a subway station, and Jaws attacking a scuba diver and then trying to attack us. The tour was really cool. Z is always thinking ahead and planning out the best way to maximize our park adventures. He figured our best bet was to enjoy the lower park area first because most people would explore the upper part at arrival and then make their way to the lower part. On the lower part we did the Transformer 3-D ride; which I'll admit I was unsure about because I didn't know what to expect. I don't like the unknown, but I ended up enjoying the ride. Z did the Jurassic Park ride himself because I didn't fell like getting soaked and he also did the Mummy Ride; well I don't know anything about the movie and just the name of it didn't sound appealing to me. We stopped in the NBC Universal experience and got to see some artifacts for different movies including the Delorean from Back to the Future.

After some lunch we head back to the upper part of the park and watched the Special Effects show which provided some insight on how some of the special effects in movies are done. We enjoyed The Simpsons ride, Shrek in 4-D and I got my picture taken with Donkey and Shrek and Fiona. We also enjoyed the Water World show which is an action packed show based on the movie of the same name. We saw and got our picture taken with Scooby Doo and gang. All in all it was another fun filled day even though I chickened out on experiencing a couple of the rides.













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M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

I was quite tired after my run and my right knee was bugging me so we didn't go into either park that day. Besides Z was running his half marathon the next day so we took it pretty easy after breakfast. We drove down to Hunnington Beach in the afternoon and spent some time watching the surfers. This beach stretches for miles. It's got fabulous fine sand and the water was refreshing though a little on the cold side. The water was rather choppy and the lifeguards were telling people to watch out and not wade into the water near the pier.

Dinner that evening was at a lovely little Italian restaurant, Capones Italian Cucina, on the way back to Anaheim. Z and 3 others in our group were running the half the next day, so pasta was on the menu again. The food was really good and I decided to have pasta as well. Got to be as supportive as possible.

If I thought getting up early for my run was difficult, Z's run started even earlier at 5:30am. What had I gotten myself into? I promised to get up and head to the start line with him. This meant a 3:45am wake-up call. Who does that? Apparently thousands of runners and their support groups, that's who. No time for even a coffee before, but I did manage to find one in Downtown Disney while Z was running. Good thing otherwise I would have been G-r-u-m-p-y!!

My first glimpse of the Mouse was at the start line. Mickey and Minnie were both up bright and early dressed in their track suits ready to see the runners off. Z did well on his run, finishing sub 2 hours which was really good considering the intense heat they had to endure once the sun came out. His run took him through the parks on a shorten version to the 10k and then through the streets of Anaheim to the Honda Centre and through the Angels Stadium back towards Disneyland Drive to the finish.

After the run and breakfast we decided to spend the rest of the day in California Adventure. We had bought a California City Pass before coming here which gave us a 3 day park hopper pass, 1 day at Universal Studios and 1 day at Seaworld. The two parks sure had quite a different look from the day before because this time there were lots of people all around. We went on a few rides like Hollywood Tower of Terror. I willing went on this ride, but remembered pretty quickly why I don't like it. We did Soarin' Over California, watched the Aladdin show which was hugely entertaining - the genie was the star of the show, and went on The Little Mermaid. We had dinner at The Storybook Cafe and did a lot of walking around. We capped off the night by watching the World of Colour show at Paradise Pier. This show was spectacular. It is a water show that included lights, music and cartoon imagines within the water. This show is really worth checking out. I was blown away by the production. Disney sure does aim to please!!

Our day in Disneyland included many exciting rides. We did Finding Nemo - a submarine ride under water, Space Mountain -a thrilling ride in the dark, Star Wars in 3-D, Alice in Wonderland, Pirates of the Caribbean, It's A Small World, Indiana Jones, Buzz Lightyear. We also took in the new Mickey and the Magical Map show. This was a fun filled day that also took us rough Toontown. By the end of our park days, we were exhausted from the heat and all the walking.

Our third day at the parks took us to both California Adventure and Disneyland. We arrived at C.A. at opening and head straight to Cars Land so we could ride the new Radiator Springs Racers. The wait for a fast pass was probably about half an hour so we decided to risk it and try our luck in the regular line. When we got to the ride we heard the line was about 1.5 hours long so we debated whether our better bet was getting a fast pass. We ended up staying in the line up because we didn't have all day at the park. When we got closer to the entrance we as the single riders' line and decided to go that route, so we were on this ride within about 10 minutes. It was an exhilarating ride that included a "race" between two cars. This was a great ride. We did the Mickey Carousal ride and Z did the big coaster; I was too chicken. I got my picture with Donald and Chip and Dale. We saw Woody and Buzz Lightyear as well. We hopped over to Disneyland and got to see Mickey, Minnie, Daisy Duck, Pluto, and Goofy. We stopped in to watch Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln which was a neat presentation on Lincoln's greatest achievement of equality for all. This was the end of our visit to the happiest place on earth and it was once again a great visit to an enchanting place that allows you to leave all your worries behind.
















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Disney 10k

We arrived in Anaheim Friday afternoon and the first order of business after checking into our hotel was getting to the runners' expo at the Disneyland Resort convention centre. We decided to walk the 1.6 miles from our hotel which probably wasn't the wisest choice considering the heat. At the expo we had to pick up our race bibs, runners' packet, and shirts. Once we were done walking through the expo we decided to check out some of the Disney branded souvenir items and picked up a couple nice shirts. For Friday's pre-race dinner, we met up with our friends and indulged in our pasta meals at a restaurant called Oggi's. In typical American restaurant fashion, portion sizes were huge. I had spaghetti and meatballs and it was quite tasty. After dinner, last minute prep for the run before early bedtime.

Saturday morning wake was EARLY!!! The race started at 6:15am, but we needed to be in our corrals by 5:45am. Everyone knows how much I LOVE mornings so getting up at 4am was a piece of cake, NOT!! But it had to be done, so 4am arrived much sooner than I would have liked and it was get ready and head to the start line. Even the sun was still sleeping at this time. I was mentally and physically ready, the only part I was concerned about was whether my knees would hold up because they had starting giving me a little trouble on a couple recent training runs.

The theme of the inaugural 10k was Alice and the Mad Hatter. This being my first real 10k race, when I registered I had no idea what my finishing time would be so I registered in the slowest time group. This turned out to be a frustrating mistake because I ended up in the last corral which meant that I started a good 25 minutes after the first group meaning I had that many more people in front of me. Many of them were walkers who liked to spread out along the route and caused all the runners to have to dodge around them. That part was the most frustrating part.

The route took us first through the streets of Anaheim down Disneyland Drive down to the Anaheim Convention Centre and right past our hotel. For a split second I thought about heading up to our room and going back to bed, but I had come all this way, trained for four months and at that point also really wanted the finishers' medal so I kept going. We ran up Harbour Blvd which was closed southbound and I could only imagine the frustration for the drivers having to reroute just for the race because this street is a very busy roadway. The route made its way into California Adventure park by Cars Land through a back entrance. I ran through California Adventure along Paradise Pier and around through Grizzly Peak and Hollywood Land before exiting through another back route and running along a service road towards Disneyland Park.

In Disneyland the route took me into Tomorrowland past the Star Wars Adventure ride up to Autopia and past the Matterhorn. We continued into a back service area for the park and all along the route had Disney employees lined up cheering us on. That was really encouraging especially at times when I wasn't sure I wanted to go on. It was especially helpful after mile 3 (half way) when my right knee started bugging me and I really started thinking about finishing it by walking. It helped me keep going as they random strangers were cheering on us other random strangers and yelling things like "way to go", "we're proud of you", etc. The route continued back into the regular part of the park and through Sleeping Beauty's castle. From there I ran through Frontierland and Critter Country before the route took me to Downtown Disney and to the finish line. By this time I was really getting to the point of wanting to be done. Just past mile 6 I saw Z standing at the side and that gave me the extra little bit of energy to go the last .2 miles. Just as I had the finish in sight, I saw Pluto at the finish and I managed to find a slight burst of speed and high fives him as I crossed. 1:19:30 was my official time.

I'm glad I did this run. It gave me a reason to start running and a goal to reach for. It sure was a neat experience running through the parks so early when they were closed to the public. There were several characters who were in the park during our run as well.....the ones I remember are Alice, Chip and Dale and one of the princesses.







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