Wherever I may Roam (this may be Part 1)

Whew!  I have not posted at all lately!  So sorry to my readers, or maybe just my sister....

It all started when JaDee went to Adak with Robert and Lee to hunt caribou.  They were gone for 10 days we wives pledged ourselves a girls trip.  Well, turns out we have one among us who happens to live in a vacation destination and Liz's parents graciously opened their home to us in San Diego (and since their house makes most resorts look shabby with immaculate landscaping, beautiful pool, 5 acres of avocados, we were set up quite nice)!
 We got off the plane at 9AM Thursday morning and went here first:

 See, look at me in a covered wagon:

 Since we were in the neighborhood we toured and shopped Old Town San Diego.  Oh and we ate at a yummy Mexican restaurant...we were in North Mexico after all...

 Saturday Morning we went to the LDS Temple in La Jolla

 Sunday I got to see my old college roommate Carrie.  We hadn't seen each other since I spent 4 days with her in New York City back in 2002.  Carrie is awesome!! She has lived all over the world, is constantly in the service of others and she does half Iron man Races.  That's 50 miles bike, 1 mile swim, 13 mile run!!  Crazy girl.  California is perfect for her...but she may come run the mayors marathon next year in Anchorage so I will have to use all my Alaskan charm to lure her here with me :)

 Monday was the best day ever!! We went shopping at the Carlsbad Outlets where I withstood all of Fossils temptation against another purse and got a watch instead.  Then we ate yummy sushi and headed out to kayak in the OCEAN!!!

Oh my, I had never been more scared in my life.  We went with a tour and the guides help push us out to sea in our kayaks.  Well we had to get past the breakers crashing into shore.  Huge waves were crashing over my head.  HUGE!! Then once I got out to sea the swells were gigantic.  The guides couldn't let us go in the caves because the surf was to rough and crashing into cliffs is bad for return business, but we had dolphins come up right next to us, saw the sea lions on the rocks and pelicans so close over head I thought they would eat me. Liz got sea sick and Bethany had to paddle the two of them in the double kayak. I was all alone in the single, but it turns out I am a pretty good little paddler...maybe I found a summer sport to tide me over now that X-country ski season is over!

On the way back in to shore the swells were so big you could not see the rest of the people in the tour...good the thing the current sort of pulled us in to shore naturally or else I would have ended up in San Francisco!

After the kayak tour we walked along the coast in La Jolla.  We went to the Children's beach where the harbor seals haul out and saw this momma and baby so close I didn't even use the zoom for this picture.  I could have touched them!

Then my favorite the Sea Lions. These things are so cool.  

The coast along La Jolla

 We had a 9 hour layover in Portland Oregon so we hit some of the high lites...VOODOO DONUTS...mmmmmm....unexplained bacon, says Homer Simpson aka ME, as I bite into a bacon maple bar.  Turns out Bethany and I like alot of the same things. We ordered a lot of the same food without consulting each other first, and she introduced me to spicy tuna rolls at the sushi place. At Voodoo Donuts we both ordered Bavarian cream... and since the angry, yelling, heavier than heavy metal music in this place prevented us from hearing what we ordered, it wasn't until we got to the car that we found out that yet again, we had gotten the same thing!

Wait are we in China? No, just the Chinese gardens... Liz served a mission for our church in Taiwan. She is another of my world traveling friends.  She taught English in Russia too.  We were about a week early for all the trees to be in full bloom.  But it was pretty anyway.

This was my favorite place ever.  Powell's Books.  This book store is an entire city block of buildings pieced together to create the largest bookstore in America.  It kicks Barnes and Nobles trash!  incredibly organized and it even has an app available to help you navigate the store.  I could have stayed here for days.  If I am ever in Portland, I will for sure be headed back there again.  Look them up online...they have excellent used and new books.

Finally we ate at Lucy's Table. Oh my, again! This was my goat cheese ravioli with baked beet salad.  Bethany had chickpea fries in the background.  Their homemade pasta was outstanding!  Again, I would move to Portland just to eat here after I shopped for books at Powell's!