Spring Break in San Diego (Who says spring break is for students?)

A little note: this is a lot of pictures, but I only have half of all we have. Most of these are skydiving, the cement dolphins, and a tour of the house. I'm sure more will be coming. Even though this looks like a ton.
























So back in December, I wanted to go to San Diego to skydive for my birthday. And then everything got mixed up, and we didn't go. So it got backed up until this week. Originally, we had planned to stay at a hotel, but between parking and logistics, we didn't know how it would work out with all of us. Instead, John suggested we look into vacation homes. Oh, and we got the SWEETEST place ever. I feel so lucky how it all worked out. Here's a few pictures of the place we ended up staying. We got a great deal, and the people were so easy to work with. It slept 7 people in 3 bedrooms with 2 baths and was a 45 second walk to a gorgeous La Jolla beach. We were all so ecstatic. Except for the 2 uncomfortable futons that didn't exactly work out. But we still had furniture sleeping options. So everyone was pretty happy.
The ride down was fun, Dr. Brad (we call him that to not get him mixed up with my brother; he's working on a PhD) and I stopped at one point to take pictures of the Sea Level sign. I think he started giggling about an hour away. According to my brother, that's when John kicked in, too. 

The first night, we strolled around the village and ate at the Burger Lounge, where I had the best hamburger of my life. Hands down. Then, we went back home. Some of us watched movies in the living room, and the rest of us went walking on the beach.
The weather was a little chilly for all of us Pansy Arizonians, but we weren't allowed to mention this to John.

Sidenote: John is completely in love with La Jolla, San Diego, the whole area. He would rather be homeless in San Diego than to live in any rural inland town in the world. However, this isn't really the plan. His plan is to live in a beach house here and play on the beach daily with his future children. It's a good plan, and this trip just cemented this idea into reality. To John, the weather is perfect here, the people are perfect, the houses are perfect, and we won't even start on UCSD. Let's just say, there is no better place I could have chosen to invite John for Spring Break. But do not mention that you might be a little chilly. Because then you might be implying a possible imperfection in this celestial place. 

Anyways, it was chilly. But beautiful. Day 2 was skydiving. 

Originally, quite a few of us were going to go. But it ended up being just me and John (as a side note, I am very grateful for his courage despite the fact that this never ever would have made it on his to-do list.) I think the reality of the situation sunk in a little as we signed the waivers that included such inspiring lines as "I understand that in the event I am struck by the plane..." "You may land on a poisonous snake..." and "My dependents have been provided for..." And yet we signed away. WOOO-HOOO!!

We had to wait quite a while, but our instructors/tandem riders were really cool. We both thought the scariest part would be the jumping out. Really, that wasn't so bad. The hardest parts were:

a) Climbing up the little ladder into the plane. And realizing I would never climb down it.

b) The 45 degree ascent to 15,000 feet. Four times in my life my face has gone completely ashen. One of those times was during this ascent. The other 3 have been at work. One time someone died. One time I just thought they did. Yes, I was a little scared. 

But. The actual jump was a blast. The instructors messed with John and acted like my harness was jacked up right as a fell. Awful. I didn't even know they did that to him. The fall itself felt like it lasted forever, and actually felt very slow. It was a gorgeous view. San Diego. Mexico. Mountains. The Ocean. Fog. We did a few spins, and I steered the parachute for a little bit, which was cool. On the other side of the sky.....

John's ears hadn't popped on the way up, so he had a pounding headache on the way down, his left leg harness was on too tight, and his leg went numb. However, his instructor was cool, and they did a sweet dive down and spins. They landed 2 minutes earlier than I did. Despite all this, he thought it was sweet. 

Both of us hit the ground softly and happy. And then we spent the next 2 hours both trying not to puke. We may have gotten in the car too quickly afterwards and it was rough. We spent about a half hour standing around looking traumatized in the Target parking lot. I'm sure more than a few people thought we'd just found out about an unintended pregnancy. Because I don't think very many people have that look on their faces. Luckily, we made it home, ate dry toast, and managed to not throw up. whew.

While we were out, the rest of the group went to Balboa park. Which they all said was cool enough, but nothing to blog about...

We spent the afternoon swimming (Dr. Brad and Kim...crazy), laying out (Brad), playing frisbee (Me & John), and playing LaCrosse (Ariana and Tyler) and taking pictures on the cement dolphins. 

That night we walked across the street to House of Pizza, a one man Italian shop that was absolutely perfect. Don't ask for pan pizza though. It might take 3 hours longer if they're busy. 

We ate pizza, then walked down to watch the sunset. 

I'd never seen the sunset on the Pacific coast. To watch it quickly dip down and melt into the ocean was absolutely breathtaking. I was shocked, and we each got our picture taken with it. 

And Saturday morning, we all got up and sat on the beach. Dr. Brad went far enough down to see starfish, coral, and anemones, and we all just enjoyed our last few hours. It was a little more hazy than before, and, for me, this was the most peaceful part of the trip. There's a therapeutic feeling for me being on the coast, and on this trip, it took a couple days to show up. But that morning, it was definitely there. And I was so grateful to be there. 

And then we washed the sheets, the towels, vacuumed, and headed out. Brad & John & I went to my cousin Tyler's wedding at the San Diego temple. Brad had already been there for the ceremony, and John & I showed up as they went out. The temple was so remarkably gorgeous. It literally took my breath away the first time I saw it. My testimony may have even been a little renewed. 

Basically, it was a beautiful trip. And so much fun. Kudos to La Jolla. We'll be back.