Mt. Soledad & Our Fish

July 24, 2011 - Part 2

On our second half of our day which was a Sunday and after having had stopped at the taco shop to eat some delicious rolled tacos with lots of guacamole, sour cream and salsa we went back to my parents to freshen up and rest a bit.  We headed towards La Jolla at around 4:45 pm. I wanted to stop at Mt. Soledad since we didn't get the opportunity to visit when we were there two weeks before.

Mt. Soledad is special in alot of different ways to people.

It's special to the patriotic ones, to the religious ones, to the ones that appreciate landmarks, and to those that enjoy a great view. To us it is special exactly for these same reasons. I have been visiting Mt. Soledad since I was in high school and we continue to do so (or try to) every time we visit San Diego.

On a clear day the view is phenomenal but do bundle up because it does get quite chilly and windy up here.

There's also some controversy about this landmark. If interested in reading about it click HERE.

There is a 360 degree view

These plaques are of the veterans who we honor at Mt. Soledad for serving our country.

The kids at the foot of the cross. Riley sleeping as usual.

And here's Jacob (being silly ... never fails) showing his liking to former President Reagan.

still eating those takis

Here's another president for ya.

This is a very neat place to visit and reading those plaque's is quite interesting.

After we left Mt. Soledad we went to visit a sweet friend of mine and her family. I first met her when I worked at the Hotel Del Coronado ... we lost touch for almost a decade and last year found each other on facebook and have been in touch since. She is now married and has twins.

Here we are, Riley and I with Claudia and Jason and their precious twins. These two little guys were supposed to be born in early January but they decided they wanted to come into this world a bit early. They were born on October 8th, 2010. Their names are Nicholas and Emma ... and after many hurdles in the NICU they are now two very sweet healthy babies, thank God. If we lived in San Diego I'm sure our babies would have had countless playdates and fun trips to the beach since they live only blocks away.

We left San Diego on Monday, July 25, 2011

On our first San Diego trip post I mentioned that we had to bring our pet fish along with us because we had no one to care for it and so we put Chance (that's its name) in a pickle jar with holes on the lid. He traveled well on our last trip and on this trip but I did something different that had a bit of a sad  outcome. Just before we left my parents I cleaned its water but I failed to put Chance in a baggie and let him get used to the water temperature. I instead placed him in a cup, cleaned out the dirty water in its jar, filled it with clean tap water and put the fish immediately back in its jar ... bad mistake.

Several hours into our drive back to Tucson Sydna happened to look at the fish jar and saw this:

 Poor Chance ... it had been with us since Nathan won it at the fair in March. We were a bit sad because in this short time Chance became part of our family. He would swim the direction that we would walk to. When we stopped to talk to it Chance would look at us as if he was enjoying our conversation. We sadly said our goodbyes at one of the rest stops and flushed him down the toilet. That's the best burial for a fish you know.

It was a hot day ... we were already somewhere in Arizona by this time. The sprinklers were on and so I let the kids get a little wet. Sydna held Riley right in the direction of a spray and his face got all wet. He liked it though as you can see.

Again we arrived in Tucson during mid afternoon.

This would make it our last trip to San Diego for the remainder of the year.

I've got other plans in mind ☺