The Rapture

This last weekend was supposed to be the Beginning of the End with the Rapture taking place on Saturday. Thank goodness it didn't because it would have ruined Sister's Weekend.

Tonight I stuck my memory card from my camera into my computer so I could download all my Sister's Weekend pictures. There were none on the card. I panicked. 

"Olaf! I took a bunch of pictures this weekend and they're all gone! What happened?

"Umm, I think you downloaded them last night."

"No, I was too tired."

"Why don't you just check."

So I did. Guess what? He was right. As I looked through them I proceeded to tell him about the pictures.

"You told me that last night." he said.

"No I didn't."

So he gave me the narration I gave him last night. Apparently I was/still am a Little Tired.

We started out by taking a 3 Hour Cruise. It would have been our luck that the Rapture would have happened then and the Captain would have been raptured and we would have been stuck on an island. So, thank goodness the Rapture didn't happen. I wasn't prepared to live Gilligan's life.

The cruise was pretty awesome. We cruised the Bay area and basically it was a Military Tour since that's most of what is up and down the Bay. My boys are going to love that next time we're in the area.

But we did cruise by this awesome old sign.

And there were several sailboats and kayakers out. Crazy People. There are big ships in the Bay and it wouldn't take much for them to get run over.

At one point an F-18 Hornet took off and flew right over out heads. I lost my hearing.

When the cruise was over we went to Coronado Island, which really isn't an island, it's more of a peninsula. The island is covered in beautiful old houses. At this point the weather was so beautiful and the town was so incredible I started texting Olaf that I wasn't coming home. Ever. It also has this beautiful famous old hotel. Gorgeous. And the beach was covered in fine white sand. It's the kind of sand they use in Beach Love Scenes. I've never been on a beach where the thought of lovemaking in the sand seemed even remotely romantic.

Apparently someone else thought the sand was worthy of romance.

Here's some of the Party climbing on rocks. Thank goodness no one fell off into the Ocean, it's on the other side. We were careful and scooted off the rocks like a three-year-old.

And then we found this pub with $3 pizza slices. We were hungry and stopped in. The waitress started her spiel by telling us it was Happy Hour. Not to exciting to a bunch of Mormon girls. Then she proceeded to tell us that all appetizers were half price! That elicited a huge sound from this crowd. And she finished by telling us that pizza slices were $2! Another round of Ooohs and Aaahs! We were served an insane amount of food for $40.

The next day we started out in Old Town San Diego. Here I am sitting on an old tree in the second oldest graveyard in San Diego. I think the Haunted Tour stops here at night. Don't expect to see me there after dark.

And we found the Sheriff's museum. Here's Sister Accountant with a sweet, standard-issue, Salmon-colored Police car.

That night we went to La Jolla Cove for the sunset. But the clouds had returned. So we had to be satisfied with beautiful cliffs, flowers, beaches, rocks, seals, and noisy sea lions. Even though there was no sunset it was a beautiful evening.

And we rounded off the night with a quick stop at the San Diego Temple. I couldn't believe how beautiful it is. The glass work is amazing.

My last morning we went South to the Border. But we didn't cross it. We took The Very Last US Highway Exit. The fence behind the outlet stores? It's the Border. When we left we encountered signs such as the following:

I wanted to go home, so we didn't turn left.

I flew home and returned in the middle of a rain storm. Thank You Utah. You know how to make a girl wish she had missed her flight. Forever.

San Diego

My Baby Sister recently moved to San Diego with her Marine Hubby. They've only been there a month and we already bombarded them with a visit. We had so much fun. We went to the beach the first day there.

Enjoyed a gorgeous sunset.

 Middle Child played with Alien-looking Kelp.

Baby used his kelp as a fire hose.

Baby Sister and Me.

The next morning we went back by ourselves since everyone else had to work. We tried to find the same beach. But we took a wrong turn and ended up just a little bit south of the beach.

We ended up at Lo Jolla Cove. We parked and Olaf peeked over the edge of the cliff. He saw this beautiful beach.

And Sea Lions! They were loud.

We walked down the to cove. The water here was perfect for Scuba Divers, not so great for swimming because it became deep really fast.

The tide was starting to go out so Olaf looked in the tidal pools area for sea life. He found some sea anemones and little crabs.

We walked a little farther down and found some rocky outcroppings that we walked along.

And then we came upon the Seals! They were quiet and didn't make a peep.

After we trudged back to our car someone offered to take our pic.

By this time we were all hungry and had lunch at this cute seaside cafe. It's called Goldfish Point Cafe. They give you goldfish crackers with your sandwich! Then we took the boys back to the beach and let them play in the water for a couple of hours. We put sunblock on at this point. But it was too late for me. My feet and ankles were sunburned to a crisp from the walk. I wore the same shoes the rest of the time there.

Tune in next time for more of our adventure!

If You Build It

So, I ignored my blog for a whole month. When I post regularly I always like to look and see where people are who are checking out my blog. I think it's kind of cool when someone from another country looks at it. While I was taking a break I didn't expect anyone to look at it since I wasn't posting. I was wrong, I had an average of nine people a day look at it, that's not a whole lot less that look at it normally! I've never had people from this many countries look at my blog in a week before. I ranked #4,026,169 down from the most popular webpage. I think I'm catching up with Pioneer Woman.

Bright Lights

My Mom and I and Baby had some free time one afternoon while the other boys were doing some other things. We decided to take advantage of this time and go in search of the Neon Sign Boneyard. It took us a while to find it and most people didn't really know it existed and weren't much help. But we were diligent and found it. We had to go to the end of Fremont Street. We were looking for an actual old yard with signs littered all over the ground. But we found this instead. Signs hanging all over an abandoned mall. The recession has not been kind to this town.

Some signs were in great shape.

Some were fun and fast.

Others reminded you of a more glamorous time.

And some were worse for wear.

And my Mom remarked that almost every town had a Strand theater at some time or other.

And I loved the action in this sign.

I don't know what restaurant this boy was above but he would kind of scare me away.

I think this was a precursor to Coyote Ugly.

Trader Bills just sounds like Old Las Vegas.

Here's a buff milkman going about his morning run.

I'm assuming this was before the days of central heating. I don't know what Steamed Heat is but it doesn't sound real comfortable. But it's better than being cold.

This guy was watching over an intersection. At this point we left Fremont St. Tourist Area and headed onto Fremont St. Local Area. Much more colorful, abandoned, sketchy, and shady. We didn't go far.

But these old signs were to awesome to miss.

More dancing girls. I think they were a theme in Vegas from the start.

And drinks of course.

Aladdins Lamp was from the early 60's. Next time I'll go back at night and hopefully it'll be lit up like a candle.

That night we were watching TV and we saw one of the local newscaster's walking amongst a bunch of old signs in a big yard and we both jumped. "That's what we were really looking for! Where is that?" Of course the commercial was over and we had no idea.

Until the next day. We accidentally drove by this area of town. First we saw this old slipper and stopped to take a picture. And when I turned around. . .

The Real Boneyard!

It's only open by appointment. But I can hardly wait for our next trip!

Sightseeing

My children are all different. Wonderfully different. This last weekend we went to the Bellagio and took in the Chinese New Year gardens. Afterwards we strolled around the stores. That's where I found these delectable things.

They were so yummy and delicious and scrumptious. We also wandered into the Garden Store of the Bellagio. They sell stuff related to the big garden display. Olaf instantly found something he wanted.

He begged and pleaded and I gave in. He loves Terra Cotta Warriors. But so do I. So it wasn't a lot of pleading. And when the saleslady told him they were half off, we were sold. Baby saw what he had and wanted some too. So off they went. When they came back and Middle Child saw that Baby had bought something he had to buy something too. He said he wanted some Warriors also, until he got into the shop and saw some other items available for purchase, half off. Apparently it's The Year of the Rabbit.

Our Bling Bling Child had to have the sparkly thing. We joke that he's like a crow. They love shiny things and bring them home to incorporate into their nests. His bedroom shines, and not from cleanliness.

These rabbits were so bright and shiny that it's hard to tell what they look like.

And speaking of Bright and Shiny things, I was on a quest to find the Neon Signs Boneyard. I'll tell you about that in another post because it's pretty cool.

But I was on a mission to find some new things in Vegas. So I found some Old Things that were really cool. Like an old Las Vegas Grammar School, Mission Style. hee hee

It's across from some new-fangled really cool building so my Dad had never noticed it before. But we got out and took pictures because it is so beautiful.

It's been restored and while I don't know what is in it right now, it apparently has some mission-type services in it because the park outside was full of homeless people. Or Hobos as Baby calls them.

This is only about a tenth of how many people were there. I kept shushing Baby as he would use the word Hobos. I don't know if that's politically correct or anything, but I didn't think they would like it and I didn't want to start a fight with a homeless person cuz we know I wouldn't win, I don't have a clue as to how to fight properly, or even how to fight dirty. I missed out on that training.

Here's my Mom and Baby underneath the arches to the largest part of the structure, probably an old gym.

I was excited to find this neat building. Supposedly somewhere around this area are some old railroad homes. Next time I'm finding those. Watch for my upcoming post about Neon Signs. They were cool. Although not as plentiful as expected, because it is Vegas and that's the one and only thing I remember about Vegas as a child, the Bright Lights.