The Weekend (18-21 MAR 11)

This is from the last day... sunset on San Diego Bay. The city is behind us and my base is a ways down the beach to the right.

Since my instructor was nice (and I did well on the test), he let me go early last Friday in order to meet up with Mike. It was 1130 when I walked off base, and I soon found out Mike had just picked up the rental car. We met outside the Starbucks, across from the front gate on Laning Rd. and had salmon at the Greek Cafe next door. Mike's hotel was within walking distance from the base, so he checked in next... and we were both pretty wiped out. He hadn't gotten much of any sleep, and I had gotten up at 4ish myself for a two-hour watch that morning. We spent the majority of the day just lazing around... and it was really nice.

The scheduled event of the day was a symphony concert downtown. So we rode the trolley (to avoid having to park), had dinner at a burger place, then enjoyed some delightfully soft and beautiful tunes (including one of Haydn's London Symphonies). Near the end, I couldn't keep my eyes open, but I think I was able to drink it all in anyway. Mike drove me back to the base and we shared a moment together on the water's edge, where you can see the lights and skyline of the city straight ahead, across the bay. And we had a full moon!

Saturday morning I walked to the motel to give him time to wake up after I called (this worked out very well for Sunday too). :) And then we had breakfast at Denny's (a block or two away from his motel... it was a great location!). The rest of the day was spent at the illustrious San Diego Zoo... and we were both duly impressed. We worked our way through practically the entire place... in around 7 hours... :)

Loved the flamingo pond (with the ducks and peacocks), the aviaries (with the pheasant-peacocks, and lots more), the polar bears, the pandas, the tiger, the capybaras (and their baby), the elephants (near where we had dinner - and where we had a close-up hummingbird encounter), the tapirs, the okapi, the giraffe, the bears, the hippos (and a baby), the rhino, the many monkeys & apes, but most especially the pair of lions... the lioness was rather upset. As we were walking up, we heard some roaring, and I assumed it was the recorded sounds, like they had for the tiger. It was the real thing! At one point I got up right next to the glass, leaning on the side. The crowd was taunting her, partly because they were excited... and partly to get interesting pictures... and suddenly she stood up on her hind legs and pawed the glass a few times right on top of me. Never had I pondered how big lion's paws are... :) Thank the Lord for the glass! We all would have been mauled that day.

It was much fun to share my laptop for chat back at the motel. It was almost as novel as the one from Chicago, the weekend I graduated boot camp.

Sunday morning we started out a little later. Went to Ocean Beach for breakfast at an old-fashioned diner... mmm! I'll have to go back! I had some delicious corn beef hash and eggs and a biscuit with sausage gravy. When we finished, we kept walking down the main street to their landmark fishing pier and walked all the way out to the end watching the pelicans and cormorants go diving for fish. It was incredibly windy, so we didn't stay out there very long. :)

Back in the car again, we headed directly for Balboa Park again... this time to explore the Art Museum (which I hadn't seen before) and then to have a fancy dinner at my favorite place... a treat for my birthday. I had Atlantic cod, and Mike had the roast duck. MMM! It was a shame that they canceled the Globe's play... but it just meant more time talking and relaxing together.

Saying goodnight wasn't hard because we still knew we had one more evening together after school on Monday... we started new material, so I was able to pay complete attention. :) But as soon as we marched out, I was gone and getting ready to meet Mike again. We went and spent a few minutes walking along the bay front...

... went to In & Out for some old-fashioned hamburgers, then spent our time watching an episode of McHale's Navy, reading in our book together and talking before the time came for our final goodbye.

I'm not sure if "fantastic" well enough describes the good time we both had... but it sure was like the stuff that dreams are made of.

Jp