Spring Break California

Figured it was about time I post about our fun vacation to California for Spring Break. I guess life caught up with is when we left the sunshine beaches of California for Laramie! For Spring Break we decided that we wanted to make a trip to California to visit people from Mark's mission and to see the sights- you know the beach, Sea World, those attractions you don't come close to seeing in Laramie, Wyoming ;) So we left on Thursday and headed to Salt Lake where we stayed with Bryan and Megan and Boston for the night. Boston got attached as we were leaving because Mark put him in the driver's seat of our car... Big mistake! Boston likes to drive so when we pulled him from his death grip on the wheel he began to squeal.. it was quite a sight as we drove away! We headed to St. George this day where we stayed with Melissa, Dallas, and Molly. The next day all of us headed down to Vegas to the motor speedway to enjoy a hot afternoon at Vegas Nascar Racing. This was a lot of fun; we got neon garage passes which means that we got to be really close to the cars and their drivers as they were being maintained in the garages between practice races. I got to be really close to the cars as they pulled off the track and be up close to Dale Earnheart Jr.'s car and Jeff Gordon's. This was pretty fun! That night Mark and I stayed with Eric and his girls in Vegas which was fun to see them for a little bit. The next day we woke up and started our long drive through the desert to Laguna Hills California. We arrived early afternoon to the Hayes home who were some really awesome members when Mark was on his mission. We dedcided to pack the dinner they had prepared and head down to the harbor for sunset dinner on the pier. This was really fun to watch the sail boats come in and out and we saw a harbor seal! We spent the night at their home and then headed down the coast the next day. We stopped in San Clamente, CA at Rainbow Flip Flop factory- apparently they are pretty popular so we bought us some! Then we went to Carlsbad, CA which is where Mark's mission home was. We went to the outlets there to shop and ate at Rubios- if you ever get the chance order fish tacos they are muy delicioso! Mark showed me his mission boundaries here and places he tracked and walked all day long. We then headed further down the coast to Ramona and Escondido where Mark served parts of his mission. We drove past miles and miles of orange and lemon orchards, it was quite the sight! We drove to Ramona where we were going to be staying with the Torsaks for the remainder of the trip and stopped in for a quick hello before we had to head back down the canyon to Brian and Christine Valasquez's home. They were feeding us for dinner and what a feast it was! This was really cool for Mark to be able to see some people he helped re-activate and teach. Then we headed back up to Ramona for the night. We stopped by the McBride's to visit with them. This is where Mark lived while he served in Ramona. The next day we headed to Sea World for the day. We went to all the shows- Shammu, Dolphins, Sea lions and saw all the other attractions! I loved this part of our trip! I loved to watch the whales and dolphins dance and jump really high into the sky! That night we visited a family that Mark taught and baptized but who went inactive in the last little while. It was kinda hard for Mark to see them inactive. We also visited the Parson-Kears family who Mark taught after they were baptized. I really liked meeting all these nice people! The next day we got up early and went to the San Diego temple. It was such a wonderful session and we even ran into people Mark knew from his mission. The temple is so gorgeous! I really loved going there! We went to Sea Port village and toured the shores; we ate lunch as an authenitc sea food restaurant and saw a huge Navy ship. The rest of the day we spent on the beach; we went to La Jolla shores and boogie boarded. We were the only people out there with out wet suit- guess they all knew we were from rural Wyoming! I loved boogie boarding and finally got the hang of it. We walked down the beach for a while and picked up sea shells and saw these poor washed up fish it was so sad! The next day we headed back to St. George and stoped outside of Vegas as some outlets where I found some killer deals! We spent the next days with Melissa and Dallas and Molly. Mark got to go golfing with Dallas and I enjoyed the wonderful running weather and playing with Molly. We went to lunch with Mark's grandparents and aunt and went swimming. The sad part of the trip came when we had to drive back to Wyoming freezing weather the next day. We really enjoyed our trip to California! It was definately a highlight of our year.