Your mission, if you choose to accept….

Lee led me on a surprise Anniversary mission this past weekend. I had no idea what we were doing until I read each card that gave me each step in the mission. First, we drove up to his mom’s house to drop of Lexie. Then, we headed to Long Beach, where we walked around The Pike and the shops along the harbor.

Lee tried chocolate covered bacon from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.

Long Beach Harbor

My next mission card led us to The Varden, a boutique hotel right there in Long Beach. After checking in and resting (and enjoying some cable, which is a luxury we don’t have at home), it was time for me to look at the next card. It led us first to a wine tasting in the hotel lobby, then down to P.F. Changs for dinner! After dinner, on the way back to our hotel, we walked by a Johnny Rockets, which is the restaurant we first got to know each other at. Of course we had to stop to have a milkshake.

The next day was the big surprise. I looked at my mission card, which told me to plug in an address into our gps. The name of the city was Acton, which I had never heard of! I was baffled - I had no idea where we were going. We drove out toward Lancaster, into the mountains in the middle of nowhere. We came upon a sign that said “Shambala”. As we pulled into the dirt parking lot, I realized that we were going to take a tour of an animal sanctuary! This particular sanctuary is for big cats that have been found in people’s closets, at roadside zoos, or given up by people who thought they could keep one as a pet but realized it was too much to handle.
Before we went in, I opened my present - a hiking pack!

At the Shambala, they have 63 big cats, including two of Michael Jackson’s tigers. We got a two hour tour, learning a lot about the animals and where they came from. Some of the stories were pretty sad, but it was great to see that now they have a place to live humanely.

The Shambala was started by Tippi Hedren, who starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds and Marne. She came up with the idea for it when she was filming the movie Roar. We were able to get really close to the cats, and one of the highlights for me was hearing the lions roar.

The even have a liger!

Ligers do not occur naturally because there is only one place in the world where lions and tigers could possibly cross paths. So, this liger was a product of the mating of a male lion and a female tiger probably for a private buyer. Ligers are bigger than lions and tigers, but their organs are proportionally small for their bodies. They usually have a shorter life span than lions or tigers. A cat with a tiger for a mother and lion for a father is called a tigon.

Going to the Shambala was a great surprise! The whole mission of the Shambala was to make sure these big cats have a good life and also to get the word out that trying to own a big cat is a bad idea. They should be left in the wild, not only for their own sakes, but ours as well.

Eating a picnic lunch at the Shambala.

Pre-Halloween Festivities

Just two blocks away from our house is the path for the biggest halloween parade in our neighborhood. Actually, it might be the biggest halloween parade in San Diego. I certainly haven’t heard of any others. Our family walked up to the Boulevard for the festivities. We weren’t disappointed! I am happy to say that it was better than I expected. I am usually pleasantly surprised when I lower my standards.

Here are a few pictures of the event:

Click here for more.

This weekend…

Friday started with some kickball at Balboa Park with Natalie’s foreign students. I was on Lex watch. I played the first game but then took Lexie over to the dog park.

We came home and left asap. We went to Mikey Show Summer Tour. The Mikey Show is a morning radio talk show that is really funny and does live events sometimes. It was fun to experience but we dont know if we would go again.

We ended the night with Underworld III. NOT a good choice, but it was mine to make. haha.

Saturday we went shooting. Since we never got around to going last weekend. We went this weekend. It was a trade off Natalie would go shooting with me if I helped her clean the house when we got home. It was a fair trade I guess. But she had fun shooting and I did not have fun cleaning. Ha.

that night I went on a ride along with Coronado Police Dept. It was fun. The crime is not rampant as bigger cities but the officer I rode with was VERY knowledgeable about police work in general. That made it one of the best ride alongs I have done.

Sunday we went to church. Do not get me started on that. But my mom met us for church then lunch. It was nice to see mom and have a good big lunch. Then we went back home and worked on tombstones.

We ended our weekend with the movie The Great Buck Howard. An interesting flick. Lots of pretty good actors. If you get a chance to watch it do so but don’t run out and rent it today.

Thus ends our pretty good weekend.

One Productive Weekend…

Last weekend was very very productive. Here is the breakdown:

Friday-
• I started the dog house. Got all the wood put together except for the roof.
• Natalie worked
• Went on a ride along with La Mesa Police Dept. 7pm-130am. Ran into some Hell’s Angels about 1am. Lots of fun.

Saturday-
• Natalie took Lexie to Fiesta Island for a long run.
• I took on the challenge of cutting down the tree in our front yard. Pretty fun.
• We took a trip to Home Depot and Wal*mart to gather dog house supplies and Halloween decorations.
• We came home and our gardener was here. We talked to him for a minute and then took off to rent a rototiller.
• We watched as the gardener rototilled the lawn.
• We went back to our projects. Natalie made some great decorations and I finished the dog house.
• We cleaned up, got some Mexican food, and took off to the movies.
• Zombieland was Awesome! The Invention of Lying is ok.

Sunday-
• I got up early and painted Lex’s house.
• Church.
• Little Italy Festa. It was fun to walk around Lex was really good, so we let her try some calamari.
• Came home, watched Year One.

Monday-
• Last trip to Home Depot.
• Finished dog house - complete.
• Finished decorations - complete.
• Made some gravestones for the front yard.
• Had a delicious Steak and Potatoes dinner.

Labor Day Weekend - Pool Party

On Monday, we drove up to Orange County to go to Nathan’s pool party. It was really nice to swim since it’s been so hot. We had delicious burgers (this whole weekend was delicious) stuffed with bacon, cheese, jalapenos and more!

Lexie did so great swimming! It took us awhile to convince her to get it, but eventually she started paddling around. She even got in herself a couple of times without us telling her to! She made us very proud parents. Now, we just have to get her to jump off the diving board…

Labor Day Weekend - Julian

Our Saturday morning started off lazily. We rolled out of bed around 9am, wondering how we were going to spend our day. Then Lexie told us she wanted to go to Julian for the day. We agreed, and did some research online to see what was going on up there. Turned out, there was a Grape Stomp & Festa going on a Menghini Winery.
This was our first experience with grape stomping. Both Lee and I got into the large barrel filled with white grapes (no stains!) and squished grapes with our feet. We also got interviewed by a Union Tribune journalist, but when we checked out the newspaper the next day, we weren’t mentioned. Too bad!

Next, we headed to Julian, a little sleepy since it’s not apple season, but there were still a good amount of people in town. We got a sandwich and of course, some pie. Mine was delicious! It was apple/caramel/pecan! It’s hard to say which restaurant has the best pie, but this one from Apple Alley Bakery was pretty close.

Labor Day Weekend - Pow-Wow & Chevy’s

Yes, you read that right - pow-wow! Barona casino had a pow-wow this weekend, so we went to check it out. There were not many people there, but there were Indian tacos, which are so good. They are made on Indian fry bread, which I have tried to perfect several times but have failed. I will continue my quest until I succeed!

The pow-wow was on a baseball field, and there was a drum circle in the middle (the men had their backs to us so that we could not see the drums). You shouldn’t take a picture of a Native American drum because it steals the soul of the drum. Then around the circle there were several men chanting and wearing cotumes. The best part was when the kids came out - they had the best costumes and best dancing.

Lee really wanted to buy a fox tail (and a rabbit fur, and bull horns, and a cow hide, and….), so I told him if he could think of one reason why he needed it, I would buy it for him. He couldn’t.

That night, we went to Chevy’s with Matt & Jen to get margaritas and appetizers. We got the fresh guacamole that they make tableside - awesome! We also got sopapillas - another delicious breadlike concoction I need to learn how to make.

FISHING for nothing

This past weekend, our families came to San Diego for a deep sea fishing trip.

Our attempts at catching anything of worth were met with extremely limited success - actually, no success at all. The best we did was catch a few mackerel, which we threw back.

As you can see, it wasn’t much to write about. We changed our fresh-caught fish fry into a Costco fish fry (with carne asada for me), which we followed up with a trip to Yogurtland and a game of Balderdash. This definitely made up for a lack of action earlier in the afternoon.

Holiday!

While Lee and his friends were shooting away in the desert, my friends and I were relaxing in Pismo Beach, CA. Six of my friends and I got together for our yearly reunion (there are usually 11 of us, but 4 couldn’t make it). We stayed in a vacation rental right by the beach. As always, it was great to catch up with everyone and we all had a blast!