Mystery Trip 2012

Finally had a chance to sit and go through pictures which was much less monumental than I thought; apparently Jodi took a lot of the pictures, so we'll have to wait for her update.

But I'll give a little run-down of what we did, even though Janna already did that and did it well.

We picked them up from Palm Springs airport on Friday night, came back for some sangria and sleep. As Janna mentions, we accompanied many of our plans with a limerick that they had to complete (a la Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!) It was fun to come up with, though some of our rhymes were a bit of a stretch. Check the answers at the bottom if you're stuck. :)

Here was our first:

this rhyme is as short as Sofia
and will serve to reveal an idea
each event that we do
has its own limerick too
now let’s all have some warm spiced __________

Saturday morning after breakfast, we took off heading south.

at eight in the morning we‘ll go
forgetting the blizzards and snow
heading south in the car
we won’t travel too far
we’re off to go see  _________

San Diego! (Sorry, I gave you the answer.)

a large naval outpost afloat
its hotel has a guest list to note
you won’t find a car (*which we were wrong about)
on Coronado’s black tar
so to get there we must take a _________

We first went to Coronado and had a great time. We took the ferry and spent a few hours walking.

We enjoyed looking at landscaping, the Coronado Hotel, the Pacific Ocean, and some people watching. 

 We walked around a couple miles of a paved bike path.

 Enjoying the beautiful beach right outside the Coronado Hotel.

I think we could've spent more time there, but we had other plans:

Balboa’s a great place to munch
and eat some red grapes by the bunch
not far from the zoo
it’s a beautiful view
next up is a grand picnic _________

From there we went to Balboa Park for lunch. We walked around some more there, enjoying the scenery and company.

We were tired and ready to be done walking and headed to our hotel from there. We checked in, hung out in our room, relaxed a little, then got ready for dinner at Daisy's Bistro.

we’re beautiful girls at the core
on the outside let’s work a bit more
we’ll get dressed up and cute
and then find a good route
to Daisy’s for dinner for ___________

We got a great deal for four people and got the perfect amount of food. We were so full from great food (despite what the reviews may have said and the basically empty dining room!) and so sore from the 10 miles of walking we did that day that we waddled (literally) back to our hotel which was a long 500 feet from our hotel. Perfect.

We went back to our room to enjoy playing a game and doing some facials (and a LOT of laughs). Right before bed we prepped Joy and Janna for the next day:

inspired by a Biblical tale  
make sure you hang on to the rail
it might be quite cold
but we’re sure to behold
the sight of a giant grey _________

After a decent night of sleep, we headed out to go whale watching! It's the peak of the grey whale season and we were fortunate to see the backsides and tails of 3 different whales as they made their way to warmer waters.

 

 one of the highlights was seeing lots of dolphins!

I took a lot of pictures of the whales. But they all look the same:

It was a cool experience and I'm glad we did it. We (I) expected colder weather and it was cool, but not frigid, and the sun made a few appearances during our three-hour tour.

After debarking the boat, we headed to a local taco shop and got some great Mexican food. From there we hopped on the 15 heading back north, stopping at in Temecula...

with reds, whites, and blushes divine

those varietals picked off the vine
we’ll take a few sips
and pay with our chips
it’s time to go sample some ___________

...for a couple of wine tastes and a quick scour through Home Goods.

Once back in Redlands we had a nice meal together (it was Janna's birthday!) and watched a movie that wasn't as good as we hoped but we were exhausted anyway.

Since Monday was a holiday for us California teachers, we had the day to spend together in Redlands. We took a walk around Prospect Park, played more games, hung out and talked, and prepared to go our separate ways (Ben and Jodi left that night, Janna and Joy on Tuesday).

Amazingly enough, this was the first time the four of us had done ANYthing together and I'm SO glad it worked out for us to do.

Answers to the limericks: sangria, San Diego, boat, lunch, four, whale, wine