Sandy Eggo - Part II - Day 1: Seaworld

This President's weekend, my girl and I went to San Diego. It was a very fun trip. For Christmas, I bought a 3-for-1 pass for us to go to Seaworld, San Diego Zoo, and the San Diego Zoo's Safari Park (formerly known as the Wild Animal Park) and we decided this was going to the weekend we were going to use it. We left on Thursday night after my last class around 10pm. We were both very anxious to leave and took off as soon as I got home. We were both very hungry because we hadn't ate dinner yet so we stopped in Carlsbad to get some In-N-Out. It's not my favorite place but its good once in a while especially on a road trip like on the way to Vegas and going to the one in Barstow.

When we arrived at the hotel, it seemed a little strange... like I had been there before. It wasn't until we walked into the lobby that I realized why this was. On our 1 year anniversary, we came down to go to San Diego for the weekend and we stayed at a Holiday Inn around the same area. Then we both realized the hotel now called "The Mission Plaza" was the same hotel from that trip several years ago. We then checked in, were given the keys to the room and told where the elevator was. Our room was on the 2nd floor and we had a heavy and large suitcase so we headed toward the elevator. Apparently the lady at the front desk didn't know that the elevator was out of order. It wasn't a big deal and we went up the stairs. When we got to the room it seemed nice enough but Rachel immediately saw a problem. We had booked a room with 2 queen size beds but were instead given a room with 2 double beds. We called the front desk and they said they'd move us into another room the following day.

Friday:

We woke up and decided to get some breakfast. There was a Denny's right down the street from our hotel and just down the road from Seaworld. As we approached the restaurant there was a maintenance truck blocking the turning lane to get into the parking lot. I figured I could just go to the end of the next block and turn around. As I drove ahead I noticed that there was a no U-turn sign and figured I guess I just could go the next block. To make a long story short I ended up getting lost and following some road that took us way out of the way and into an area I was not familiar with. We finally made it back and had some pancakes.

After that we headed to the park. The sun was shining and looked like it was going to be a good day. When we got to front gate we had some trouble getting in with our passes and had to wait in a special line to get new passes. We finally made it inside and were greeted by this guy:



The first thing we did was to make our way to the Shamu show.

 

Hi everybody!

What's Up!?!



Look at me go!!



Apparently I was cloned...



and we can all do tricks.





Then we saw the Sharks:

 

And then seemingly out of nowhere it began pouring like crazy. We rushed inside into one of the indoor exhibits and found ourselves in the aquarium:

 

What are you looking at?

Pretty Colors



The sea turtle



When we got out the rain had let up and we went to see the Sea Lion and Otter show. It was fun except for some guy named "Biff" that they let onstage that was doing all this pantomiming and dancing before the show started.  



The Clyde and Seymore Show

After the show the rain started up again and was coming down pretty hard.  We made our way to the penguin and polar bear exhibit. (There was a better polar bear at the zoo so no pictures of that yet)

 

Penguins photographed in their natural habitat...



  

We also saw this guy in park during the day and couldn't resist a picture.



"Cow"abunga dude!



After we saw those exhibits we decided it was time to go. I was completely drenched by the time we got back to the car because I hadn't brought an umbrella because it was so sunny when we woke up. We went back to the hotel to change out of our wet clothes. I was sad though because we didn't get to see the dolphin show but it was still fun. We rested for a while and then went out to dinner at Olive Garden (which was lovely) and then went to Target because we forgot to bring toothpaste and had to get some other necessities (including an ice cream treat). Then we came back to the hotel and chilled out before going to bed.

Family Matters

Yesterday, February 14th, was a weird day. It started out fine enough but ended a little strangly. I hadn't really planned very well for the day and hadn't got anything for Rachel or made any kind of reservations for dinner. I know I shouldn't feel guilty just because it was Valentines Day but I didn't wanna come home empty handed. We were all talking at work about what we were all doing for Valentines and somehow it came up that I hadn't yet got anything. One of our biggest customers, Butch, was there during the conversation and said "You haven't gotten anything yet!?!" He then when on to tell us that he had taken his wife to a fancy dinner on Sunday night and ended up spending over $200 for just the two of them. I knew I wasn't going to be able to compete with that but I had to get something. Luckily Danny, my co-worker, had brought in a flyer for Edible Arrangements. I remember Rachel saying she didn't like them and thought they were weird but I knew I couldn't go wrong with a box of chocolate covered strawberries. After work I went to get some flowers and a card to complete the package. I know it wasn't much but she was grateful and enjoyed her gifts. For dinner we planned to go to Claimjumper but it was an hour wait so we decided to go to Supermex instead which had no wait. So that part of the day was very nice.

The bad part of my day started a little bit before I left work. Ryan, the assistant store manager, got mad at one of our drivers for taking too long on his delivery. He started to ask him questions as to why it took him so long and why he took a route that was seemingly impractical. I was a little confused as to why he was yelling at him and then he started yelling at me about it like it was my fault like it was my intention for the driver to take his time and be inefficient. There was no issue with me about how long it took and I didn't appreciate being accused of doing something wrong. I tried not to let it bother and went about my work. Then as soon as he left my mom texted me that she needed to talk to me about something. For some reason whenever my mom says that to me I always feel like I have done something wrong. She reassured me that I wasn't in trouble and to give her a call when I had the time.

Shortly after I got home I called my mom to see what was up. There has been a lot of drama going on in my family and she just wanted to bring me up to date. Apparently, my grandma who just moved to Missouri is in the hospital. She has had back problems for a few years with a cracked vertebrae and apparently it never fully healed. I had thought she had gotten better but it's hard to tell with her because of how she acts. She either secretive about everything, plays dumb or will say "that never happened" or " i never said that". I don't know why she's gotta be so strange like that for but I still love her. My mom also told me that my uncle Mike is being evicted who is on disability and doesn't know what he's going to do. My aunt who is also in poor health and was living with Mike is in need of a place to stay as well and was going to be staying with my mom for a few days. My other uncle, Richard has been at odds with the a lot of the family too and will not be in the same room with Mike. I don't know the whole story with that though but I just hate to see my family the way it is. It seems like every few months something new is happening or someone is moving away and my family keeps shrinking and shrinking. I hope everyone can reconcile their differences and get their lives back on track and we can stick together. I hope for the best for everyone.

Sandy Eggo

It's been a fun/interesting last week. Last Saturday I went to Disneyland with my wife Rachel and our neice Emily who is 2 and a half.  I met them there after work and we all had a lot of fun. Emily is so cute she loves to go on the train and monorail and she was very excited to go on Pirates of Carribean too. That was the first ride we went to when I got there. Rachel and Emily went on Small World and Carousel before I arrived. I also renewed my annual pass that my mother-in-law got me for my birthday. We live only about a mile away from the park so it makes sense to have one. Emily also made sure that we went on Dumbo which is another one of her favorite rides. We had to get Emily home by 9 so we didn't do much after that (I got there at like 7).

Sunday I didn't do much I didn't even watch the whole Superbowl. I saw parts of it here and there only to check in on the score to see if I won any money. I played $200 in a pool at work with the chance to win $1000 every quarter and $2000 for the 4th Quarter but I didn't win anything. Ryan, my co-worker, won the 2nd quarter and on Monday he bought everyone at work Buonos pizza which is like the best Pizza in San Pedro where I work and grew up. Yesterday at work Carlos, my manager bought pizza again for us which was cool to get free lunch twice in one week.

I'm excited for the week coming up. It's a shortened week for me only work on Monday and Friday and school on Tuesday and Thursday. Rachel and I are going to San Diego for the weekend. I bought us tickets for Seaworld, San Diego Zoo, and the Wild Animal Park for Xmas and were going to go to a different park each day (Friday, Saturday and Sunday). It also counts a Valentines/Anniversary gift. It will be 4 years we have been together on the 28th. Her parents might also join us on one of the day because they will be in town for the AREMA convention for work stuff.

San Diego is one of my top 3 favorite cities along with LA/OC County and Vegas. I would love to live down there one day but I don't think I'll ever be able to convince Rachel to do that. I have loved it since I was a kid when my Aunt and Uncle lived down there and we would visit. They moved away to Hawaii now so there isn't much reason to go down there anymore. My friends and I used to go down all the time and would go to Barona (to gamble) and the Whaley House in Old Town (to ghost hunt) and Sombreros (to eat) pretty often. One time me and Anthony got stranded down there because I got a flat tire on the freeway and I didn't have the lug nut lock key. I called my friend Shaun who was 100 miles away because I bought the car from him and asked if he had it. I remember him just laughing and laughing and saying "yeah! I'm holding in my hand right now" I was so pissed off about it but thought it was kind of funny too. To make matters even worse we were sitting on a bench near a strip mall waiting for our friends to pick us up. We ended up having to call some other friends to pick us up all the way from LA to pick us up and take us home.Out of nowhere these punks threw eggs at us and drove away. I guess this was karma for my water balloon incident.   I came back down the next day with my mom and key to take care of it. Even through all the drama I still love to go to back and can't wait for this weekend.