San Diego for Dave's BD

We drove over to San Diego for a few days the week of Dave's birthday. We left on Wednesday night, August 19 and then came back on Saturday, August 22. Dave worked on Wednesday (and we both did a virtual AZ ethics CPE) so we didn't get on the road until about 5pm. We stopped in Yuma at In-N-Out for dinner and rolled into San Diego about 11pm.

Thursday morning we ate at a restaurant a couple of blocks from our called Cafe 21. It was ok - probably would not go back but our breakfast was pretty.

On Thursday afternoon I gave Dave a sailing lesson for his birthday. So we were out on a sailboat for 3 hours. We both enjoyed sailing and Dave wants to get his license so he can sail more often (I'm all for that!).

Captain Dave

This was John, our captain for the afternoon

We had a late lunch after sailing at Mitch's Seafood - a suggestion by captain John. This was our view from the patio of the restaurant.

We then stopped at Coronado Island and walked around for a while. I took a picture with my car - this was its first time back to California after I bought it over there in 2012. It was nice to drive with the top down.

Friday morning we had breakfast at Parakeet Cafe in La Jolla - this place was excellent (I thought so, Dave didn't give it a high vote) and I would definitely eat here again.

We walked around La Jolla Cove...

...and then went to Better Buzz for coffee/matcha. I wish this coffee shop was in Arizona.

Lunch Friday was at one of our favorite places, Puesto.

Then it was back to Coronado Island to hang out on the beach for a while and then late afternoon we went back to the hotel to relax (I took a nap) for a couple of hours before dinner. We stayed at the Kimpton and this was the view from our room. This Kimpton is the least favorite Kimpton we have stayed at, however, I don't know if we can give it a fair vote because there were no amenities due to COVID.

On Friday night I had reservations at Sea180 at Imperial Beach. It had a nice patio on the beach, but we were not at all impressed by the food. We decided we have found really good places in Phoenix/Scottsdale and now we are spoiled.

Saturday morning we slept in a little, grabbed breakfast and then made the drive back across the desert to the blazing heat.

Grays and Torreys

While I was in Denver, we also hiked two 14ers. These were #2 and #3 on my list of 14ers - Bierstadt was #1. Brian Austin and his family was in town as well, so they joined us for the hike.

Alex and Tommy at the trailhead ready to get started.

 Group picture at the trailhead. We were on the trail and ready to go by about 8:30am.

 Grays Peak is the the left, and Torreys is to the right.

 There was a mountain goat at the top.

 Kyle tried to get my picture with the mountain goat - this is the only picture we got though. I guess he didn't want to be in a picture with me.

At the top. Sun, Tommy, Kyle, Me, Alex, Brian and Eva. We didn't think Sun, Tommy or Alex would make it, but everyone kept telling them they were almost there. Took us 4 hours to get to the top, but I was happy that everyone pushed through and made it all the way.

After Grays, Brian, Sun and the kids started making their way down the mountain. Kyle and I decided to go ahead and summit Torreys as well since we were right there. This is Kyle with the path up Torreys behind him.

At the top of Torreys.

It is is pretty at the top of these mountains. Love looking out at the Rocky Mountain range.

Brian needed a break from carrying Eva, so Kyle took over for most of the way down.

After dinner, we went to some of our other cousins home for dinner. Alex, Laci and Tommy on the trampoline.

The kids dinner table - Megan, Tommy, Laci, Alex and Samantha.

 The bid kids dinner table - Kyle, Sun, Eva, Brian, Kristi and Scott. Dinner was really good (thanks Kristi for cooking) and it was nice to sit on their patio and visit.

On Sunday morning, Kristi, Samantha and Megan were running a 5-mile race. We found out that the start line was at Cheeseman Park which is a 5-minute walk from Kyle's apartment. I decided to run with them - Cheeseman Park to Wash Park. Good start to Labor Day.

After the run, I went back to Kyle's and got ready to leave for the airport. I barely made my flight because the rental car had a flat tire, but Kyle put some air in it for me and I made it to the airport ok. Good thing for my employee badge to avoid the security line.

Have Flight Benefits, Will Travel

I have been doing a bit of traveling lately.

On Thursday, June 14th, I flew to Topeka, KS for a couple of days. I have cousins who live there, and my main reason for going was to do a sprint triathlon.

On Friday morning, Brian and I drove around trying to locate a bike for me. I had one rented in Kansas City, but that was an hour from where Brian lives. One of Brian's friends ended up loaning me a really nice racing bike.

We then headed out to Clinton Lake in Lawrence. This is Alex, Brian & Sun's 5-year-old.

Tommy and I riding the tube.

We even got Eva (almost 2) out on the tube for a ride. She didn't cry, but I don't know if she liked it too much :).

Alex and Tommy both had no fear on the tube. They like to "fly." Brian gets the boat going as fast as possible (42 mph) and that gets enough air under the tube that it lifts off the water.

Early Saturday morning was the tri (400 swim, 13 mile bike ride and then a 5k (3.1 miles) run). This was my bike all set up in the transition area.

Finishing the swim. I actually won my age division in the swim.

Transitioning to the bike. This is where I lost a lot of ground, mainly because I did not prepare for the biking at all.

Finally, the run. My legs were jello after I got off the bike and the first mile of the run was awful. Miles 2 and 3 were actually a little better but I was still glad to see the finish line.

Finished! Brian finished in 1 hour, 25 minutes and I finished in 1 hour, 30 minutes.  Breakdown was as follows:

Swim - 7:32 (1:43 min/hundred)

Transition (swim to bike) - 3:39

Bike - 50:51 (15.3 mph)

Transition (bike to run) - 0:49

Run - 27:19 (8:49 min/mile)

Thanks to Jim and Sun for snapping all the action pics!

After the tri, we all relaxed a little back at Brian & Sun's. Sun picked a bucket of raspberries for me to take home - they have a raspberry bush in their backyard and the berries were SO GOOD!

Saturday afternoon we went back to the lake (Lake Shawnee) and did some more tubing as well as water skiing.

The kids played in the water for a little while too.

I left Topeka on Saturday night, so I could be back in Phoenix for Father's Day on Sunday.

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The next Saturday (June 23), Kellyn and I went to San Diego for the day so we could go to the beach. This worked out perfectly. We were on the 7:30am flight to San Diego, and there is good public transportation from the airport to both Mission and Pacific beaches. Thank goodness for our iPhones, we just used Google maps and put in where we wanted to go using public transportation. Told us the exact bus lines to use. We were at the beach by 10am, and hung out until about 5pm, when we headed back to the airport to catch our 7:15pm flight. We were back in PHX by 8:30.

So nice to take a nap on the beach.

One of my friends was going to be there, so we met up and played some beach volleyball.

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Last weekend (June 29 - July 1), Kellyn and I went to Denver to visit Kyle. I wanted to do some hiking, and Kyle has been doing "14ers" so that is what we did. A fourteener is a mountain in the Rockies that is 14,000 feet or higher. We hiked Mount Bierstadt, which is one of the 54 fourteeners. We started at about 11,500 feet, and climbed 2,600 feet to summit at 14,065 feet. This hike was about 7 miles round trip. 

Right when we started our hike, we saw 4 moose hanging out at the lake.

It was a gorgeous day.

This was about the last 400 feet and the steepest part of the mountain.

Made it! This is the summit marker at the top.

Group picture.

Taking a short break on the way down.

That was the top of the mountain in the background. The picture doesn't do a great job of showing how high it really was.

We finished the hike in just under 5 hours. Most of the hike was not terribly steep, but it was a constant uphill and the air was pretty thin.

After hiking, we drove back to Kyle's apartment, took showers and then went to a park near Kyle's and relaxed for a couple of hours.

On Saturday night, we went to downtown Denver to walk around for a while. Kellyn and I then flew out Sunday late morning.

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On July 4th, my parents usually have a big party at their house since you can see the AZ Country Club fireworks really well. They were planning to have their annual party, but found out that ACC was not having fireworks this year as they are in the middle of a remodel project. So...I said why don't we go somewhere!

We decided to go to San Francisco for the day. The flights were actually better to Oakland, so that is the airport we flew into. I used SA1 passes, so for this trip my parents did not have to pay anything (they usually have to pay about $30 per leg of a flight - still pretty cheap). We took the first flight out, and made it into the city via BART by about 10:30am.

We rode a cable car...

walked through Fisherman's Wharf...

and went to Pier 39.

This was a market at Pier 39. These cherries were really good!

We did a catamaran boat ride out around Alcatraz and then the Golden Gate Bridge. My parents had done this before and they really enjoyed it.

It was so cold on the boat. Thank goodness the boat had these thick coats you could use.

 After the boat we had a good lunch at Alioto's. By the time we finished lunch it was about 4pm, and we had about a 2 mile walk to BART and then a flight back to Phoenix at 7pm. It was fun to get away for the day!

This weekend (July 7) I stayed in Phoenix and it was actually nice to not be going anywhere. However, I am enjoying utilizing these benefits - might as well travel now when I can! On the docket...Albuquerque, NYC, Denver, Portland, Seattle (work trip), Madrid (work trip), Rome (with Kellyn) and then either Sydney, Iceland, Tokyo or South Africa (with Jenn - we are still deciding).