Little Italy

On Friday we took a little jaunt over to Old Town and wandered around for a bit. They had some neat little shops, but I think all the employees (or volunteers--I'm not sure which) were having a bit of a lazy day. None of them were really into their parts. Apparently they'd never heard the saying "What-e'er thou art act well thy part."

It was interesting, but after awhile we all got hot, hungry, and tired and decided to head to Little Italy for lunch, taking Jacob, James, Emily, and Sarah with us.

Don't be fooled by the name. Little Italy looks just like the rest of San Diego. There are some cute Italian restaurants there. You just have to know where to look for them.

We looked for them in the wrong place. We headed down India street because it looked like a busy street that would have some good food choices on it. Unfortunately we wound up by the Mexican consulate building and all we could find were sushi bars, Mexican restaurants, and other non-Italian establishments.

When we were about to give up hope and turn around, we saw a little Italian souvenir shop with a windsock greeting us with "Ciao!" We went inside to admit defeat and ask for directions.

"May I help you?" asked the shopkeeper.

"Uh, yeah," said Andrew, embarrassed. The rest of us were slightly embarrassed as well so we were hanging out behind Andrew, near the door, trying to pretend that we hadn't just walked in with him, "Are there any good Italian restaurants around here?"

The shopkeeper looked at him and raised her eyebrows, "You do know you're in Little Italy, right?"

"Yes..." said Andrew, more embarrassed than he was before.

She paused to give him a condescending look, "Well, in that case, I usually recommend Buon Appetito."

She told us that Indian street was right, we were just walking the wrong way. So we turned around and went the other way. It would have saved us a lot of embarrassment had we just decided to do that before we got to her store.

At any rate, we found a decently-priced and authentic-looking restaurant called Filippi's. We were seated in a quiet area in the back of the restaurant and handed menus. I had Rachel on my lap when I opened up my menu and to our surprise there was a little Rachel inside our menu smiling back out at us.


Rachel was essentially nonplussed, but Andrew and I found it humorous.

The food was really quite good, and very authentic tasting. My ravioli even had nutmeg in it, and the lasagne was divine. Everyone was impressed with their pizza, except for James. He doesn't recommend the sausage pizza. Of course, he's the only one who managed to finish his pizza, so it couldn't have been all that bad.

It was a fun little trip, and the ambiance of the restaurant was refreshingly European. We saw salted fish, squid-ink stained pasta, and bocce courts in Amici Park (that we originally thought were unfinished flower beds). Real Italy is much better than Little Italy, but I suppose if you're stuck on the other side of the world, Little Italy will do.

La Jolla seals

Friday was our last full day in California. Rachel had trouble sleeping the last few nights and always ended up in bed with us. I suppose she just figured that since her bed was right next to our bed that she should just get in with us. No point in sleeping in your own bed when mom and dad's is right there, right?

So whenever she woke up in the middle of the night she'd come over by my face and reach her little hand over the side of the pack'n'play and try to hit me. Sometimes she'd swing her favorite blankey out so that it was already in our bed.

It was easier just to bring her in bed with us than try to convince her that the crib was the place to be and we haven't had any problems with her now that we're home. Actually, come to think of it, she's started to come into our bed in the morning and fall back asleep with us. She loves to cuddle with me when she's awake, but when she's asleep she tends to gravitate towards Daddy.


We woke up and got ready to go pretty early in the morning so that we could get a nice parking spot at La Jolla to see the seals at Children's Pool Beach. Once Rachel realized there were seals on the beach she was so excited! She pointed and grunted and tried to climb down the pier to get to them. She loves animals!

What seals? I don't see any seals.

Still don't see 'em...

Ooh! Ooh! I see them now!

How close can I get?

Let me at 'em! Let me at 'em!

It was a short excursion, but well worth it. It's always fun to see Rachel get so excited about things...of course, you can't tell she's excited from the pictures because the minute she saw the seals she got too excited to remember to smile at the camera (or even look at the camera for that matter).

Roller coasters

After our long day at the beach on Thursday we visited Belmont Park to ride the Giant Dipper, which is one of the first wooden roller coasters in America.

I was a little nervous about going on this roller coaster because I found the Desperado at Buffalo Bill's was absolutely terrifying. I could hardly move after the ride was over--my knuckles were white from gripping the handle bars. Andrew almost had to pry me out of the seat.

I haven't had many other opportunities to ride roller coasters, having never really been to an amusement park before. I rode the roller coaster at Disney's California Adventure, but that was back in high school. I think I remember enjoying it...but it was quite a few years ago.

Other than that I've just been on the dinky rides at Legoland and Disneyland. And as much as Jenna may disagree, Pirates of the Caribean doesn't really count as a roller coaster, even with the little "whoosh" in the middle.

So, having very little else to compare roller coasters to, I had no choice but to assume that all roller coasters were as terrifying and life-threatening as the Desperado.

But this is not so! The Giant Dipper was actually pretty fun. It went fast, it gave my stomach butterflies multiple times, and it had plenty of twists and turns. But I didn't feel like I was freefalling to my death. This is a roller coaster I'd ride again.

8 hour beach day

Thursday morning we headed out to the beach to build the sandcastle of all sandcastles. The boys (Jacob, James, and Andrew) were on outer-wall duty. Their job, essentially, was to keep the ocean away from the city. They built some excellent drainage systems and even used their own bodies as breakers at times.

Jacob builds the outerwall

Rachel destroys the outerwall

Our battle against destruction had two fronts: the ocean and Rachel. Rachel is almost as powerful as the ocean when it comes to destroying things, but not quite.

I want to stomp on something!

Keeping the ocean at bay

The girls (Sarah, Emily, and I) were in charge of the inner wall and the castle. I helped with that a little, although much of my time was spent keeping Rachel from destroying the castle.

Emily and Sarah decorate the castle walls

Emily and I mostly scavenged for shells to decorate the castle with after the wall was built.

Emily lends a hand with the outer wall

Reid just got his MPA, so he was the overseer of the project. He also did a fair share of Rachel-duty.

Rachel and Grandpa

The castle ended up being quite grand, with a swimming pool, a seaweed garden, and seashell walkways. Several people came to admire it.

Our castle

The interior

Eventually the tide came in too far and we lost our castle to a watery grave. By this time, my family had shown up at the beach, so our attention was diverted to 5 more children, boogie boarding, and paddle ball.


Paddle ball is like 4 squares, only we played with 6 squares. We drew our court in the wet sand at high tide, hoping that the ocean would leave us be. Unfortunately for us, the waves kept coming up and wiping away our court lines. We had to redraw them every few minutes so that we could continue our game. I don't know why the ocean was out to get us so badly! It didn't seem to be coming up that far anywhere else on the beach!


All the little kiddies got a little cold. Kali fell asleep in Mindy's arms all wrapped up in a towel, and Rachel couldn't get enough of Grandma!

Mindy and Kali

It's warm on Grandma's lap!

I'll have to get some pictures from Jenna. I didn't take many pictures of the family because I was too busy boogie boarding, making Kitty (aka Savannah) into a mermaid, and playing paddle ball to get behind the lens much.

Jenna, Alexia, Savannah, Auntie Arlene, and the back of Vance's head

Josie went home with Mindy to spend the night, and everyone else left, too. It's always so hard to say goodbye to family, but we had a great time hanging out at the beach with them all!

Legoland

On Wednesday we went to Legoland. I will admit that it was cooler than I thought it was going to be. It was definitely geared for 7 year olds, but it was still neat. Andrew, Emily, and Jacob, the family lego-gurus had a wonderful time. The rest of us had a good time as well, whether we will admit it or not.

Miniland USA is the first attraction. We went on a little boat ride around the world and saw replicas of the Taj Mahal, New York City, and the Sydney Opera house, just to name a few famous places. We also saw some elephants, dinosaurs, and other animals made entirely of lego. It was pretty amazing. Rachel loved the boat ride. I'm not sure what she's pointing to in this picture, but she's pretty excited about it.


She was a little aprehensive about the giant replicas of things. She downright refused befriend R2D2. His head whirled around and he whistled. Even with Grandpa right there, she was terrified. Thomas the Tank Engine was a little less scary, but she was still afraid to go up to him.



Perhaps we just started too big because she loved walking through the rest of Miniland USA.


And she had warmed up to the idea of animatronics by midafternoon, though, and befriended a triceritops. It would growl and move its head when anyone approached it. Rachel would growl right back at it. It was pretty funny.



A lot of the rides were pretty tame. Rachel had a great time, though! She was allowed on more rides than at Sea World, and even got to go on a ride by herself.


She sat in her own seat and Daddy sat across from her. She was a very good girl and loved looking at all the lego farm food. By the time the train had gone around the track twice, however, she figured out how to undo the seatbelt and was up and out of her seat.

They also had some great play areas for little children, brimming over with duplos, watertoys, and lego replicas. Rachel really learned to love lego!

Rachel, the lego princess

What? I'm playing.

Andrew also had a fun time playing at all the lego stations. Now he wants to get Rachel some duplos so that he can build things with her. He sure does miss his lego.

What? I'm playing.


Rachel throws some lego pieces

Daddy shows off his creations

Auntie Josie gives Darth Vader some love

Our favorite rides were the knight's jousting tournament, the dinosaur roller coaster, the dragon roller coaster and the car testing roller coaster. Rachel's favorite rides were the boat ride and the train ride in Duplo Land.

There was a lot of neat stuff to see. Miniland USA was really quite fascinating. But it just lacks the magic of Disney. Legoland tried to thematisize their rides, but they failed. Afterall, no one really cares about the lego dragon and its dorky 2-meausre theme song that repeats over and over and over again. They do, however, care about the Peter Pan (or other such ride) and its theme song because it evokes fond childhood memories.

I wonder why Legoland didn't have a StarWars ride since they had all the characters sitting around the park. That would have been a popular ride.

Oh, well. It was fun anyway. Charming, even. But not worth the $59 or however much it cost to get in.

When you gotta go...

Our little Lego Family

Our extended Lego family

1 month, 2 weeks

We're getting excited to go to Egypt. So many things are just falling into place--it's quite miraculous and we feel rather blessed. Sure, I'm still stressed out beyond belief. There are a million and one things on my to-do list, but really things are working out marvelously.

The branch in Cairo seems amazing. So many people have emailed us. The primary president, Phyllis, emails me periodically just to check up on us. We're in contact with a few young families over there, including the Masons. And the branch president has offered to pick us up from the airport and let us crash at his place until we find a flat of our own.

Just knowing that we will have a roof over our head for the first week or so that we are there makes me feel much more at ease.

We're also much more excited to go to Cairo than we were previously because we found out this past week that Andrew's 2/3 fellowship has been increased to a full ride fellowship! What a blessing! Someone with a fellowship decided to drop from the program, which was just so nice for us.

It's funny because we've been praying to be approved for a student loan, but one night a few weeks ago I accidentally prayed that we'd get a scholarship. Student loan. Scholarship. They're easy to get mixed up.

Andrew teased me about it, saying that we already had a scholarship and now we just needed to find a way to pay for the rest of school--and that way was a student loan. Little did he know how the Lord intended on answering our prayers. We are just so grateful and excited!

And because we found out just a day or so before going to Legoland, we were a little Egypt-happy when we went. Legoland has some great Egypt displays--I think we found them all.

The Luxor--from the strip in Vegas

Hieroglyphics

Outside the "Johnny Thunder" ride that we didn't go on

Camel rides