OK, I am here.

Everyone has been complaining on our Brimhall Blog that no one is posting... so I will repent. Especially since I have Zero to do at work today, so I might as well be doing something!

AJ and I just went to San Diego this weekend... ahhh, it was vunderbar! We left at midnight, and drove straight to La Jolla Cove to go snorkeling. AJ had Doug's nice flippers and snorkel, and I had the cheap set. I could barely get the flippers on, then sand stayed stuck between my feet and the hard cheap plastic of the flipper. Then my foot started to cramp, so I trudged through the sand up to our blanket and chucked them.

The snorkeling wasn't Hawaii, and that's an understatement! There was thick sea grass/seaweed covering the floor, and there were exactly two kinds of fish. Four-six inch goldfish, and some kind of long skinny neon-striped fishies. But the water was all muddy and you could barely see. The worst was, the seaweed was freaking me out. There were long pieces of grass floating everywhere, and they kept wrapping around my arms and legs. And since I hadn't acclimated to the cold water yet, my breathing was like Darth Vader on crack in my ear. Fast, in-out, in-out, loud and scary in my ears. I started to think I was going to hyperventilate, and remembering the cramp in my foot a few minutes earlier when I was trying to get that *#?@ flipper on, I thought I better get outta there! So I swam back to shore and ran to the haven of our blanket on the sand. Ahhh, much better. It only made me miss Hawaii more.

New resolve: Get back to Hawaii sooner than later.

OK, so now laying in the sun it was vunderbar again! AJ had fun doing more snorkeling and then he swam out into the middle and back. At this cove, people routinely come to swim across it for exercise. There's a steady stream of people swimming across. AJ was very reminiscent of his younger, more in-shape days when he used to be one of these routine swimmers, since he came here often to swim the cove. He described the body he had back then by pointing to several quite nice-looking in-shape guys getting in and out of the water. Hehe... Well, he can't quite swim the whole thing now, but he'll get back to it.

Another new resolve: Karen get back into cute clothes, AJ get back into his... speedo? Eiuuu, I'll make sure he doesn't go that far! FAOYI: (For All of Your Information) I have lost 10 pounds, and am gaining muscle as we speak as I tighten my stomach muscles for 25 seconds. Whew. Its called diametric opposition training... you tighten groups of muscles and hold it for 25 seconds. You can do it while you sit at your desk!

OK, anyway, back to our San Diego trip. La Jolla Cove was really nice, just sitting out and watching everybody and everything. And my short stint of snorkeling really opened up my lungs after all that near-hyperventilated breathing. I really felt very good!

So after awhile we left and drove through San Diego, over the bridge, and up through the Strand. We found another spot there on the beach and set up camp there for a few more hours. Playing in the waves was great, and it brought back a lot of childhood memories of floating over waves and sometimes riding them in. Then we made yummy sandwiches out of our cooler, then we took a long nap on our blanket. I had sunscreen on, but I still hid under one of Cyndi's tie dye pareos. It was so pretty looking at it from that direction, with the sun shining through it. It was all red and orange, and gold and purple... See my "Karen Writes" blog to read "Living in Color."

After we figured we'd soaked up enough sun, we packed up, showered off the salt in the outdoor coooold showers, and headed up to Temecula where AJ's grandpa lives.

We got a room in a Motel 6 with a swimming pool, cleaned up, then had a nice visit and dinner with Grandpa Jack and his wife MJ who we hadn't met yet. Grandpa's previous wife died a few years back, and he married MJ awhile after.

So, the next morning we went for a dip in the pool. No one else was in there which we liked... It was so nice laying in the cooler California sun. Then later we had another visit with Grandpa Jack and MJ, and then we headed to Coronado Island. We were going to walk around the downtown area there and look at the shops, but it was soooo crowded and we couldn't find a parking space. So instead we just went to the park and laid out our blanket and made lunch out of our cooler again and took another nap in the shade.

And... then around 3:30 pm we headed back for our lovely sun-soaked Arizona! It was a short and FAST trip, but we loved it! We might do it again soon!

I am here

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