The life of a wishy-washy girl

I can't remember the last time I have ever been to a beach in Southern California. I do remember my English teachers ranting to never start an essay with "I", but I honestly do not care because 1) this isn't an essay and 2) I like to be a rebel. I guess this is a mild rebellion because I could rebel in bigger things. Like...I have no clue. I guess I should start rebelling more often. You know, make life more difficult than it already is is my passion. *snorts*

Anyways.

The farthest south I have ever been in the last few years or so was in Santa Cruz. I think. But I still consider Santa Cruz in Northern California even though it has a Spanish name. The majority of the beaches I have gone to were in Oregon and the contrast between Oregon beaches and Southern California beaches is shocking. First of all, the water isn't freezing to the point that you're crying in pain because it feels like baby piranhas are attacking your feet in Southern California. Second of all, there aren't redwoods covering the hills in Southern California. Third of all, there isn't any driftwood scattered across the beach because there aren't any redwoods covering the hills in Southern California. But I like seeing the redwoods because it's better than thousands of houses and honestly, if you stand in the imaginary piranha infested waters, your feet do get numb and it's quite enjoyable. You just have to get through the pain.

So to our great dismay on our first day in San Diego, we got a taste of what a Southern California beach was like. Although it was warmer than it was in Oregon, I was still hopping up and down in the water, waiting for the pain to come, and when it didn't, I started laughing. The houses that lined the walkway a few dozen yards behind us were gorgeous and very modern, but none were covered in cedar planks like in Oregon. As usual, men ran up and down with their shirts off and people of both genders bicycled and skated to their destinations. Since we were on the surfer side of the beach, the sandy oasis was pretty much deserted except for the surfers and the occasional person wanting to get away from the congested non-surfer side.

This was of course perfect for photo-taking of Robyn. Many of you remember my epic photograph of Robyn jumping at Cannon Beach and why it was epic, I still do not know. But I asked Robyn to perform the epic jump for me at San Diego and at first, she refused. She kept shouting that she would get wet, but after a few jumps, it didn't really matter anymore.

WARNING: This post is jam-packed full of photos. Like more than 40 photos. If your computer can't handle this, please turn back now. But the irony of this all is that you are stuck on this page and if your computer couldn't handle all these photos...sorry?

Anyways, this past weekend the Gillum crew packed up their trusty Suburban and headed out to the lovely Southern part of California on Thursday at 8:30AMish. Eleven hours later and a few heart attacks through LA, we finally arrived at Mission Bay Yacht Club in San Diego! Allow me to back up a few hours though. It's been quite a few years since I've been to SoCal let alone San Diego which holds the true Californian beaches (you know, the ones portrayed in Hollywood films?) When I wasn't watching the TV series "Baa Baa Black Sheep" on DVD or "Harry Potter", napping, or playing the horse show card game with Robyn, I was staring out the window and doing what I do best; observe.

As we drove deeper into the South, I noticed the dramatic changes in the plant life. Oak trees were replaced with hardier trees and the hills held an orange-y hue. It was honestly a very bizarre feeling and there were some moments where I wanted to run back home and hug an oak tree. I despise oak trees though so the feeling didn't last too long.

But we were in San Diego and it was definitely a different world. People were everywhere riding retro bikes; instead of a Starbucks on every corner there was a surf/bathing suit shop on every corner; bohemian and chic restaurants littered the blocks; and there was the grand Pacific Ocean. Our first priority was getting our boat settled in for the night before we settled in at Fred and Margaret's gorgeous house which was located thirty minutes inland. I passed out on the couch downstairs immediately while Robyn did something on the bench in the upstairs office, and Mom and Dad took the guest bedroom right next to my couch.

Our first morning in SoCal started with an introduction to Fred and Margaret's child, Peach. Peach is a gorgeous gray kitty with peach coloring scattered across her body. She was quite wary with us, but after snapping my fingers about a million times she sauntered over to give me the attention I wanted.

After showering, eating, and figuring out addresses and such, we arrived at the USS Midway. The USS Midway was an aircraft carrier built for WWII and remained in operation until the 90's. Dummies were set up in various locations on the ship to show us how cramped it really was on this carrier. In the bunks, in the kitchen, in the offices, even in the aircraft up on the deck! There was only one real person pretending to be a deck-hand and that was a volunteer pretending to be a dummy at the "post office"! He fooled quite a few people, but not us! It didn't help that an entire crowd of people were there before us...

Anyways, onto the photos! If you want to see a larger photo, please click on each photo.

Mom and Robyn modeling our lovely tour guide, Mrs. Headphone and Mr. Information Device. They were both quite useful and I learned quite a bit from them! There were over 60 exhibits, and each exhibit had a number. You would punch the number into Mr. Information Device and Mrs. Headphone would kindly give the information in a manly voice with interviews from previous deck-hands, officers, and pilots.

Me with Mrs. Headphone and my lovely camera. We were in the bunks at this point.

Dad going through one of the walk-ways. One of the gabazillion walk-ways on this carrier...

Mom and Robyn modeling a set of bunks. You can easily tell they took this tour very seriously.

Mom and Robyn modeling one of the itty-bitty lockers.

Robyn becoming utterly confused at the knot station. Apparently they don't teach how to tie knots at Placer.

Mom with Mrs. Headphone.

Walk-way through walk-way. It never ended and I wished the entire time that they wouldn't end.

The crew modeling the liquid oxygen room! How exciting!

The crew now being locked up in jail because of tampering with the liquid oxygen. I kid, I kid! One of the touristy opportunities given to families!

This metal map did not help what so ever...I just knew we were in the middle of the carrier and on one of the many levels!

Now onto the planes! Thanks to Mrs. Headphone and Mr. Information Device, we were able to learn much about the SBD Dauntless!

A close-up of the SBD Dauntless.

You even learned more while going to the bathroom! Each stall door had carrier trivia on the backs so you had some reading material while doing your business! This was my piece of trivia.

The gorgeous "chapel". Although it wasn't large, it was absolutely gorgeous!

My clippers! Those are Oster clippers made for dogs. But apparently you can use them on horses AND men!

The EKA-3 Skywarrior looked like an alien space-ship from this view.

D'aw...she's having so much fun!

Look! Pilots getting ready to take off! Nah...we all wish though!

Robyn trying to look cool before getting her hair singed off. I'm so witty!

Learning more about the EKA-3 Skywarrior from Mr. Information Device!

Dad in front of the F/A-18 Hornet. I don't know he was listening to the thing or imagining himself in the F-18. They were pretty big though!

Now I know Dad is learning about the F-4 Phantom II! It was hard to read the board and listen to Mr. Information Device at the same time, but thankfully the board contained the same information that Mr. Information Device provided!

The A-4 Skyhawk was very weird looking...it's like the Hunch-back of Notre Dame of fighter jets.

Aw...I think Dad is the only one truly excited about the briefing meeting!

Yup, I was right!

Part of the San Diego sky-line with the island (the black tower thing).

*sniff* Aren't they adorable?!

Another view of the San Diego skyline with a medal ceremony thing going on. Oh, and aircraft too!

Here, the crew were trying to figure out what the flags in the upper left hand corner read. They supposedly read "Stars and Stripes" or something like that.

Mom and Robyn made instant friends with one of the cardboard deck-crew!

Captain Robyn up in the top floor of the island! She's probably the youngest military captain out there...

The USS Midway from the parking lot. All of us were actually standing right next to the 41! That was the way to get to the top part of the island.

The USS Midway from the ground.

Then we went to the fish market to have lunch. It was exciting because our waitress set off the emergency door alarm next to our table!