Becoming The Dents: San Diego

Hello sweet and precious friends and family!

The Dents are back for 2015 and boy are y'all in for tons of catching up! We've started school back and this semester started off with a bang and I'm not sure bang captures the awfulness that this semester is (well, at least for me). Addison is finishing up with his more rigorous classes and will be getting into the clinic in the beginning of March. I've started my clinicals at a hospital here in Mesa that I'm also volunteering at! They are awesome, but also terrifying. I had my first day last week and came home exhausted, but I definitely enjoyed my day. Nursing can be stressful and hectic and tiring, but it sure can be rewarding. We've done a good bit since school started! We went to San Diego a few weeks ago with some friends, Erik and Autrine, and it was a great weekend getaway!

San Diego is absolutely gorgeous with a TON of stuff to do. We left on Friday afternoon and it took us about 5 hours to get to San Diego. We ate dinner at a wonderful restaurant in downtown San Diego that had a great funky atmosphere. The food was delicious and we branched out a bit and tried some new things that were all fantastic. We stayed at a loft we found downtown that sounded very appealing online, but when we got to the place we found out we had been bamboozled!! We were right by a metro stop and the walls were very thin so our sleep that night was not exactly restful. However, it was an experience we can laugh about now and we were all up bright and early for a day full of exploring. We went to the San Diego Zoo the next morning and it was great! We took a bus tour through the zoo and were able to see tons of animals while sitting and cruising around in style :). They have an INCREDIBLE elephant area. They have 1 male and 4 females, I think, and they have a ton of space to roam around. They also have areas where the elephants can go through and play with the trainers. The zoo does tons of conservation work and is rehabilitating several animals- like a condor from California and the Tasmanian devil who has been almost wiped out in its' native home because of a blood disease. It's an incredible zoo and we loved it.

After the zoo we had lunch at the harbor. I had clam chowder and it was absolutely incredible! We watched Navy planes flying around and boats coming and going. After lunch we headed to a park with an incredible view. We enjoyed the view and watching puppies play and it was awesome to soak up the sun in gorgeous California. Our next stop was an aquarium in La Jolla and we marveled at the teensie tiny animals in the ocean and those that are huge! It was a great aquarium and we got to touch sea stars and tons of interesting sea creatures. I'm sure you think that's where our day ended, but NOPE. We made our way down to the beach after the aquarium and stuck our toes in the ALWAYS chilly Pacific. We found a bbq place for dinner that wasn't the best thing we'd ever had, but I should also mention that Addison has high standards because of his dad's bbq and bobby q- a restaurant in Phoenix Addison is always raving about. After dinner we found a bar and did some people watching while trying to find a hotel to stay at for the night. Before we called it a night we found a Ghirardelli's and Addison and I split a wonderful banana split because the best days end with ice cream.

Lunch at the harbor!

The next day we had brunch at a great spot in La Jolla and had some fantastic food before driving down to Imperial beach. We passed where the Navy Seals do their training and took a nice walk down the beach. We went down to Coronado and loved the place. It reminded me a lot of Seaside, but with a California vibe. There is a stunning hotel in Coronado that I've added to my places to stay list. There were tons of great looking restaurants in the area. We made our way back to mesa after walking around for awhile in Coronado.