Traveling to the mainland is never super easy - red eye flights, minimal sleep, and then trying to hang out until it’s time to check into your Home Away rental.  We had the nice fully reclining seats between HNL and SFO, but 4 1/2 hours is just too little time for rest.  We had a brief layover, and then got our connecting flight to SAN. 

We hung out in the United lounge and got a little breakfast, and then headed out to MWR to pick up tickets to the zoo (for Sunday) and for the La Jolla aquarium.   

We went to Balboa Park after getting the MWR tickets, and then went through the Japanese Friendship Garden.  Lots of beautiful bonsai trees, flowers, and a cutting from a tree that survived the bombing in Hiroshima, a gift to the garden after the founding of the garden.   You can find out more about the garden at http://www.niwa.org/.  Tours run twice daily, once of the upper garden, one of the lower garden.

From there, it was on to the Scripps Aquarium in La Jolla.  It’s a small aquarium, with a small petting cove out back overlooking the Pacific Ocean and La Jolla town.  At about the same time, Mom, Dad, Pam and Will were touring around in La Jolla looking for sea lions. 

Yep, family trip sandwiched between a 75th and 50th birthday. 

We made it to our rental house, which wasn’t ready yet, so Wayne and I walked around the neighborhood a bit. 

I’m looking forward to editing and uploading shots taken yesterday with the infrared camera - my latest passion - and sharing.

Then it was family reunion time, we gathered and had dinner in the rental.  Hopefully, on to bigger and better things tomorrow :) 

Coloring with Monkey Boy to make sure he stays out of trouble.

At the Japanese Friendship Garden.