A Christmas Trip to San Diego

We spent much of the last day of 2017 traveling back from San Diego--but unlike previous airline trips across the continent, we traveled in the comfort and luxury of first class--it will be hard to fly any other way from now on.

I went to San Diego as one of our big family vacations.  We had planned to go to St. Thomas, but the hurricane season made those plans impossible--and because of the lateness of the destruction, choosing another destination-vacation site was not possible.  My dad thought that San Diego would appeal to all of us, so off we went.

Overall, it was a good vacation.  Instead of going through the 10 days one by one, let me make some lists:

The Good Aspects:

--It's always interesting to me to explore a different part of the world.  I realized that my K-12 history classes/lessons spent about 3 sentences on west coast history, while spending the majority of the time on colonial-nineteenth century U.S. east coast history.  We went to the Old Town historic area, which was interesting, but not specific enough for me.  When you've seen one historic tavern in one part of the country, you've sort of seen them all; the stable area, on the other hand, was more California specific.  I came home with questions about the first explorations by the Spanish that I'll spend some time researching--and to be fair, we never made it to the park which might have answered those questions for me.

--Similarly, it's fascinating to travel to a different coastline.  We went to La Jolla, where we saw many of these creatures (the sea lion is to the left of the human):

We took a harbor cruise that ended with a glorious sunset--a wonderful way to see the coast.

--We had other activities that were fun, like our trek to the Gaslamp district on Christmas Day to see The Last Jedi.  For more on Christmas Eve service and the movie, see this post on my theology blog.

--We enjoyed many great meals.

--I had time to read big books.  I began by reading Kim Stanley Robinson's New York 2140.  It was interesting to read Robinson's take on sea level rise and future urban life in a high rise building near the ocean.  I read Paul Auster's 4 3 2 1, an interesting exploration of the many ways that human lives can start from the same point and diverge greatly.  I finished Arthur Herman's 1917: Lenin, Wilson, and the Birth of the New World Order.  On the plane back, I read Lauren Grodstein's Our Short History; I loved her earlier books, and this one didn't disappoint.

  
The Less Good Aspects:

--Some of us fought a cold for part of the time.  My spouse seems to be fighting it off now.

--I packed wrong, just the way I did the last time we traveled to California.  I'd have liked to have warmer clothes with me.

--As always, there was too much to do and not enough time to do it all--it's a nice problem to have.

And now it is time to return to regular life--time to get ready for work.