A San Diego Christmas!

NOTE: I won’t be sending a newsletter this week. Also, I have a separate post here in which I write about my visit to the current exhibition of textile art at the Visions Art Museum in San Diego.

Hubby, my youngest son and I decided to spend Christmas in San Diego; it’s kinda sorta half way between my son and Hubby and me. There is so much to do in SD and the weather is just perfect, so why not?

I booked us at the Hyatt Manchester which is on the harbor, close to the convention center; rates were very reasonable. I was shocked at the hotel – it was really nice!

I learned that is the largest hotel in southern California, with two towers of 40 and 33 floors respectively. The entrance is grand! I would guess that our room during a convention would be very pricey.

A very jolly and personable Santa and his helper came to visit!!

There was lots of art, so much that I wished there were a tour offered to talk about the art and architecture.

Technically I am not sure what this technique is called, but it was painted by a Japanese artist. The panels are a slightly concave and at night, they glow! There were similar panels throughout the public areas; all were gorgeous at night.

This installation is behind the check-in desk; grids are everywhere in art! Again, the glow from these at night was beautiful.

More art:

I stayed at the Hyatt in Long Beach for the quilt festival this summer, and I noticed that there were manyof light sculptures throughout there too. Maybe this is a Hyatt thing?

 

View from our window – both “city view” and “harbor view”. We just lucked out.

Walking the harbor and nearby Seaport Village provided some lovely views:

Right across the street I spied a Kansas City Barbeque place; had to go there:

And who knew, the “sleazy bar scene” from Top Gun was filmed there! Whodathunkit? The barbeque was excellent!

I was accompanied by two geeks, so we HAD to tour the Midway museum. It was fascinating, I must admit. San Diego is a Navy town through and through. It is humbling to think about how many have served and some given their lives for our freedom. It made me even more grateful for my country.

Touring the Midway gives one a feel for what life was like on board. It certainly was intimate! The spaces were so small and I wondered how it felt to be below deck for weeks at a time.

I am not very big – look how tiny the bunks were!

Quilt patterns everywhere if you just look.

And lookie, an actual quilt, on the Midway!

The Midway was the longest-serving aircraft carrier of the 20th century and was decommissioned in 1992 after serving for 47 years. It had many distinctive contributions in Viet Nam as well as other locales around the world. Hubby and son chatted up one of the docents and totally geeked out over the catapult thing that launches the huge aircraft.

A Harbor Cruise was unexpectedly included in our room cost, so you betcha we took it!

I learned event more naval history on that cruise. I am an expert now😊

We spent our last evening enjoying seafood on the harbor at sunset. Ahhhhh!

But getting home (Dec 26) was no walk in the park. Yes, we were caught up in That Southwest nightmare. We were the last flight out that day. I read that most of Southwest’s subsequent flights out of southern California were cancelled until Dec 31st!!

See the board above? Ours was the one that said “on time”, even though it wasn’t, but it was thankfully not cancelled as all the other ones were. I was so grateful to get out of there! Terminal 1 at San Diego has to be one of the most unpleasant terminals in the US.

It was nice to be home. I am blessed in so many ways. And grateful to have a Savior. Wishing you all a Happy New Year! See you on the other side.

I’ll share at:

Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday
and
Finished or Not Friday