Batts See Sea World

Today we decided to visit Sea World one last time before we head North - and we had a blast!

Here is Hunter deciding what to see first...

We decided on Shamu - here is Hunter waiting for the show to start...

Touching Sea Stars....

Touching Bat Rays...

Enjoying a Shamu shaped pretzel after the dolphin show...

We got up close and personal with the Budweiser Clydesdales...

Making a penny souvenir...

Checking out the beluga whales...

Feeding flamingos - I asked Hunter to smile, and he struck this pose... "Saturday Night Fever" maybe?










Hunter picked out this Orca bath toy for a souvenir, which he promptly named "Urlacher" :o)













Here is Hunter fast asleep on the ride home - Urlacher the Orca in hand







I guess I'm not really in a writing mood today - It kind of hit me this morning that the movers are coming in 9 days, and now I'm feeling pretty frazzled! Anyway, thanks for looking!

Batts See Some Baseball

Today we traveled downtown to San Diego to see the Cubs vs. Padres game at Petco park. We didn't tell Hunter we were going until about an hour before we left, but when we did finally tell him, he was beside himself with excitement! He was very determined to catch a ball, and kept his glove on his hand all the way down to San Diego!

We parked in Old Town, and took the trolley to the stadium, an added highlight for Hunter :o) We spotted so many Cubs fans, it was hard to tell which city we were in!

Petco Park.

Petco Park has its good points and its bad - good point: anywhere you sit is a great seat! bad point: no polish sausage, no brats, no sauerkraut, no kosher hot dogs - its like baseball sacrilege! You can however, get a nice Caesar salad and some chardonnay (I'm confused - is this a country club or a BALLPARK??)

Here is Hunter with his hand on his heart for the National Anthem - he did that right away, and without any prompting - love that!

Really cool sky writing-

Here is Hunter, enjoying a ballpark hot dog (hardly the same thing as a CHICAGO baseball hot dog, but it would have to do!) The batting helmet was the giveaway today. It did have a Padres logo on the front, but Justin quickly remedied that!

We had four foul balls in our section, and Hunter was at the ready!

After the game, all of the kids in attendance got to run the bases on the field. Hunter was making his very serious baseball player face, but it morphed into a smile before I could snap the picture!

Having never been on a major league baseball field before, we all thought this was pretty cool:






There go Justin and Hunter, taking off from first base- while I was taking this picture, I was getting yelled at by some ballpark employee on a power trip to move along to home plate, wait for them, and take a picture when they were done; please take a moment to imagine the dirty look I gave that guy :o)

Here are a couple of videos - they are kind of hard to see, but if you look for Justin first, you can see Hunter running alongside :o)

Here is Hunter with a thumbs up when they were all finished. Before I could take this picture though, he had to tell me about "that guy" that scared him - it was the big Friar mascot that was hanging out at second base - Hunter was not amused :o)

As we came around the side of the stadium, we happened upon the Cubs bus getting ready to leave. We saw Sean Marshall get on the bus, but he was the last one on. Then we realized that Carlos Zambrano was sitting right in front of us. We waited for him to look over and then started waving frantically, and he waved back - pretty cool. Here he is sitting on the bus - right above the AS.

And finally, after a long and hot day, we took the trolley back to Old Town and headed home :o)

Batts Drive Home (...and gain a new appreciation for California!)

We left Monterey around 9:30am on Tuesday morning, and decided to take the scenic, coastal route. While the drive took F.O.R.E.V.E.R., it was worth every second. We took this extended route expecting a pretty drive down the California coast. Instead, we witnessed some of the most spectacular landscape in America. We were in awe at this scenery which we never knew existed in California, as we have never ventured North of L.A. So California, we apologize for believing that the desert, Sea World, and Rubio's were all you had to offer! Anyway, here are the pictures, no captions required...

We happened upon this beach full of Elephant seals, and MAN did it STINK!!! Despite the odoriferous quality, it was still fun to see something like this in the wild!

Look very closely, and on the top of the hill, in the middle of the picture, is the William Randolph Hearst Castle -

Home Sweet Home, But Not Until June 22

We met with the housing people first thing Monday morning. They gave us our choice of two houses, both of which were duplexes (booooooo), and both of which will not be ready until June 22.... We will still move on June 9, but we will be taking up residence at the Navy Lodge until the 22nd.

So here is the house we picked: (our unit is on the right)

Here is the park that is right around the corner from the house. Hunter was very excited about this!!

Here is the view of Monterey Bay - I took this picture on the same road our house is on, with the house being about 2 blocks behind me.

Batts Go House Hunting - Day 1

We left Carlsbad Sunday morning around 8:30am to head up north to Monterey for a few days on a house hunting mission. The drive took about 6.5 hours, and took us through L.A., desert mountains, citrus groves, cattle ranches, pecan groves, oil fields, and lots of vineyards - it was a very cool drive!

Hunter was a GREAT traveler, when he wasn't snoozing with Puppy, he was either reading a book or gazing out the window looking for cows!

When we arrived in Monterey, we checked into our hotel and headed out to find the base (or 'post' as those goofy Army people call it) and the housing area. Both areas turned out to be right on the water, which is awesome! This place is so beautiful, and I cannot believe we get to live here for the next two years!

After we located the key areas, we decided to check out Fisherman's Wharf. Walking down the wharf we were surrounded by fun shops and tempting restaurants - all of which were begging the passers-by to try a sample of the clam chowder. The hardest thing about the outing was deciding where to eat! After surveying the whole wharf we decided on an Italian seafood restaurant called Domenico's. We were seated right on the water with a great view of a big pile of sea lions. After a delicious dinner of smoked salmon ravioli and seafood alfredo we decided to call it a night.

Hunter is clearly very enthusiastic about the Wharf!

View from our dinner table - pile of Sea Lions, a few HUGE seagulls, and even a pelican!

The boys at dinner - (this took three takes because I kept getting funny faces from BOTH of them!)