Kayaking in La Jolla

As a birthday gift to William from our wonderful neighbors bank in Holland (Linda & Erwin), we went Kayaking off the La Jolla shores on Saturday.  It was a lovely experience.  We had some fun trying to maneuver through the surf and then our guide treated us to some wonderful stories about the local area.  Some of the cliff top residents we saw own seemingly the most expensive real estate in San Diego... I thought, wow, we would give an arm and a leg for that kind of view over the Pacific Ocean....  Seems that it's more likely that you'll loose an arm and a leg with those houses as they are prone to just ''fall'' into the ocean... I had a quick change of heart after that piece of information.  Seemingly the owners can't get insurance and must buy the house outright as the banks won't finance them ... I guess some people have more money than sense.

We saw the caves in La Jolla and got up close and personal with some Sea Lions.  A little too close because these guys really smell... BAD!!!!  On top of that we saw one of the local fault lines - a feature the tour guide referred to over and over again along with the fact that there's a nuclear power plant located on said fault line.  Optimistic little guy I thought to myself.

Unfortunately we didn't have a camera with us but I've added a few pictures of how we must have looked !! (or at least how I'd like to think we looked).  Notice our intense interest in the surrounding features.

Not everyone managed to have the same level of entertainment.  One of the women (it was her birthday) managed to get sea sick.  Lovely !  I mean come on - you're in a kayak woman !

Oh and for those of you reading this from Wexford, on the way home, all we could think about was Chicken 'n chips from the Premier!!!  It doesn't matter where you are in the world, you always miss a little taste from home :-).

Point Loma and Expensive Smiles....

After the drama of a root canal treatment, infection and finally a crown, I needed to go to the dentist for my regular check-up.  Starting point was eighteen (yes 18) x-rays, then my friendly lead clad dentist came to discuss the x-rays and what he would like to suggest going forward.  We discussed some more crowns, replacing some very old fillings and possible whitening treatments....  I could feel the Hollywood smile appearing already.  I had to wait for the secretary to put my plan together but I didn't mind.  I was just thinking about what I would do after my Hollywood smile... boobs, botox... ooooooh I was going to be soooooooooooo HOT!!!! (yeah - I know ... I forgot for a moment, he was only a dentist).

So here comes the plan... two pages full of wonderful ideas being explained to me by the very helpful secretary, but all I could hear was... blah, blah, blah, financial plans, blah, blah, blah......  my focus and attention being drawn only to the $15,000 on the bottom of the page!!!!  Hollywood will have to wait.  I'd rather sit back and see how the other half live while sipping cocktails on a beach in Hawaii.... would definitely be cheaper!!

To the right, you can see a beautiful picture of Point Loma.  Unfortunately this had to be taken from the Internet.  On our way to visit Point Loma, we had a very inconsiderate driver in front of us. This lead to us breaking so hard that a book flew off the back seat and smashed into Will's precious camera, ''safely'' stowed away under the car seat.  $200 worth of damage (NOTE: artistic license was used when quoting the damage costs).  William was not a happy camper.  But Point Loma was beautiful and we were very lucky to be able to watch a family of dolphins playing in the bay.  This brought the smile back on Will's face...  See not all smiles have to be so expensive......

My 4 o'clock appointment with Anderson...

When the rain comes down or the ironing piles get to dangerous levels, Anderson is the man.  This is a daily talk show from New York.  Anderson, in my opinion, is very down to earth and he always covers great topics and interviews with the likes of Madonna, Angela Jolie and other interesting people.  But don't forget we're in America and you always have to expect the unexpected.....  There I was, iron in hand when the show started and on the couch was a woman holding three babies and another woman beside her holding more babies.  I thought, here we go again with women having like 10 babies in one go.
 
To my absolute astonishment, these were ''baby reborn''  DOLLS!!!!!  It has to be one of the weirdest things I have ever seen or heard.  These women treat these dolls as real babies, take them out in strollers and get this............ they arrange PLAY DATES with other baby reborn mummies!!!!!!!!!!!  One woman allowed Anderson to take one of the dolls to Time Square to see how the general public would react and he asked her "why did you insist that our crew take the car seat with the doll?'' and she replied ''well where was she going to sleep?  It's not like you could just leave her on the desk or something''.  I just thought I should share this with you all.... I apologize in advance for the nightmares!!!