America's Cup

I read that they were having America's Cup races in San Diego harbor, so we went down to watch this afternoon. They weren't the big full-size boats from the regular competition. This was a series of head-to-head races and they were using smaller boats. We were able to walk out to the end of the pier to get a great view of the action. The course organizers even staged the event so that the boats had to do a turn-around about 100 feet off the end of the pier.
It was the first time I had ever watched a sailboat race, and at first I was a bit confused when they started going in opposite directions. They had a spectator tent and were showing a TV feed, so we went in a watched one race there. They showed a lot of graphics of the course map and the commentators explained some of the strategies, which helped make sense of it all.
picasa site

Women's college volleyball and tide pools

We've been doing a little exploring of San Diego and all the things to do here. A few weeks ago we went to a women's volleyball match at the University of San Diego. USD is actually a nationally ranked team, but they seemed a little lethargic to start the match. They even dropped a game, which was a little surprising, but that seemed to wake them up and they won comfortably in the fourth game. The volleyball probably wasn't as good as the professionals in Japan, but it was fun. It wasn't hard to get a seat, either.
After the match we went to Ocean Beach. We had been in the neighbourhood before but never on the beach itself. It was nice enough; probably not as nice as Mission or Coronado, but it was an acceptable beach. The best part might have been the tide pools at the end. We found several little creatures in there. We also saw a seal when we walked out on the pier. It was a great San Diego day.
-Jason
There are a few more pictures on the picasa site.

party!

We had a wonderful wedding/welcome home party last month. It was great to see all of our friends and family. The photos are now on the picasa site. Enjoy!

Picnic

We decided to extend our wedding party weekend by having a picnic the day before. Since we hadn't seen most people in at least a couple of years, we wanted to maximize the time we had to spend with everyone, so we organized the picnic. We also ordered up some beautiful weather: it was a perfect day to be enjoying the outdoors. We had a bounce house and an inflatable joust, both of which were big hits. Chelsey and I battled on the joust, with each of us claiming some victories. It turned out to be a great day and we loved getting to see everyone.
-Jason

There are some pictures and video on the picasa site (you have to look back to Oct. 8). Chelsey was busy and didn't take any photos, so we only have some that our friends took. If anyone else has some photos, please send them to Chelsey and she will add them.

house tour

Kim (Jason's sister) and Michal bought a new house! We visited last weekend to help them unpack (and play with Tessa). It is a gorgeous house and we are very happy for them. Plus, they are only an hour and a half away. There are some pictures, and a house tour video that we made for Grandma, on the picasa site. The videos are the last items in the album.

SeaWorld

Before Disneyland we also took a trip to SeaWorld. Chelsey and I had annual passes back in the day, but this was our first time in awhile. SeaWorld seemed more or less the same, which means it was a lot of fun. We went to see the Shamu show. Chelsey, Yumi and I sat in the splash zone and we did indeed get wet. We went on the Atlantis ride shortly after that, trying to get all the wet parts over with before we changed clothes. We ruined that, however, when we went on the river ride at the end of the day, which allowed Chelsey's dad to shoot a water gun at us.
My favourite part was the sea turtles, as usual. We went to see the otter and sea lion show, which had a Halloween theme. They even got the sea lions to do part of the Thriller dance, which was amusing.
-Jason

California Adventure

I guess I knew my way around Disneyland pretty well, as it hasn't changed too much, but California Adventure was quite different. It was actually undergoing construction, so the main entryway to the park was blocked. Instead we were routed back behind Soarin' Over California, which is a much less scenic way to get into the park. At least Soarin' was the same, though. There are some new rides, including a Little Mermaid ride that was enjoyed by many in our party. Even some of the rides that were the same have been renamed: Mulholland Madness is now Goofy's Sky School or something like that, even though the ride itself was exactly the same as far as I could tell. Naturally California Screamin' was closed, but we did go on the Tower of Terror, which was lots of fun.
-Jason