Hilton Head Island, SC

Wow, I'm a full month behind!  Things have gotten a tad busier here as we head into the holiday season.  Our annual corporate meeting this year was held in Hilton Head, so I had the special chance to spend the weekend with family and with friends traveling from Asia with me.

A 3 foot gator at the outlet mall apparently being illegally fed as he came right up to us.

Bill showing everyone how to shuck an oyster.

The oysters were fighting back so Bill chucked them on the green egg to show them who was boss.  The oysters lost.

Dumping out the low country boil.  This is one of the few American dishes that fully translates to Asia pallates.  By that I mean it's not a pound beef between pieces of bread with a side of deep fried tater.

The full spread.

Lazy afternoon Sunday checking out the lighthouse and then going on a dolphin cruise.  You can see in the next few pictures that we ended up in the middle of a pod that was hunting.

I'm quite proud of this one.  I caught it while we were returning to shore, at full speed.  Got the boat about a third of the way in the frame and the horizon was pretty level.  Better than some of my shots standing still!

Last day in CA

For the last day, we had a tough decision to make:  go to a world renowned zoo, or spend the morning a the Legoland aquarium and then the beach.  We made the tough call to take it easy and hit the beach one more time...

In front of a monster crab.  Get in my belly!

We attended a short talk on sharks since it was Shark Week.  Yes, that's a Lego submarine next to the diver.

This is what happens when Ro gets in the way of Riley's camera time.

This is what happens when dad removes Riley because he pinched Ro.

At the beaach in Oceanside, CA.   Hole digging and body surfing dominated the activities.  Ro also found time to do some mud slinging as pictured.

A shot down the coastline.

The fruit of our labor.

Yes, that's a real pelican.  No, it wasn't all that friendly.

Making up for the annoying start to the travel day (Delta bag checker was not very helpful), we were all upgraded on the long leg of the trip!  Of course, they lost that when upon arrival in Tokyo they wouldn't let us in the lounge (we even had a very nice man sponsor us, but they still said we were one short).

Ro took to business class like a duck to water.  Main complaint from Rebecca is that she had to keep getting up to help him.  In my infinite wisdom, I reminded her that she should be happy we were all upgraded and she reminded me that she paid for that.  I would say I'll shut up now, but we all know that's not true.

The Midway

Our first mistake was thinking that three boys would only want to spend an hour or so on a ship filled with flight simulators, real airplanes and knot tying stations.  The second mistake was like it:  thinking that I, a "Navy brat", would only want to spend an hour or so on a ship filled with flight simulators, real airplanes and knot tying stations.

What a total surprise it was to Rebecca and I how much fun could be had on the Midway!  Total time spent was over three hours, which in conjunction with La Jolla that morning, meant we had to abandon all hope of seeing my childhood home that I can't remember.

In the brig.  They had headphones with audio commentary and a game for the kids, which we all enjoyed.

In the engine room, trying our best to crash a docked ship.

There were several noses of planes down in the maintenance area that you could climb into.

Practice for the simulators, excitement was really building at this point.  The one in front of us was doing a severe bank.

I was going to rotate this picture of Reid and I, but the reality was that once they closed the cockpit, we were either like this or upside down.

Riley got his turn as well.  We were laughing hysterically throughout the whole thing, one of those deep belly and cheek hurting laughs.

Riley showing off his accomplishments while they were waiting for a pit stop for Ro.

On the flight deck were over 20 planes, all of which served on the Midway at some point.  This was the plane Daddy Mac flew in, we located his squadron as well.

Dinner a Lucha Libre, thanks to Man Vs. Food.  A hole in the wall, moderately dirty, Mexican restaurant.  We made reservations for the Champions Booth (echo Booth, Booth, Booth).

Laying waste to a California Surfin' Burrito - carne asada, shrimp, french fries and a special sauce all rolled into a mammoth tortilla.  We then dipped it into some sort of cilantro sour cream sauce.  Truly one of the best burritos ever.

La Jolla

Even after about five plus years of Spanish, I was pronoucing it "La Holla" instead of "La Hoya".  Mrs. Wilson would be very dissappointed in me.

Anyway, we kept spending too much time on the beach, which made us have to cancel some things later (like stopping by my childhood home and also the zoo).  Thankfully we were on vacation and so were able to cope.

Awesome views all week!

This pelican was apparently tired of being close to me.  It's unfortunate that the background doesn't have more contrast because this is a pretty cool shot.

Looking out through one of the caves.

Upper left is the beach in the below pictures.  In the bottom center of this shot there are a bunch of sea lions on a rock.  People were interacting with them in the water.

I don't know what tickles me more: rolling up shorts, or still getting them wet.

Playing the old "where did my feet go" game.  It's a Dad Life.

Riley was obsessed with finding glass that had been sanded down by the beach.  No, he's not "going chinese" on the beach.

Close up of the rock above that we captured on the way out.

Sea World!

So I have to say that overall Sea World San Diego was outstanding.  It rivals some of the best theme parks around in my opinion.  You should not travel to San Diego without planning at least a full day there.  Mostly the shots below are from the shows, but there were also many aquarium type attractions there as well, which helped us escape the heat and take breaks throughout the day.  Also, the food was good...

We started our day with a log flume type ride.  What we didn't see when we first walked up was that there is a roller coaster attached to the back and another drop like this one.  Reid and Riley went on it again as the lines were short.  Unfortunately, later in the day Ri developed a rash and was limping around the park...  :(

Front row at the dolphin show.  This was one of the highlights for us!

Mommas boy.

Hopefully this show what Reid and Riley got.  Bec, Ro and I escaped most of it, but we definitely got wet.

Shamu show was less exciting as a whale had injured a worker earlier in the year and so they didn't get in the water with them.  Still cool, but not as awe inspiring as the dolphins.

This funny little show has some great humorous interactions that had everyone in the family laughing.