Sunny San Diego...round two

I finally made it back to San Diego for my OB anesthesia rotation at the Naval Medical Center.  Many of you know that at the begining of my first rotation in May, I got a septic knee infection and was admitted to the hospital, had three surgeries and was definitely out of commission for a while.  Thanks to some great great care from doctors and nursed (my husband, included!) I am much better now and was really looking forward to being back in San Diego!

Matt and I rented this cute little Spanish bungalo in Coronado for the month.  I couldn't have asked for a better place to stay.  It has two bedrooms, which was perfect because my mom came down to stay with me for two weeks.  And you know what they say...location, location, location!  It was wonderful--in one direction we were four blocks from the San Diego Bay which overlooks a beautiful city skyline and in another direction we were eight blocks from the Pacific and its powdery sand beaches.

The day after Mom flew here, we went garage sale-ing to find her a bicycle.  We found a great one for 50 bucks (and then turned around two weeks later and sold it for $40- what a deal!)  We had some time to ride together, but she spent the majority of her days toting the pups in their Burley all around the "island", especially back and forth to the dog beach while I was working.

 The pups always LOVE when their grandma is with them!

I am so behind on blogging but I hope to be able to catch up sometime soon...
Thanks for checking in on us!

Mom's Visit - Temecula Wine Country

Mom's last weekend here we decided to go down to Southern California's wine country -- Temecula. Matt and I visited Temecula once in 2005 when I was living in San Diego and we were eager to go back!

The first winery we visited was (in my opinion, the best) Callaway Vineyard & Winery. We got there in time for a few samples, then their guided tour of the winery. After we sampled some more and bought a couple of bottles, we had a wonderful lunch at their restaurant Meritage.

We visited a couple of more wineries then made a trip downtown for some shopping-surprisingly we didn't buy anything else!

I was a wonderful way to end Mom's January visit! We hope she is booking another trip out here soon!

Mom's visit--Surf City USA & Cirque

Mom, Matt and I headed over to Huntington Beach early on Sunday to watch the last Cowboys play-off game (at the time, we didn't know it was the last!).
Matt did a lot of research and found Longboards, which had the perfect breakfast/bar to spend the morning cheering on our team. Much to our surprise, after we ate breakfast and watched the game for over an hour, Mom went out and took a picture of our restaurant---we were at no-ka-oi (which means 'the Best' in Hawaiian) not Longboards (which is next door)! Oh well, the food was great and the waitstaff was very friendly.
By the time the game was over (and of course the Cowboys lost) we had also lost out on our nice sunny weather. The clouds started rolling in and the wind picked up. We still ventured out to the pier and took in all the sights in Huntington Beach (aka Surf City USA).

Our big activity for the weekend was the Cirque du Soleil show, Kooza, under the big tent in Irvine. We have been to a couple of Cirques together and, as always, we were not disappointed! I hope that we can go see a Cirque du Soleil in Vegas soon!

Mom's visit continued...Mission Inn

One Sunday afternoon while Mom was here we decided to go down to Riverside to visit the Mission Inn and shop at a few antique stores. Surprisingly, we didn't buy anything at the antique stores (I was looking for some knobs for my newly painted desk--pictures to follow. Thanks Mom! but I didn't find any.)

We had planned to walk through the Mission Inn Museum and take a stroll through the public areas of the Inn. Luckily when we got to the museum they were just about to start the guided tour so we joined the group. We learned a lot about the history and architecture of the inn and enjoyed our behind the scenes tour.

Mom's Visit

We were lucky to have Mom visiting us for the past two weeks. Unfortunately, I didn't have any extra time off (just the weekends) but we took advantage of every minute we had together to go out and explore!

This picture was taken from our front yard on Friday morning after all of the snow up in the mountains.


I had to show Mom my new stomping ground in Loma Linda. This is the Heart & Surgical Hospital (or locally known as HSH) where I rotated in October and November. It is the newest and smallest of the Loma Linda surgical facilities.



After exploring around town we drove up the mountain to beautiful Lake Arrowhead where we shopped, explored and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

Long Beach, California

Fun with Friends

We had our second summer II exam on Friday then celebrated on Saturday.

Mom, Matt and I went to see the movie The Hangover with our friends Eva Marie and Shandon where we spent more than an hour laughing until we cried!

After the movie we met Eva's husband Josh and our friend Wayne at Gloria's for wonderful dinner and (much needed & deserved) drinks. I have to brag a little and say that I had to buy Eva & Wayne a drink because I made the best grade on this test! (which was just recovery from my first botched test after my knee surgery!)



Here we are, all smiles after full bellies and many mojitos!