A Brackrog Christmas Eve in San Diego

The main purpose of this Southern California trip was to meet up with Mom, Marlene and Oliver and visit family, but we did have a day in San Diego before meeting them when they flew in on Christmas Day.  Onions found us modern sleek place in one of the ubiquitous new glass buildings that appear to be all over downtown San Diego.

Street car!  My friend Kevin has strong thoughts about street cars so this was for him.

I think it was my first time spending a significant amount of time in one of those glass towers and the layouts are not intuitive.  Staircases that don't link up (maybe it's me) but the public spaces are nice!  We did take advantage of the hot tub.

We met up with Cousin Chris and his wife Stacey for breakfast on Christmas Eve.

Afterwards, we drove out to the east county to meet up with Brian!  We drove up to the town of Julian and drove into the mountains. 

Apple Pie!

Looking east into the Anza-Borrego Desert

Looping around, we drove back into San Diego where Brian took us on a tour around Hillcrest, Bankers Hill (here on the Spruce Street Suspension Bridge) and we spent time in Balboa Park watching the planes fly over as they landed at the airport.

Downtown San Diego from Coronado Island

We did go to the other side of Coronado and along the beach in front of the hotel, but somehow now pictures were taken.

Finished up with dinner!  Melted cheese makes EVERYTHING better.

Christmas morning from Point Loma looking back at San Diego.

We spent the morning exploring Point Loma and the Cabrillo Monument (as of this writing....we should probably vet him as to his treatment of indigenous people....does the statue need to be considered for removal?)

Looking south into the waters and islands of Mexico.

Looking out at North Island Naval Air Station (wow, that's a valuable piece of land!) and the Airport in the distance.

USS Midway Museum.  Alas it was Christmas Day and therefore closed to visitors.  Bummer.

We did get to walk around along the outside and get a sense of the scale.  Then it was off to the airport to pick up the gang!