Hurray!

We have an apartment in Chicago!! Yippee!! Well, the Chicago area I should say. We decided we didn’t really want to live downtown…it’s WAY too expensive over there. But I just got back this last week from apartment hunting and I am happy to report that we now have a place to live over there ;)

But of course, what is a trip without at least one visit to the doctor? Don’t worry, it’s not as bad as you think ;) I got my eyeglass cleaner in my eye and then couldn’t see. How did this happen you ask? Well, I packed all my eye stuff in one baggie and the eyeglass cleaner leaked into my contacts case. I thought if I cleaned out my contacts really good, I’d be okay. Nope. I only had my contacts in for a minute or two, realized they were uncomfortable, took them out…and realized I couldn’t see! Eek! I was pretty much freaking out. To put it lightly. They didn’t hurt until about 30 minutes later and then they STUNG SO BAD. We managed to get to an eye doctor at a Wal Mart over there (SO glad my Dad was out there with me!!!) I got some drops to help with the stinging and to get the yucky stuff out of my eyes, but I got really sensitive to the light, and because my eyes stung so much, my eyes just kept tearing up and basically what I’m trying to say is…I couldn’t see much.

Ironically, that was the day I ‘looked’ at the apartment we signed for. So I looked pretty ridiculous. I had to wear sunglasses inside, and I could only keep my eyes open for a few seconds at a time. So my dad and uncle were there, and they’d lead me around the apartment. I’d get to a room, open my eyes and quickly look around the room and shut them again.

But the surrounding area of the complex is AWESOME. We are 2 minutes away from the train station that will take us straight to downtown and there’s a grocery store across the street, and we’re one street away from the cutest little main street EVER. I love it.

So granted that I didn’t see much of the apartment itself, here’s hoping there are no surprises!! ;)

USS Midway Museum

(by the way, I totally had this ready to post at the airport on Tuesday…i just haven’t been connected to the internet on my laptop all week!!!)

Look at us!! We’re getting so much done on the Bucket List!!! We are just so proud of ourselves :)

John’s family came in for John’s birthday this past weekend and we went to the temple and out to lunch and had surfing cupcakes!! (more on that later) And his sister Amy stayed a few extra days with us. So we took her to see some sights in San Diego. We took her to the Mormon Battalion Visitor’s center, John took her rock climbing at Mission Trails Regional Park, and we went to the USS Midway Museum in downtown. Thanks so much to Tammy, who got us all in for free (she works there)!!!

WARNING: LOTS of pictures ;)

There she is, the USS Midway!!!

We tried lifting the links of the anchor chain…each link was at least 100lbs!!

Very nice, Amy ;)

Here we are in the "Ready Room” i think it’s called (if i remember correctly…) The CO is the commanding officer, who is pretty much the one in charge of everything (correct me if I’m wrong, Dad), the XO is the executive officer, who is second in command

We kind of got in trouble while we were there…so..we had to spend some time in the Brig…

The flight deck was so cool! There were lots of planes on display and you could go inside some of them. Our audio tour told us that there are more people qualified to be brain surgeons than there are people qualified to land on an aircraft carrier. WHOA. And that basically to land they have a hook on the back of the craft and they have to catch the hook on a cable on the deck that pulls them immediately to a stop. CRAZY.

 

We also went into this big tower…whose name escapes me….John? Do you remember? It has the controls and the captain’s cabin and it was pretty awesome.

 

I am the mini boss!! ;)

The place was huge. We were there for a couple hours and didn’t even notice the time go by! There was so much to see! We saw some radar:

Tried our hand at Morris Code (I was the only one who successfully spelled my name out) and played with LOTS of buttons…John got really excited… ;)

There were also cockpits to go sit in, i think this was one of John’s favorite parts ha ha

We were also able to ride the flight simulators for free, so John and Amy gave it a whirl

Off they go!

We had such a good time!! Thanks again Tammy!

Day Trip to Julian

(This is also my debut with my new short hair!!!)

One more thing checked off the Bucket List! We went to Julian, CA today for a little adventure. It was about an hour away and there was lots of winding roads and we’re lucky neither of us got sick! ;)

We started off with a visit to the pioneer museum. There were so many cool things in there! Photography wasn’t allowed though. sad. But it was awesome when the lady taking our admission money gave us our change with this totally old school cash register. There were really old pianos, clothing, tools and a really old and rusted tin washtub, which had been the first of its kind to arrive there in Julian way back when. wow. We were very grateful for all the technologies and comforts we enjoy today!

After the museum, we had a little picnic lunch:

John caught me off guard here…

We had set the timer on the camera and rushed to get ready…but we missed!

There we go! Got it!

We spent most of the time searching for answers to our history hunt, which was a list of questions that could be found on historical plaques all around “downtown” Julian (which consists of main street. only.). Once you answered all the questions correctly, you could put it in a drop box and that would be your entry to a drawing to win $50! Wish us luck ;)

we made several detours into different shops. My favorite were the candy shops. Oh yes. Look at all that CANDY!

This was at another candy shop. Literally the biggest jawbreaker i’ve ever EVER seen:

We did all sorts of fun things. We got yummy candy sticks (and peanut butter fudge! YESS!):

We went to jail:

And had FAMOUS JULIAN APPLE PIE (with ICE CREAM!!!!) at Mom’s :)

It was soooooo good. Warm apple crumb pie with vanilla ice cream. ohhh yeah. We ate it allll gone :)

I also tried cactus candy for the first time. Um…it was okay ;)

 

 

 

 
 

It was such a cute little town. (but if you need to use the public restrooms, it costs a quarter! Make sure you bring some with you when you go…we incidentally used our quarters on candy sticks, ha ha) With it having been the 4th of July recently, there were flags and swags everywhere, but I have a feeling they’re always pretty patriotic ;) John took this lovely picture

On the way home we stopped at a couple places with lovely scenery. John got some cool panoramic views for us too.

Me being goofy. I didn’t realize that John was taking a picture…he was supposed to be setting the timer ;)

Then we made the winding way back home. It was really hot out in Julian, and it was nice to come home to weather at least 15degrees cooler. ahhhh

And that’s one more adventure for the books!