Trip to San Diego

Last weekend Jacob & I took a little trip down to San Diego!

We were able to tour a new building the company built...an awesome new building. Now that Jacob is officially in the construction business...& I guess I am, too...I'm trying to see beyond a building's "cover" & appreciate all the work behind the walls. So I have to mention all the great finished concrete walls, the polished concrete floors, the stainless steel staircases, & the office pods on cantilevered concrete decks that stuck out from the side of the building. The thought behind the design of the building was impressive, too. The offices, labs, break rooms, hallways, & staircases were all laid out with the intent of increasing interaction among all of the scientists in the building. Also impressive is that upon completion, the company will be applying for LEED Gold certification for the building. But I also have to mention the VIEW! To the North is the Torrey Pines Golf Course (just let the intro play for a bit) & to the West is the ocean. The building sits on a cliff that adrenaline junkies use as a jumping off point for hang gliding!

While we didn't do any hang gliding (maybe next time), we did hit the open water for a bit of sea kayaking to check out the La Jolla caves. A friend of mine from High School lives in the area & we were excited she could come along! Here are some pictures & videos from the day.

We've been kayaking before, but never on the open water. We were out past the point where the waves break & it was so much fun riding the swells as they came in. One surprised us though & Nikki got a close view of the fish she & Jacob were checking out!

You should all be proud of me for being as far from land as I was. Every once in a while I panicked imagining Jaws jumping up out of the water...but thankfully, we didn't see any great whites. We did see a leopard shark though! It was in really shallow water & looked to be about 5 feet long!! There were also a few seals out that afternoon. Yay!

Another thing to note: Jacob was rather obsessed with the birds that were perched on the cliffs. Apparently they're racists. There were very distinct groups of white & black birds...too bad they haven't yet learned that we're all created equal.