Friday, February 13, 2015

My Daddy-O Came To Visit

My dad was in town for the past few days for a conference (well, down in San Diego, but since it is still technically in the same county I can consider it "in town", right?). He flew in Sunday and left this afternoon.

Sunday evening Ryan, Walt and I went to pick him up from the airport. The conference wasn't technically starting until Tuesday and his hotel room wouldn't be available until Monday so he stayed the night with us.

Monday while I worked he hung out and then took Ryan's bike out for a spin. He rode over to McDonald's (he needs him some ice tea - no lemon no sugar) and then made his way down to the pier to see the ocean. Once he got back I was getting off work so we met up with Ryan for lunch. After food we made our way to Reef so my dad could see "where the magic happens". I had an easy pace four miles on the schedule, so asked my dad if he wanted to join (he runs a mile a day). He passed on the run, but did come along with me on Ryan's bike.


After I showered and he got packed up I took him down to his hotel so he could get checked in and ready for all of his meetings.

Wednesday afternoon I made my way back down to San Diego to hang out with him after his meetings got out (Ryan leads a high school small group on Wednesdays so had to miss our adventure). They had a shuttle going from the hotel to the Gaslamp Quarter so we decided to jump on that (it was free, convenient, and meant we didn't have to search for parking Downtown - yes please!). We grabbed dinner and then walked around for a while checking out all of the sights and sounds (including mondo sailboats yachts). We made our way back to the shuttle and once we got back to the hotel I had to head back to Oceanside.


On Thursday, Ryan and I made our way down to San Diego after he got off work to pick up my dad. We decided to go to Little Italy for dinner. We actually went to the restaurant where Ryan and I had our rehearsal dinner the night before our wedding. The food was yummy and the company was even better.


On our way back to the hotel I was joking with my dad about him getting ice cream from the gift shop (he loves his Drum Sticks). He asked if we wanted to join. Well, if you know Ryan then you know it took all of .0001 seconds for him to jump on that train! We ended up all getting a Toll House Ice Cream Cookie - holy yum! I asked the lady in the gift shop if they had heaters by the pool we could sit at and enjoy our treat. She told us about the fire pit so we grabbed our ice cream and headed that way. Since we have been having Santa Ana's this week it was still really nice out - I'd say still probably 70* (while we were sitting there dad looked up the weather for Monroe and it was 1* - OUCH!). We ate our ice cream cookies, hung out by the fire, and enjoyed the beauty that is San Diego.

Originally my dad said he would just take a shuttle or taxi over to the airport, but then I had an idea. What if I came down for my 10 mile run?! There was a bike rental right next to his hotel, so I asked him if he wanted to get a bike and join me along Mission Bay for my workout (then I could take him to the airport closer to his flight time). He totally agreed so this morning I made my way down to San Diego again (not sure if you are counting, but since last Friday I have driven to San Diego 7 out of the 8 days).

The bike rental had signs saying they also rented Ellipti-Go's, so dad wanted to try one of those out. Unfortunately (or possibly fortunately, depending on how you look at it) they no longer had any (apparently they got negative reviews so got rid of them). He ended up on a ladies' beach cruiser (the guy renting the bikes said they were newer and better so dad decided on one of those).


We ran over to Fiesta Island, around the island, and then back down Mission Bay Drive for a while before hitting our 10 mile distance and then returning his bike. Due to the Santa Ana winds it was already in the 80s by the time we finished around 10:30am (HOLY HEAT BATMAN!). After my dad took a quick shower (and I wiped down with a Shower Pill), he checked out and we headed over to get some lunch before I dropped him at the airport.


My dad is normally pretty busy with work so when my mom comes out to visit he has to stay in Michigan. (Ryan actually hadn't seen him since Christmas of 2013, but that's what happens when you live across the country...)  It was great having him out to visit (even if that wasn't his main focus)!

How often do you see your parents?

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