As I warned you in the last month, there is A LOT going on in May. Easier to just start at the beginning I guess.
Last month I did a couple of hikes with some of my FS8 Pilates friends and so we tried to squeeze in a few more in May. First up was the classic San Diego Urban hike known as the "7 bridges." This hike was created back in 2012 by some Natural History Museum volunteers and, depending on your route, is about 5.5 miles. You will see murals, plaques, historic buildings, wildlife, award winning gardens as well as the bridges themselves which boast architectural wonders of their own - one was a wooden trestle bridge that was built in 1905 for $1,000 and another was the first multiple-arched cantilever bridge built in California!
We had so much fun we decided to hit up another local hike the next morning as well! This time it was Cowles Mountain, the highest point in the city. The hike is a 3 mile out and back trail with a 360 degree panoramic views of downtown San Diego, the Pacific Ocean and Mexico. The city of San Diego purchased the land in the 1970's to preserve the area from being developed and it became the jewel in the crown of what is now known as the Mission Trails Regional Park, which is the largest municipally owned park in the USA. We didn't have a clear day, but it didn't really subtract from our experience.
To round out the first weekend of the month, I joined June and another friend visiting from out of town, Julia for a delicious burger, Cinco de Mayo Fest in Old Town and a Waves game at Snapdragon stadium! I am trying to get everything checked off on my San Diego bingo card.
To prove that I am not here all alone, Ben shared this picture of him and his friends on College Day. They are all sporting shirts of what/where they plan to be starting in the fall.
Second week of May was a busy one. Jim flew back into town to help me move furniture up to Santa Barbara for Lucy and to celebrate not only Mother's Day, but also his birthday! We also decided to bring Wesley along so he could spend some time with the girls before the move across country. We got all of the furnishings stored and then set about a tour of the campus and all the places that Lucy hangs out. She has a pretty good deal going on at UCSB.
We then drove down to LA to meet up with Lilly and have dinner before turning the car south to make it back to San Diego a mere 15 hours later. Not a bad way to spend a day.
The next morning we celebrated Ben's recognition by the local Daughter's of the American Revolution chapter. He received the Good Citizen's Award with a special luncheon with other award winners. Originally Jim wasn't going to be able to make it, but lucky for us his plans changed.
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We still needed to celebrate Jim's birthday also! Since it was just the three of us, we decided to get a few cupcakes in several of his favorite flavors. It was a small celebration, but I think he appreciated the gifts and cards.
It wouldn't be a visit to San Diego without at least one surf session and a trip to the dog beach with Wesley, so that is exactly what happened. We also managed to squeeze one more dinner with our friends the Jessen's in before Jim had to jump on the red eye and head back to work.
It is a good thing too, cause at long last he got promoted! The ceremony was supposed to happen earlier, but for one reason or another it kept getting postponed. We finally gave up trying to figure out a way for me to be there, but he had several of his family members there to help him celebrate the occasion. I think their smiles say it all!
Next month will be the last flight of the planes Jim flew when we met all those years ago - the Harrier. There is a huge celebration planned for next month. A friend of mine sent me this picture of the last formation of Harriers flying over the marina in Swansboro on their way to New Bern. End of an era to be sure.
I feel like I should be closer to the end of the month by now, but we are still squarely in the middle. Up next is PROM! The families met up at a nearby park to take pictures. I didn't realize that almost the entire Senior class was showing up to take pictures in addition to a few other schools that were also doing their prom on the same night AND there was some type of musical performance happening. Needless to say it was hard to keep tabs on Ben in order to get some photos. But I was able to snap a few and several other moms shared some as well. After the photos, they had a catered dinner at one of the girls' houses and then boarded a chartered bus to go downtown to the Prom venue. Afterwards, Ben said there were several after-parties but absolutely no pictures from them - haha - or none that he would share with me.
I was good after prom and went to bed early because the next morning we were doing the Coronado Bridge Run/Walk. I tried to sign up last year for it, but it didn't happen so when I saw the sign advertising it I jumped on it. I also was able to go with several neighbors/hiking/FS8 friends and even roped in Jim's Navy Plebe roommate's wife to come along! It was super cool and I could see me doing this again next year and maybe every year for the rest of my life!
Finally made it to the last week of May! Ben's last official day of school, but in actuality he finished up with his exams earlier and really the last 10 days or so had been filled with all of the typical pre-graduation prep and fun that you would expect to find. But he did agree to holding the sign so I appreciated it and quickly snapped the picture.
Suddenly it is Memorial Day weekend and everyone has plans plans plans! Ben and several of his friends went to the Padres game and even made it on the Jumbo screen. Reminds me of when we lived in Miami and the kids never failed to get on the Jumbotron every time we went to a game!
Jim stayed in VA for the holiday and spent some time with his family at the "river" but had to be back in DC to represent the USMC at the National Memorial Day Concert on the west lawn of the Capitol Building. I spent the weekend prepping for the arrival of our POD the following week and finished up packing what I could in preparation of the next phase of this move that started in middle of FEBRUARY!
After the holiday, Jim came back - yes that is visit #4 if you are counting - to help load the POD and more importantly for Ben's graduation!! We are so proud of the kids for being able to succeed after being the new kid in school, again and again. Ben wins the contest of how many High Schools can you attend before you graduate with three compared to two for both the girls and tied with Lucy for the number of schools attended at nine. He did well at all of them, but really found his people at Scripps Ranch High School. We are really looking forward to seeing what he can do at USNA. Yes, he is following in Jim's footsteps and heading to the boat school - Class of 2030! Go Navy, Beat Army!
Shortly after the dust settled on graduation, the pod was picked up and hopefully all the years of watching the mover and packers will pay off and we loaded this thing correctly and we won't open it up on the other end to find rubble and kindling. Fingers crossed!
So this month had a lot of Ben, so I asked the girls to share some more photos of what else they did in May other than see us on that one day in early May. We will start with Lilly. She said May brought a lot of end of the year celebrations! She recently celebrated the graduation of her sorority big sister despite not being in Gphi anymore, she is still very close with her sorority family.
Along with graduation celebrations, she has had quite a few fun functions and parties at her awesome apartment as well as at all the trendy LA places.
She also did her last excursion of the quarter to the Santa Paula Punchbowls out in Ventura.
For Memorial Day weekend, she and her boyfriend Donovan did a little trip down SoCal, with a stop in Long Beach and a visit with us in San Diego. Lilly was pleased she finally had someone to go out and enjoy the SD social scene with, too bad it will probably be her last time!
Lucy also had a pretty packed May. She finished up her outdoor recreation program with a backpacking trip in Ojai. Overall she is happy that she participated in it, and is looking forward to the employment opportunities that will arise from it.
She also spent another weekend on the river with a group of friends. She didn't share many pictures from this trip, but reported back that it was super fun and she said she wanted to do more of these kinds of trips in the future.
Lastly she went to LA to see Lorde at the Kia forum with her roommate Noelle and had the BEST time. In fact couldn't stop talking about it for days and days. We are so excited that she is going to see all these incredible shows!
We will close out the month of May with Wesley's last visit to the Coronado Dog Beach visit. He will certainly miss our visits down there several times a month. I am fairly certain there is nothing even remotely close to this in Falls Church 😬.
