As we said goodbye to the cats and Debbie at her and Carol’s house, we hit the road anxious to get to San Diego. Since I joined the tour last week, I learned one important rule: we never make it somewhere as quick as we hope to. The drive from San Francisco to San Diego usually takes anywhere from 8-10 hours. Linda and I were at the driver’s seat and decided to take the famed Highway 1 along the coast to 17-mile drive and Big Sur. Once we made it there, we realized we couldn’t get off 1 until LA, and so we continued to drive along the curvy, winding, cliff-side road for hours and hours. Luckily we made it to LA in time for rush-hour traffic! Needless to say I am very VERY thankful for car-pool lanes. We were able to coast by the bumper-to-bumper traffic and made it through LA in no time. As we pulled up to Dan ‘86 and Tricia Kettlehake’s house in San Diego, after missing the Mexican feast they had prepared for us, we enjoyed some chips, salsa, and cookies (watch out Betty Crocker, these were amazing) outside on the patio.

The next morning we were up and ready to hit the beach! We headed down to La Jolla Cove to enjoy the sights. After seeing seals and other marine life, Ben and I went snorkeling through the cove doing many inversions to get better views of the fish. We then met up with The Ashley’s (who decided NOT to put on sun screen as they layed out…haha) and relaxed on the beach. After drying off and piling into the Wittenberger, Dan took us on a quick tour of the city stopping for lunch in Coronado. This gave us the opportunity to tour the famed Hotel del Coronado and take in the scenes.

That night we headed to the event at Bill ‘68 and Marilyn Boggs' great home. It was amazing to see all the different people that showed up for the event, we had people from the class of ’51 as well as a current student from the class of ’11 and everything in between! We also had people drive down from LA. Needless to say with this many people the conversations were lively and endless. Thanks again to the Boggs for their wonderful hospitality!

The night was ended venturing into the Gas Lamp District for a few drinks and entertainment. We heard an Irish musician at one Irish Pub we went to and also saw a collapsing scrum during a rugby match at the next place. It was a great night of conversation and antics before heading home—the perfect way to end our stay in beautiful San Diego.

Currently we are heading down Highway 15 on our way to the Red Rock Casino in Las Vegas. The van is packed with 6 of us—Ben (passed out), Ashley M. (playing tribute to Michael Jackson on her iPod), Ashley P. (putting the petal to the metal), Linda (multi-tasking getting work done), and Dr. Fleisch (wondering why he would ever get in a van with us crazy folks).

See you along the road!
--
Jon

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