Sea World San Diego's 55th Anniversary Celebration

Sea World's 55th Anniversary Celebration

San Diego, CA

I have had a Platinum pass with Sea World / Busch Gardens for years. When we lived in Virginia, we were 30-40 minutes from Busch Gardens Williamsburg. With the husband having family in San Diego and us visiting Florida on vacation occasionally, getting the Platinum pass for all of the parks just made sense. 

I have had the pass so long, I pay $10.50 a month, and I have a Platinum pass!

Honestly, I thought when we moved to San Diego, I thought I would be visiting Sea World like once to 3 times a month at least. We are about a 10 minute drive from Sea World. My husband and I visited before he went out to sea, but since he left, I had not been once!

I knew I had to visit for Sea World's 55th Anniversary Celebration. I really thought that Sea World would celebrate their anniversary all season. 55 years is a landmark. However, Sea World just had an Anniversary weekend. It also happened to be the first weekend of Spring Break for some of the schools in the area. I went on Sunday, March 24. I wanted to check out some shows and check out the food festival that was going on too.

It was really crowded. The weather was amazing, sunny but not hot and with it being the first weekend of spring break, the park was very crowded compared to the size crowds that I have seen before.   Normally when I see the orca show at Shamu Stadium, there are seats left open. I think it was at capacity for this show. 

I knew from reading the news that Sea World had stopped the Pets Rule show. The stadium looked like they were remodeling for another show, but I could not tell what type of show. They are probably still using the stadium for evening shows and will use it in the summer for the special shows for Electric Ocean.  

Sea World is always loaded with kids, no matter which day we go. But I feel like this Sunday was a "3 kid minimum" day. I have never seen so many strollers in my life. I know some people believe that theme parks like Sea World are "for kids" and the ChildFree should not be there. But honestly, I could not imagine trying to enjoy the day at a theme park while pushing a stroller, or dragging a small child. It would have to be hell on earth. 

Theme parks are yet another experience in my life that convinces me that ot having kids is the most amazing choice I could have made. 

Forever a Party of Two

Forever .... A Party of Two

We will forever be a Party of Two, but not in the way that most will think that I am referring to. True, we will forever be a party of two at home in that we are never going to have children and we do not have an immediate plans for any pets.  Today, I am tackling the fact that it feels like we will forever be a party of two when we dine, travel etc because friends without children are RARE.

The Childfree over age 35 frequently end up being friends with empty nesters or those who have busy, never home teenagers. Trying to be friends with those who have little kids is just impossible. The interests and schedules are just completely different. Its rare that parents can go out on a School Night. When they can or when they do, it is either something really special or they are done and home early enough to not disrupt the regular night schedule. For a childfree couple, we rarely have a "school night".  Both of us have taken a variety of courses, training, conferences, etc at various points in our careers which made us have to study and do homework on a week night, but normally, a week night doesn't have much difference for us. We can go and do what we want.

At various times we have had a varying number of couples or friends around us in various points of their lives. Some were never married, some were empty nesters, some were trying every day, it was just different for each couple. However, since moving to California, a place I considered to be more progressive than my home of Virginia, I was shocked to find the lack of ChildFree people. I figured anywhere I went, outside of the military community obviously, that I would have no problem finding couple who either didn't or were delaying the whole children thing. I have been shocked to realize that even outside of the military community that every where I look, it is still families, families, families. 

We have pretty much decided that we aren't going to bend, and go out of our way to be friends with people with kids. You can't go out on a Wednesday? Nope we are not rescheduling to when the kids don't have a game. Your problem is not my problem. It gets exhausting trying to work schedules around something I did not choose.  Have I accepted being a party of two? Maybe not 100%. I hope that one day, we meet a couple more interracial, married, childfree couples who enjoy traveling and dining out. Will we? I don't really know. One amazing thing in our marriage is we actually get along, and we actually enjoy spending time together. If we never meet any further childfree couples, we will still travel, we will still enjoy life. 

Our life is on our terms. We don't have to work based on someone else's schedule. Our married life is crazy enough being on active duty military. Whether we are surrounded by friends, or just surrounded by our love, our childfree status isn't changing, and our wonderful life is only going to get better.

CHILD FREE LIFE

Azure Hotel, Ontario California

Azure Hotel

Ontario, California

Living in San Diego, Anytime there is a convention at the Ontario Convention Center, it requires a 110 mile, 2 hr drive. For multiple day conventions, it makes sense to simply stay in the area, instead of driving 2 hours back and forth.  Back in November, I attended a multiple day convention and I made a blog post about the hotel where I stayed. I was close, but I drove to the convention center every day since I had things to transport with me.  The convention I just recently attended, I decided ahead of time to stay at a closer hotel, so that  I could just walk and not have to pay the parking fees.  I chose the Azure hotel. It is right next door to the convention center. Their parking lots touch. It was not even a 5 minute walk.

I am not sure if I would stay there again, even though it is super convenient, I am just not sure I would stay there again.

If you love the Grandma's Basement look, this hotel is for you. Everything in the hotel is super duper old and outdated. The flooring is this ridiculous, ugly GREEN marble. The bed was this super creepy 4 poster bed that somehow survived the 80s.

The most annoying part of the trip was when I checked in, the hotel had me as 2 separate nights, not one reservation for 2 days.  When I went to check in, the clerk was not helpful at all. She was just matter of fact, Nope they only had me for one night, period end of sentence. Not let me extend you, let me modify your reservation, not any help at all. 

I had to pull up the reservation to prove it was 2 days.  The hotel staff CLAIMED it was 2 separate reservations and their system would not allow it to be modified. As an IT Person, I don't believe it. 

I understand how software works. They could have easily changed the reservation.  Instead, I had to check out and check back in the next day. When I was at the desk checking out and checking back in, someone from house keeping was there. She said "You don't want service today do you?"

I just figured they were understaffed and she was trying to minimize what the housekeepers had to do.  I explained that I had food trash, I needed one more towel and the previous cleaner had left cleaning supplies in my room. I said they didn't need a full clean, but I at least need the trash to go and another towel.

I got back, of course my room hadn't been cleaned, the trash was still there, the cleaning supplies left previously were still there. Someone had dropped off a bunch of towels, but that was it.

The other super annoying part was the hotel has these "energy saver" light systems. You have to leave your card in the fixture to make the lights and AC run. So the hotel can have an updated "energy saving" feature, but they can't be bothered to either update the lamps to the lamps with plugs in the bottom, or add an outlet cover to the outlets by the bed that turns it into 3 outlets and a USB or similar.  Those covers aren't even $10. 

Vegas Baby!

Vegas Baby!

I decided to take a solo trip to Vegas at the end of January. I had some freebie days at the Caesars Properties. I decided to stay at Linq. I hadn't stayed at Linq in a long time. My husband and I have stayed there maybe 2-3 times. 

Linq and Cromwell are probably the only Caesars Properties without a Starbucks and with me being a huge Starbucks fan, I probably should have stayed at another property.

I decided to seize the opportunity to see a few shows and go to a few exhibits that my husband would not be remotely interested in. I walked and walked and walked. I swear I got well over 20,000 steps each day. It was at the end of January, so the big conference of January, CES, was already over. But of course, its Vegas, the convention capital, so there still were conventions going on. 

I had a good time, even though I was solo. I enjoyed the weather. It definitely was not too cold or too hot. My husband and I will be back in Vegas together in April.

Hawthorne Suites, St. Robert, Missouri

Hawthorne Suites

St. Robert, Missouri

For my family visit to Missouri, I wanted to spend as much time with my family as possible since I had not seen them in so long. Well my sister and family lives in Waynesville, and there are not any hotels anywhere in Waynesville. I found one B&B but it really looked creepy. There is a road of hotels in St. Robert right off the interstate which was super convenient. 

I decided to stay at the Hawthorne Suites. I really did not need the kitchenette, but having a fridge was handy. They put me on the first floor in a room right behind the housekeepers laundry and storage area. The room had clearly been fairly recently remodeled with updated flooring, bedding and furniture. The weirdest thing about the room was the bathroom smelled like a wet dog. I don't think the hotel even allows pets. 

My first night there was the 23rd. Apparently, Dec 23 is national Elephant Bowling with roller skates night. The hotel has no real noise protection from the floors above. I have no idea what was going on with the groups that were on the floor above me. Honestly, it sounded like a herd of elephants were bowling while wearing roller skates. The elephants kept falling down. Apparently, the elephants were up until at least 2am. I did get lucky in that the elephants only stayed there my first night and my last night. So I did get some sleep. 

I will point out something that Hawthorne Suites had, that ALL hotels need to have. EASY ACCESS TO POWER OUTLETS!

The night stand in between the 2 beds had a power strip built right in. There were outlets on the desk, under the tv and other places.  With the amount of traveling that I do, I stay in hotels all the time. One thing that really annoys me in when a hotel remodels or is fairly new and yet they cannot make sure there are outlets where people need them. Definitely it was a welcomed surprise at Hawthorne in St. Robert.

Welcome to Uranus!

Uranus Fudge Factory, St. Robert, Missouri

My Sister moved to Missouri in 2014 when her husband was given new Military Orders. Since her living there in 2014, I had never gone to visit her and see where she is living. I decided since the husband was deployed at Christmas, I would fly out and spend time with the family for Christmas. I stayed in St. Robert at a Hawthorne Suites. St. Robert is the next town over from where the family lives in Waynesville. 

I saw the Uranus Fudge Factory when I was driving it. I thought it was hilarious. When my sister had to work on Dec 26, I decided to take the kids to Uranus Fudge Factory.

They DO actually make fudge there. But the store is more of a general store for tourists. Just about any typical tourist item you can imagine is there for sale. It is in a small shopping center with other "Uranus" businesses. There is a small circus / freakshow museum, an escape room and even a small playground for kids.

The best part?

When you walk in the door, Everyone yells "Welcome to Your Anus!"

If you are anywhere near St. Robert, you have to stop by. If for no other reason, then to say you tried Fudge from Uranus!