San Diego Bowl Game 2016

As I mentioned before, Thomas's football team came near Indiana twice during the 2016 season - Michigan State and Cincinnati. Brandon and I were in Philadelphia during the Michigan State game so we couldn't go, and Brandon was at drill during the Cincinnati game. He was bummed that he didn't get to go to any games, and I'm always looking for an excuse to travel.

BYU was invited to play in the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego in December that season, and I knew my brother Isaac was going to go, then drive back to Indiana for Christmas afterwards. We also had a hotel voucher from a previous vacation package that I could use for the hotel room. So as an early birthday surprise for Brandon, I bought plane tickets, worked out the hotel room, reserved our game tickets (free, thanks to our player hook-up!), and made arrangements to ride back with Isaac. I even went out of my way to have a friend write me a check to send in for the hotel reservation so that Brandon wouldn't see the check come through our account. I was so sneaky! 

Apparently not sneaky enough. I bought our plane tickets using my credit card because he never uses that card so he never checks it. For some reason, though, he did once. I was sitting on the couch, and he was on the computer with his back to me and all of a sudden asks, "Did you buy plane tickets?" I was so caught off guard and couldn't come up with ANYTHING to say. No lie. No excuse. Nothing. I was forced to admit that yes, I had bought tickets and yes, it was supposed to be a surprise. I didn't tell him where at that time but I was SO disappointed in myself. Immediately following, of course, I thought of plenty of things I could've said, the most obvious being that my parents used it to buy Micah's plane ticket for Christmas. They'd used my card several times in the past so I could get points, and that would've been believable. I could've even just said, "No. Must've been my parents." and he would've been satisfied. But nope. Choked under pressure.

When I finally told him where we were going, though, he was really excited and we had a great time. :)

Because it was a bowl game, the football players got some perks, including free tickets to some local attractions. Turns out, though, that we didn't need the free tickets to Sea World because military personnel and families get in free. So that was our first stop! Isaac and Thomas came and picked us up and we went together. It was fun to hang out with Thomas - he was like a celebrity there, since there were tons of other football players and they were all in their BYU gear. He got stopped a few times by admiring fans, old and young. We really enjoyed the park, but I was glad we didn't pay for it - I'm not sure I would've thought it was worth the money. We really only spent a couple of hours there and were ready to go. 

The Shamu show was definitely the highlight of the day. It's hard not to love an animal that will splash people on command!

The next morning, we went on a whale-watching excursion. We saw tons of dolphins, who were so much fun to watch as they played in the wake of our boat, right up next to us. We only saw one whale - a humpback - and couldn't get very close due to some kind of regulations, but it was still pretty cool and so lovely to be out on the water.

And here's the extremely zoomed in screenshot of Mr. Humpback's tail. Pretty exciting!

That afternoon, Isaac picked us up and we went to Cabrillo National Monument. There was a beautiful lighthouse, as well as great views of the bay and the ocean. It was Brandon's first time seeing the Pacific Ocean, so we really enjoyed the visit.

Later that night, Brandon and I drove out to Mission Beach to watch the sunset, then headed to dinner and to the San Diego temple. We did baptisms there and enjoyed the lights. It's such a gorgeous temple!

We had a few very serious talks about moving to San Diego during our trip there. You just can't beat that weather and gorgeous scenery!

Our last day there, we explored the USS Midway. I've never been that close to an aircraft carrier and my goodness, it's huge! It was really interesting to explore the floating city and imagine what it would be like to live on it out in the middle of the ocean.

Our last stop - the game! It never rains in San Diego, but it rained that day. And I'd say about half the seats in our section were covered by an overhang. Our seats were literally the very last row of seats that weren't covered, so we were in the rain the majority of the time. It wasn't a downpour or anything - just enough to make everything wet and uncomfortable. The game was fun and super exciting (we won!) - especially at the end - but man, I wish we could've been just one row back! Fortunately, we'd seen the weather forecast and got some ponchos earlier that day.

After the game, we settled in for a VERY long drive home - 30 hours! Isaac had taken one of the rows of seats out of his van and replaced it with one of his kids' small mattresses, so we had a bench and a mattress in the back. Between the 3 of us, we rotated sleeping and driving and really only stopped for short food and bathroom breaks. Throughout the trip, the weather got increasingly colder, but we had the pleasure of Christmas with the family when we got home!