Solo Trip to Portland

While I was still in San Diego, Alex headed off solo to Portland to see his parents.  It is weird vacationing apart, but at least we overlapped on the same time zone for a couple days!  Alex and his parents rode the Deschutes Brewery bus up to Mount Bachelor to do some snowboarding.  The visibility was almost zero, but there was great snow and fun snowboarding for all.  They got to eat at tons of yummy restaurants and shops, including Voodoo Doughnuts!

 

Alex's Momma!

 

Driving to Mount Hood for another day of snowboarding.

  

 Mount Bachelor with zero visibility!

 

 In the trees on Mount Bachelor

   

Alex and his dad on the ski lift

 

Dave

  

I wish I had a Voodoo doughnut right now!!

 

Yum

 

I want to stab this doughnut then eat it!

Charlotte Blizzard

Last week, Charlotte had its biggest snow storm in over a decade!  Chancy and I just barely made it out of Charlotte for our conference in San Diego.  After all the snow had finished falling, the city had around eleven inches!  Luckily for Charlotte drivers, the snow quickly melted as temperatures rose to the fifties the day after the storm.  Alex took a walk around town to take these amazing pictures.  I can't believe I missed the snow storm of the decade!

  

 So pretty and white!

  

 Statues in uptown were covered!

 

The panther at the football stadium.

 

 

 Plows worked hard to keep the streets clear.

   

 

 

Alex walked over to Kate and Sean's house in 4th ward.  Kate was hours late for work trying to get her car out of the driveway!

Laura and Chancy go to San Diego

Carolinas Medical Center allows us to have five days each year to spend at a conference and covers the expenses for the trip.  Chancy and I decided to go to an ACOG Leadership Conference in San Diego.  We were probably one of the last flights to get out of Charlotte last Wednesday during the blizzard.  We were very lucky!  We left thirty degree weather and eleven inches of snow for seventy degree weather and sunny blue skies.  We had an amazing time.  The scenery was breathtaking.  What a perfect conference :)

 

Our hotel room was beautiful!  I loved the bathroom too!

   

  

 Chancy's high school friend, Devon, lives in San Diego now as a traveling nurse and was an amazing tour guide.  He took an entire day off to show us all around San Diego.  Our first night in town, we went up to a bar on the 30th floor with great views of the city.

  

 We started our first full day in San Diego at Mount Soledad.  It had fantastic views of the city and beaches.

 

  

   

Me and Chancy

  

 We ate lunch at the Cliff Hanger Cafe looking out over the Pacific Ocean.  Hand gliders jump off the cliffs at the edge of the restaurant.  It was the most beautiful lunch view I have ever seen. 

  

 Hand Gliders!

   

  

  

  

  

  I bought lots of sunscreen :)

  

 Devon drove us to a beach with hiking trails.  We definitely got our exercise.

  

  

 Hiking with cacti

  

 So beautiful!

  

 On top of the world!

  

 

I could have taken hundreds of pictures of these views!

  

  

This little guy was perfectly posed.

  

 Next, we drove down to the caves of La Jolla to see the sea lions.  They were smelly!

  

  

 Chancy and the birds

  

 La Jolla

  

  

  

 I love sea lions!

  

 After our hiking and sea lion watching, we drove back to Ocean Beach to Devon's house.  We sat on the clifts to watch the sunset.  So perfect!

  

 I can't believe he lives here all the time!

  

 Chancy and Devon watching the sunset!

   

  

  

 Meghan, Devon and Chancy before dinner at our hotel.

  

 Chancy and I went to some of the conference on Friday morning, but decided to bail at lunch.  We still had so much to see in San Diego!  We walked down to the piers to have lunch at The Fish Market Seafood Restaurant.

 

After lunch, we took a ferry over to Coronado Island.

  

 We walked to Hotel del Coronado.  Marilyn Monroe filmed a movie here at "the Del".

  

 Happy Valentine's Day to us!

  

 Moo!

  

 Waiting for our ferry back to San Diego.

  

Saturday morning, we headed off to the San Diego Zoo!  They had a skycar that takes you over the zoo.

  

  

 We loved the polar bears. 

  

 Little red pandas

  

 The highlight of my trip was seeing the pandas!!  I have always wanted to see a giant panda!

  

 So happy!

  

 This is the baby panda!  He was such a ham laying on his back right in the front of his enclosure.

  

 Elephants

  

 Hyena

  

 We had an absolutely amazing trip!  So thankful to be at a residency program that supports such fantastic vacations :)