As Nick and Sarah got on the road to San Diego, California—their first stop of a few in the state—Sarah leaned back in her seat and looked at Nick. 

“It’s a funky city.  I’ll bet San Diego, California is colored diamond central,” she said.  “Maybe some pink diamonds, or some orange diamonds.  Hopefully a San Diego pink diamond engagement ring.  I can channel my inner J. Lo.”

Nick grinned.  Her inner J. Lo made for a great Halloween costume the previous year.  “Does that mean I have to channel my inner Ben Affleck?” He asked.  “I don’t think I can get the accent right.”

Sarah napped for a while, then woke up and rolled the window down as the air changed from the dry heat of the desert to the moist coolness of the ocean.  She was so excited to see the ocean again.

“Do you realize how long we’ve been landlocked, Nicky?” she said as she inhaled deeply.

“Long time.  It feels weird, no?” he responded.

“Very.”  She grabbed the GPS, which she had named “Bob” that morning, for some reason.  She thought out loud as she programmed him. “Holiday Inn Mission Bay, 3737 Sports Arena Blvd., San Diego, CA, 92110.  I wonder if there’s anything going on at the Arena.”

Nick grabbed Bob out of her hand and put him in his mount on the dashboard.  “I think Barry Manilow is touring.” He told her.

“That is the gayest thing you have ever said to me.” She looked at him and laughed.

The pulled into the hotel and grabbed their bags.  After checking in, they asked about biking in that part of the city.  The concierge told them that San Diego is a very eco-friendly, bike-friendly place, and they should feel free to take a nice ride. 
Before they walked away, the concierge stopped them.  “You’ve brought locks?” He asked.

Nick and Sarah nodded.

“It’s a great city, but not a perfect one.  Lock ‘em up.”  He told them.  Nick handed him a $5 bill and they went to their room to stretch out for a few minutes.

When they woke up an hour later, they were anxious to take a nice, relaxing bike ride along the sea.  It was always refreshing.  Having both grown up on the Atlantic Ocean, it was amazing to be biking along the Pacific instead.  The water was so crystal-clear.  Sarah remembered summers in Maine where you couldn’t see the bottom even in three feet of water.  She loved it, and she didn’t care, but there was something so amazing about being able to see the bottom no matter how deep the water was.

They biked for an hour or so, and then went back to the hotel.  At the Studio Diner at 4701 Ruffin Road, they stuffed themselves silly with comfort foods like beef brisket chili, hot pastrami, and a lava cake that Sarah offered to marry .

Having digested sufficiently while walking on the beach, they got ready to go out.  They headed for one of San Diego’s hottest bars, the Bitter End.  They had both been to the Bitter End in New York, and were anxious to see how this one compared.  This Bitter End was endlessly cool-looking, even from the outside, as it was in the historic Gaslamp Quarter, at 770 5th Ave., San Diego, CA 92101.  It was three levels, with a main bar at ground level, a dance club in the basement, and a VIP lounge upstairs.  Nick and Sarah stayed in the main bar, playing pool and sampling from the bar’s Specialty Martini menu.  They woke themselves up with the Black Martini, which included Skyy vodka, kahlua, a shot of espresso, and cream on top. 

“It’s sort of like a dessert that jolts you awake and gets you hammered at the same time.” Sarah commented.

Nick smiled. “That’s what we need.  We need you to be a wide awake drunk.”

Sarah nudged him and went back to the bar to order the Cyber-Sex, a fruity mixture of Absolut Mandarin, Peach Pucker Schnapps, and Cranberry Juice.  Sarah, for some reason, became more adept at bar games as she drank more and more, while for Nick, it was the opposite.  After working their way through five of the martinis, and with Sarah beginning to totally dominate the pool tables, they decided that their nightcap would be the Vegas Baby, Vegas in honor of their previous stop.

They sat and watched mindless television for an hour or so while they forced themselves to drink endless amounts of water.  They had far too much to do the next day to be hungover.

Their first stop of the morning was at the Diamond Source at 2474 San Diego Ave., San Diego, CA 92110.  Sarah had seen pictures on their website of some amazing colored diamonds, but she would have to go into the store to see anything 3-dimensional.  Sarah, wearing cut-offs and a tank top over her bikini, was careful to put in the diamond studs Nick had gotten her a few years before.  They were just big enough that they would be taken seriously by jewelry store salespeople.  As they walked in, a man in a suit greeted them and asked if he could help.

Sarah spoke up. “I’m looking for an engagement ring.” She said.  “Maybe a colored diamond as the center stone?”

The man smiled.  “What is your ring size?” He asked.

Sarah tried to blush.  “It’s not for me,” she said, “and my girlfriend wears a size 7.”

The salesman didn’t seem to react.  “We have some gorgeous colored diamonds.  I’m sure we’ll find something you’ll both like.” He looked at Nick, who shrugged.

“I’m just here for moral support.” He explained.

The salesman led them to a display case.  “These diamonds are all designed and cut here.  You won’t find anything like them in other stores.”

Sarah zeroed in on a ring with a stunning pink emerald-cut diamond with a trapeze diamond set on each side.  The man got it out of the case and she tried it on.

“My hands are a little bigger,” she said, “but I want to get an idea of what it looks like on a hand.”  She held it out to look at it from further.  “Can the sidestones be changed?” She asked.  “I’m not crazy about the orange diamonds on the sides.”

The man smiled.  “I’m sure we can work it out.  Do you want to look at any others?” He began to reach into the case for another ring with pink diamonds.

“No, thank you.  This would be the one, if we can change those to clear diamonds.  And I’d want to see them first, of course.  Nicole would love that.”

Nick turned and walked away so they wouldn’t see him start to laugh.  He waited while Sarah looked at the ring under a jeweller’s loupe, examined it from every angle, and oohed and aahed over it.  She politely thanked the salesman, who gave her his card, and she promised that she would be in touch.  Then she and Nick calmly walked out of the store.

“Nicole?” Nick said to her.

“Well, it was the first thing that came to mind.  That was a beautiful ring.  Will you drive to Legoland, Nicole?”

Having grown up building things out of Legos, Nick was ecstatic at the idea of going to a theme-park dedicated to them.  He giggled as he grabbed Bob-the-GPS and punched in ‘1 Legoland Drive, Carlsbad, California, 92208’.

“We are SO buying souvenirs.” He told her.

“Duh.” She responded.

They went first to the Land of Adventure, where they went into the Lost Kingdom Adventure, a time-warp to 1920’s Egypt.  The climbed into all-terrain vehicles armed with laser guns and got to blast at targets along the way.  The ride kept track of scores as they shot at things.  Sarah was keeping slightly ahead of Nick until they got to the Spider’s Lair.  Sarah covered her eyes and told Nick to tell her when it was over.  As soon as they passed into the next phase of the ride, she continued to blast at mummies and skeletons.  They were laughing and hollering the whole way. 

Nick ended up with a higher score, but didn’t gloat because of the whole ‘spider’ thing.  They took a ride on the Lego Technic Coaster, which was an awesome ride, and then went to Pirate Shores for the Splash Battle.  They got into a little pirate ship that was armed with water cannons.  They were not only supposed to shoot at targets and other people in their own pirate ships, but they got to shoot at spectators as well.  That was, by far, the most fun.  Soaking the innocent.  They took three spins on the Splash Battle before they spent way too much money on official Legoland towels and dried off enough to take another spin on the Technic Coaster. 

Then they hit the Studio Store, where Sarah loaded up on Bob the Builder Lego paraphernalia for her nephew.  Then they went to the Big Shop, where Nick got himself the entire remote-controlled Lego train set, and Sarah got the Street Sweeper, the Digger, and the Crawler Crane.

“You know what we’re doing tonight, right?” She asked as they loaded their Legos, t-shirts, hats, postcards and everything else they could carry onto the counter.

“We’re building some cool stuff.” Nick responded in his way-cool voice.

“We should probably wait on the train until we get back.” She told him.  “You don’t want to have to take it apart again to fit it back in the Jeep.”

Nick pretended to pout, but Sarah was right.  That night, they ended up building her Crawler Crane.  Twice.

In the morning, Nick and Sarah headed straight to 2920 Zoo Drive, San Diego, SC 92101—the World Famous San Diego Zoo.  They got a map and headed for the Koala Exhibit, since there was a new baby koala.  Baby animals made Sarah go to pieces.

As soon as she saw the baby koala with his mother, she put her head on Nick’s shoulder and her arms around his waist.

“Nicky, can I have a baby koala?” She asked him. 

He was used to this.  She did the same thing as they wandered the zoo and saw baby bonobos, baby gorillas, and baby giraffes.  When she saw the tiger cubs, he thought he’d have to hold her back from jumping into their habitat.  But when they were in the River, Lake and Wetland habitat, she decided that definitely did not want a baby hippopotamus. 

Something about the zoo turned Sarah into an 8 year-old.  They didn’t want to miss anything, so they toured all of the habitats.  Sarah especially liked the Tiger River, of course, and they both loved the Panda Research Station.  The Pandas were one of the main attractions at the zoo, and they were completely cute and funny, and surprisingly agile when climbing around in trees.  The Polar Bear Plunge let them see not only polar bears, but ducks and reindeer.  Seeing the polar bears underwater was amazing.  Since Sarah was unable to smuggle a baby polar bear out of the park, she settled for several adorable stuffed animals from the gift shop.  They also each “adopted” an animal, which meant they donated whatever amount they could to help the zoo keep that particular breed.  Probably tons of people had a piece of each animal, but they wanted to help.  Nick adopted a snow leopard, and Sarah picked the rhinoceros because she figured not as many people donated money to non-cute animals.

Reading from one of the books they picked up in the gift shop, Sarah said: “Meerkats have a matriarchial society, and the females are often larger than the males.”

“So what you’re telling me,” Nick asked, “is that meerkats are the original feminists?”

“I tend to think of lions as more feminist.” Sarah told him.  “They do all the hunting.  The males would lie around all day in the sun, waiting for a female to bring home the bacon and offer up the goods for mating.”

“Doesn’t sound too bad.” Nick smiled.

Sarah looked straight ahead.  “I’d let the lazy bastards starve.”

After a quick change of clothes and another amazing meal at the Studio Diner, the couple hit SeaWorld, of course, to see Shamu.  They knew they couldn’t go to San Diego and not see Shamu.  They made their way to 500 Sea World Drive, San Diego, CA 92109.

The new show, “Believe”, was astonishing. 

“I can’t decide,” Nick said, “if the killer whales are smart because they can be taught to do all of these things, or if they’re stupid for letting people turn them into tourist attractions.”

“I don’t think they put that much thought into it.” Sarah responded.  “I just wonder what the thinking was for the first person who decided to domesticate something that looks like it can snap a person in half like a twig.”

Then they both got splashed.  They considered it commentary on Shamu’s behalf, and decided he was very smart indeed. 

The Shark Encounter exhibit was a little terrifying for Sarah, but it was also cool to get so close and be so safe.  Nick loved it unequivocally.  They both liked Shamu: Close Up, too.  And, as expected, Sarah nearly fell apart at the Penguin Encounter.

“You can’t have a penguin.” Nick told her.

“Party pooper.” She said as they started walking back to the hotel.

“Want to go to hit the San Diego Zoo again tomorrow?” Nick asked.

“Yes, definitely.” She told him.  “And maybe while we’re out, we can pick up that lovely pink diamond engagement ring before we leave San Diego.”

Nick put his arm around Sarah.  “I’ll check with Nicole.” He said.

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