Quality time with Friends

This summer I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to San Diego to visit not only my Nursing mentor, but an amazing friend.  It took a lot of coordination, and cooperation with visiting family, but I made the trek to California and had an amazing time.  It was on this trip that I finally had a comprehension of my mom's importance of spending quality time with her friends that I didn't understand as a child.  The people I'm lucky enough to call friends, are such an integral part of who I am, and I am thankful for the roles each one has played in my life.

We had great adventures at:

Cabrillo National Monument

Afternoon tea at The Aubrey Rose Tea Room

Air & Space Museum at Balboa Park

The Museum of Man at Balboa Park

Exploring Balboa Park

Meeting up with one of my friends from High School for a great dinner downtown.  















 Breakfast at Sunset Cliffs

Hotel Del Coronodo 
















and Mount Soledad Veterans Memorial, which ended up being our favorite place.  We had planned on staying 30 minutes, but ended up being there for 90.  We slowly walked through each section, gazing at the pictures, and reading the names and stories of our brave men and women in uniform.  There were many famous people who were mixed in with everyone else, and the Nurses and couples made my heart smile.  There were many tributes to our soldiers in Iraq & Afghanistan, which again renewed my appreciation for the 0.5%.

We had such a good time being goofy, talking, and feeling like old times.  I truly love my Peds ED family at Cape Fear, and miss them all horribly.  Spending this time with LoLo brought back such good memories and I'm thankful we were able to make it happen!

As we prepare for our next adventure in Texas, I am overjoyed at the number of friends that are already there, and the ones that will be joining us soon.  Although the Army is often on my Dead to Me list, it has afforded us many opportunities that we wouldn't have had with any other career.