As we’ve mentioned before, we have started a multi-year quest to collect all the national park stamps. Today we got the one and only stamp in the city of San Diego, the Cabrillo National Monument. The park has a split personality, it honors both the first lighthouse of the San Diego Bay and Juan Cabrillo, the Spanish explorer who was the first European to see the San Diego Bay.

We were lucky enough to catch a presentation by a ranger who does a living history presentation about the clothing and equipment of the marinero at sea with Cabrillo, as well as their wives back in Guatamala.

Of course we discussed the clothing of the rich (officers and their wives). Let’s be honest, the clothing of the poor is borring! Afterwards I got to try on one of the outfits. The lighting was less than optimal, so I’ve skewed the color, it’s not great, but it’s better than it was, trust me!

What’s not extreamly apparent here is all the extra padding on my hips. I know, I know, EXTRA on the HIPS. It was a crazy world in 1542!

AJ and I enjoyed the short walk to the lighthouse.

John obviously caught me in mid-sentence. Lets be honest, that’s not exactly hard to do! Here is one last picture of the restored lighthouse itself. Feel free to check out the more professional pictures on the official web site.

One last, note. As a favor to me, would the readers of this blog please put some sort of comment below? I promise I’ll respond when applicable and it helps me to know people are actually reading what I wrote. As a bribe I’ll say that the day I get five comments is the day I add a new picture of some sort (probably AJ) to the blog. I even promise to keep that up all next week, 5 comments, one picture. Cruel cruel bribary I know.

Have fun commenting!”