Ryan and I both love San Diego. We had both been there separately, but never together. This spring we took the opportunity to make a family trip there, and we got to go with my dad! (Hopefully next time my mom can come too!)
Day 1- We left the house at 9:15 AM, picked up Dad and went to the airport. The girls were wonderful on the flight. We arrived in San Diego at about 1:30 PM. We got our rental car and drove to the hotel.
We got unpacked and settled in a little and then went to dinner at Miguel's. It was really yummy Mexican food!
After dinner we went to a nearby beach. Brianna got very afraid of the water, so she and I cuddled on a chair. Maya scavenged for seashells and then Ryan held her and let the waves get their feet. Dad sat with Brianna and me. It was pretty cold and windy (and getting late) so we went back to the hotel. We planned the week and then Dad and I went to the grocery store to get breakfast items so we could eat in the hotel each morning.
We went to the San Diego Temple grounds. We saw two hummingbirds, a snail, and a spider making roly poly for lunch.
We walked around and did a little shopping and got ice cream. We headed back to the hotel close to 4 PM. Brianna fell sound asleep, and asked to be put into her bed when we got to the hotel.
Ryan and I took Maya to the pool for 30 minutes while Brianna slept. The air was too cold to stay any longer than that.
We woke up Brianna, got redressed, and drove to Oceanside for dinner. We walked down the pier (1/3 mile long) and ate dinner at Rudy's at the end of the pier. It was a cute diner and it was fun to be out over the ocean, even if it swayed a tiny bit.
After dinner it was almost 9 PM so we came back to the hotel and put the girls to bed.
The sea lion/otter show was really fun and entertaining.
We had lunch at a smokehouse in the park. It was surprisingly delicious. Maya and Brianna were super good and played together nicely while Ryan and Dad got the food (which took a bajillion minutes).
We saw polar bears, killer whales, walruses, penguins, and beluga whales (to name a few).
The girls got to on their first amusement park ride: Elmo's Flying Fish. I rode with Maya and my dad took Brianna. And then Brianna and my dad went on the tea cups! The rest of us sat that one out.
I put Brianna in my LILLEbaby and she finally fell asleep for a while. We saw the sharks and then the dolphin show. Brianna loved the jumping dolphins!
After the show we headed back to the hotel. We stopped at Tip Top Meats, a little German joint, to get dinner to go. We took dinner to the hotel, and then Ryan and I went to the temple to do an endowment session. It was lovely and wonderful to go into that temple! Gorgeous Celestial Room!
We saw lots of monkeys, a polar bear, giraffes, lions, a panda bear (or at least the rear of it), orangutan, a lot of birds, warthog, zebra, snakes, alligator wanna-bes, a peacock, gorillas, and tigers. We saw a lot!
In an aviary my dad said that birds in the zoo don't poop, and then he got pooped on! Ha! Brianna freaked whenever a bug came near her; sweet thing. Maya was a trooper and walked 95% of the time.
Maya got a little penguin (which she named Pushkin) and Brianna picked out a tiger.
After lunch we rode the Skyway to the front of the park and headed out to Coronado. Driving over the bridge to get there was neat.
We went straight to the beach and changed into swimsuits. We took chairs and towels and found a nice spot. Maya and Brianna spent a little while playing with the sand toys.
Ryan and Maya went out into the water, and then I joined them. Papa and Brianna stayed by the chairs. The water was SO cold!! Maya got unhappy when she got splashed in the face so we went back to the chairs, where Ryan turned our babies into mermaids.
At about 6:30 we used the showers and changed back into our clothes.
We went to dinner at Peohe's, which turned out to be rather fancy (and delicious). Thankfully the girls were very well behaved. We had seafood, and it was amazing. The restaurant sat right on the harbor, so the view was also wonderful. Eventually Maya and Brianna both fell asleep. At the restaurant. It was after 9 PM by that point, so I was glad. We finally got back to the resort at almost 11 PM. Straight to bed for everybody.
Day 5 - Due to the late night before, we all slept in until 8:15. After getting ready, we left a little after 10 AM to go to Legoland. There was private entrance right from our resort parking lot.
Maya and Ryan played in a hideaway similar to a lost boys hideout. It looked like so much fun!
We walked around and looked at different areas of the park. Minitown USA was really cute with all of the different replicas.
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| Attack of Godzilla! |
Highlights included:
- Brianna played with giant legos
- Maya drove a little car all by herself
- Maya and Ryan built a big lego wall - picture on the husband's phone
- The girls rode a little train together (twice)
- Maya and I drove a boat together
- "Helicopter" ride
- Funny little show that Maya enjoyed with Papa
- Carousel (rode it twice!)
- Apple Fries, and letting Brianna go to town with legos while the apple fries were being fetched.
- Maya rode her first roller coaster with me and Ryan. She had a blast! I was so happy that it didn't scare her.
- Rode two different boats to look at fun (huge) figurines
- Brianna took a short nap in the LILLEbaby
- Both girls are great at traveling!
We got back to the resort at 8:15, put the girls down, did laundry, and relaxed.
Day 6 - Woke up and went to breakfast after checking out of the hotel. After breakfast we drove along the coastline highway for a little ways before getting on the freeway.
We went to Sea World again! It started raining right when we got there, but thankfully it cleared up pretty quickly.
We saw the stingrays and octopus and huge fish.
Then we watched the dolphin show again because it was such a hit with the girls the first time.
And then we went to the Shamu show! It turned out to be a little less exciting than I remembered. Part of the time the whales did not cooperate with their trainers. It was still fun to see those beautiful creatures.
After Sea World, we went to the USS Midway, a retired military aircraft boat...barge. It was HUGE.
Ryan got to see the same kind of plane his grandpa flew in the Air Force. Ryan and my dad kept commenting on how they could spend all day there and how amazing it was.
Maya was really great and stayed with Ryan the whole time (she walked almost the entire trip - all 6 days!)
Brianna was a different story. While she stayed with me (because she was strapped to me), she was super ready to go home. Every time we got on a helicopter she would say, "Helicopter fly home?" She bawled almost the whole time we were there.
After the Midway we headed to the airport. We had dinner there and the girls watched Finding Nemo while we waited for the plane to board. The flight went great; we all slept.
We got back to our house after midnight. Brianna was so happy and giddy to go to sleep in her own bed.
It was such a fun trip and I'm very glad we got to do it with my dad. Until next time!!
2 comments:
I just spent a wonderful half hour or so looking at all the pics and reading the stories--thanks for sharing such a great review and update of the trip!
I'm so behind at looking at your blog! I've read everything in reverse order up to this point, and this post was my favorite. You captured some really sweet moments with your girls! Our San Diego trip with Mom and Dad is one of my favorite vacations I've ever had! I'm so glad you guys got to go, too (sans Mom, sadly). It would be fun to go on a trip like this with all of us sometime! I want to hit DC or New York next!
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