San Diego

Wow, what a trip, we had a blast.  It was super busy though, we left early Thursday Morning and I drove the whole way which is never my favorite thing, not to new places, I like to look and see and capture.  But my husband had just gotten off a night shift, so he had to sleep, so I drove and it went fine, no problems.  We got there around 4pm, checked into the hotel unpacked and then went out to eat dinner, we ended up at Chuck E cheeses because the kids needed to be able to unwind after all of that time in the car.  We spent a few hours there playing and then headed back to the hotel for sleep, which I did not do.  Sleep has not been my friend as of late, but that is a different story you know.

Friday we decided to do all of the stuff that was North of San Diego, so we headed out around 8 am, after eating breakfast at our hotel which was surprisingly good.  You always end up with waffles and danishes at these places, and while they had those they also had eggs and meat everyday, so yum, and filling so that we did not have to stop for a big lunch any of the days we were out.  Anyways, we started out at the Birch Aquarium, where we saw tons of fish, an amazing view of the ocean, and a sub that my oldest wanted to take home with him.

The fountain at the Birch Aquarium.

From there we drove up to Carlsbad and went to Legoland, there is a ton to see and do at Legoland, rides, jungle gyms for the kids to climb all over while the parents sit and rest.  Miniland which is millions of legos built into famous cities in the US, and we were lucky enough to even see Star Wars Miniland which was a special exhibit.

The Lego Statue of Liberty.

They even have a waterpark which was too cold to play in and their own Sealife Aquarium, we really enjoy looking at fish, they had a few huge things in it thoughm the crabs and lobsters were insane...

From Legoland we headed to the beach, the water was freezing, but we still spent sometime running from the waves and splashing around, as well as playing in the sand, I love the ocean, it would be fin to live by it...

The last thing we did Friday was go to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, by the time we got there we were pretty exhausted from the rest of the day, our feet hurt, but we wanted to ride the tram, so we did, we learned a lot about there animals and breeding programs, and we got to play around with some other things as well.

Bat Boys

From there we found a restaurant for dinner, headed back to the hotel room and were all pretty well asleep by 930.

Saturday started fresh, but not as early as Friday, we slept in and did not get a start on the day until after 10.  First thing we did was head on over Seaworld, Michael and Daddy had a date with a penguin that we did not want to miss.  We got to watch Shamu do tricks and get a lot of people wet, saw a bunch of different animals and even rode a few rides.  It was a blast, and when we left around 230ish we were thinking that we may have to go back tomorrow...  The only reason we left was because three of the four of us were wet and sticky and needed new clothes, luckily our hotel was just one exit up from Seaworld.

Michael and Daddy in the penguin exhibit.

Shamu showing off his stuff.

After changing we headed over the the USS Midway, we went thinking we would be able to see it and the Maritime Museum before closing, however once we got on the Midway there was just so much to see that we never made it to the Maritime Museum and we ran out of time before we got to see all of the Midway...

After we got kicked off the Midway, we went to Seaport Village where we finished up our shopping for the family we left behind.  =0)  And we ate at a restaurant that was literally right on the water, sadly they served mostly fish, and being desert rats, we do not eat fish, so the food was just not that good in out minds, however the experience was worth the time and money spent there.  We got to see a pelican dive into the ocean, a otter or seal swimming around the base of the pier the place was on and ships coming into the bay, including the huge research vessel with a sub and open area in the back for diving...

After that it was back to the hotel for us and back to bed, the boys were asleep by 930 again though Michael and I stayed up a bit longer reading and talking about the next day, we thought it might be fin to go on a Whale Watching Cruise.

Sunday did not include any of the things we though it would.  We never did make it back to Seaworld or to the Maritime Museum, and while we did go to Balboa Park we ended up only visiting one Museum there and not even thinking about the zoo.  It started at Point Loma, I love Lighthouses, I have since I was a little girl, and anytime we end up by the ocean we always go in search of one and we never seem to find it.  This time however we did, which was great, but let me tell you, if we did not have the guidebook with the directions we would have missed out on this one as well, it was through an old military base and huge veterans cemetery, if we had not known for sure where it was we would have turned around before we found it for sure.  I am glad we found it though, the views were amazing and the lighthouse was beautiful.

After that we went to the Natural History Museum, it had dinos for Ray and an exhibit on the Titanic for Lil Man and gems for me and Michael, it was a good choice, and it was huge, it is in a 4 story building with a basement, and alot of that was closed off to research rooms.  But we all enjoyed our time there.

After that we walked up the central area at Balboa Park, there were street vendors and such hanging around so it had a cool vibe to it.

We decided that it was time for lunch, and that we would have a big lunch and then just grab some tv dinners for dinner because the kids wanted to go swimming back at the hotel, we had gotten back to late the other nights so we did not have the chance to do that yet.  So we ended up having lunch at a oriental place, which happened to be by a place called Boomers, it was like a Golf N stuff.  It was actually my least favorite part of the trip, the place was just trashy, there were beer cans in the ponds and it was not well cared for at all.  So we did a few things, but did not stay very long at all, maybe only an hour of that.

Ray did enjoy playing mini golf...

Monday we left and came home, Michael drive, yay!!!  That allowed me to really see the landscape and sights to see on the way back, which I enjoyed, there were lots of abandoned buildings, though I did not get to stop and explore them, I try not to do that with the kids seeing as how it can be dangerous.  And we stopped in Yuma to eat lunch and gas up, and we got to see the Territorial Prison. 

The prison guard tower.  

Leaving Yuma the winds got really bad, there was one point when there were at least 25 dust devels surrounding us, but it was not horrible, just windy, we still made it home safe and sound, getting back to SV before 6 in the evening, then of course we had to unload etc.

Anyways, it was a really great trip, and I for one cannot wait for the next one, though I bet that I am the only one, I know Michael enjoys the trips, but he also enjoys to be home with nothing to do!!!