Sun, Surf, Sand....San Diego

This past week we traveled to San Diego for our first family of four vacation. The trip was okay, but I want to start with what each of our favorite parts were, lest I sound ungrateful. Also, I have about 400 pictures I took and I can't include those all here, so each favorite has a picture to go along with it :
Eric:
Playing 18 holes of golf at Torrey Pines Golf Course

Mali:
She enjoyed touching the star fish and sea cucumber at the aquarium and playing in the ocean and finding sea shells

Me:
Watching Mali have so much fun in the ocean. Relaxing under the umbrella on the bay while Mali played and played.

Eleri:
We aren't really sure, she cried and fussed more than normal. Probably being held constantly, but I think that got old.


Day 1:
We arrived in San Diego. Our flights were great and we never de-planed. The girls did amazing and even the flight attendants commented on what great girls we have, asking if Eleri ever cries. Which we replied "not really", but were soon to learn that she does cry! We spent a great amount of time at the rental car place to be given a compact car. As we were walking out the guy said "I can tell you right now your stuff isn't going to fit". And sure enough, it was almost like one of those future cars...no trunk, so we had to upgrade. The guy asked us what we drove and I told him and he asked "wouldn't you be more comfortable in an SUV?" Eric and I laughed and said, "yes, but we aren't going to get one". We finally headed to the zoo with the help of our GPS. We had planned on eating at the zoo, but were really hungry, it was about 2pm Central time and we had not had lunch. We decided to stop some where on the way but once we found a place, we couldn't find parking. So, we headed on to the zoo and walked as fast as we could to get to eat. The views were great, but the food was mediocre and over priced, of course. We were incredibly hungry and a little grumpy! Then we were off to the see the animals. To sum it up, we didn't read our tickets, and made poor choices! We expended almost all of our energy and Mali's attention on the primates only to become so tired we took the sky tram and then hopped on the express bus to finish seeing the zoo. We didn't see about 1/4 of the zoo, but then walked to see the Panda's before we left. Mali had been asking to leave for a while at this point. The only thing we happened to do right was watch 8 Macaws be released to fly across the front of the zoo. That was pretty neat. Mali liked the flamingos and the snakes, which really really surprised me. Eleri did great, just hanging out in the sling. I fed her once while we ate and another time right before we saw the pandas.
After the zoo, we headed to our hotel. We were so thankful to have our GPS with us. The hotel was perfect and we actually ended up being upgraded to a suite. We faced the bay, but our view was blocked by another row of rooms, but we didn't mind. Our hotel was right on Mission Bay and was so lush and relaxing. Mali loved seeing all the birds and ducks that lived on the grounds. We were pretty tired, and hungry again, so we went to eat at Gringo's Cantina. We had expected to eat as cheap and light as possible, like at beach front booths. We sat outside on the patio and were warmed by outdoor fire pits. It was nice, but Eleri was very fussy and cried more than we have ever heard her cry and fuss. After dinner, we spent some time by the bay that night and Mali picked up sea shells. We called it a night at about 10pm our time and were all so exhausted after beginning the day at 5am.

Day 2:
We woke up early, or rather Eleri woke up, ready to eat at 6am Central time but 4am Pacific time. She did fall asleep for about another hour. So we got up and headed to the beach bright and early. It was very nice and peaceful. We drank coffee while Mali played and played in the waves. She had a great time! Eric held her hand as they played in the waves. However, we were planning to just stop at the beach and not play necessarily, so I had put Mali in her clothes for the day and not her bathing suit. She had a blast though and as any mother knows, that is true joy; watching your kids experience such fun! At one point, she got knocked down by a wave, and the clothes were history! We came back to our hotel (which was about a half block from Pacific Beach) and changed Mali and headed to La Jolla. We went to the Scripps Aquarium and really enjoyed looking at the fish. Mali enjoyed the hands on tide pool where she got to touch a sea cucumber and a starfish. The view was beautiful too! We got to explore and then watch the shark feeding. At the shark feeding, school kids on a field trip crowded us out and were pretty rude! Another disappointment! Eric said he was going to write a letter to school because as an educator it upset him. It was time to drop Eric off at Torrey Pines for his tee time and the girls and I headed in to La Jolla village to eat and explore the coves and see the seals. The place I had planned on eating, didn't work out because it didn't have the best seating for me to be able to feed Eleri or for me to not stress out with Mali being too close to the edge, another disappointment, but we ate gourmet pizza instead in a very inconspicuous corner over looking the ocean. I changed the girls into bathing suites. After walking about 3 blocks down hill to the coves, a woman told us that we needed to drive to the seals because it was too far to walk. I had us walking because I was afraid of not finding a parking space and had one up hill. So, we walked back up the hill and a set of steep stairs, and I loaded the girls back up and endured Eleri's cries while we headed to the cove that the seals were at. After unloading again, we found that there were no seals...they were all out swimming and eating. We walked down some steep steps to a neighboring cove for Mali to play. She only played about 5 minutes in the water because she kept running out far and I couldn't stay beside her. We took a beautiful drive back to our hotel and then really enjoyed the afternoon between feedings at the bay. As soon as we came back to the bay after I fed Eleri and re-applied sunscreen to the girls, there were two boys playing at the water. I looked over and one boy had his pants down. His mom ran over to him, but just stood beside him as he made a perfect arc of pee into the water! I was furious and almost just broke down and cried. I did say very loudly "are you kidding me???" and looked around at the other guests enjoying the beach. No one said anything. Then I thought, "maybe they are foreign", but no, no accent and perfect english. I was so appalled, and angry because it ruined our time. I made Mali gather shells for about 30 minutes, hoping that the nasty little boys urine was pulled out to sea by then! Other than that, it was so peaceful and just the right temperature on the beach. Mali gathered shells and played and played and built sandcastles. I did feel bad that I couldn't really sit out there and help her because I had to keep Eleri in the shade and held. But, I did get to just sit back in the chair, under the umbrella, and hold Eleri while she slept and watch Mali enjoy herself. We drove back to pick Eric up and the girls just crashed in the car! After getting Eric, we drove down by the coves so he could see it. Both girls were asleep and of course, the seals were back. Mali woke up but didn't want to get out of the car to see them! We decided to eat right away so we wouldn't be starving and asked our hotel staff where to get tacos on the beach (something we had planned on doing). They sent us to World Famous, where the food was good and the view was great, but $1 shrimp tacos were only in the bar! But, Eric gave a sob story and got tacos and I had scallops. It was actually fairly relaxing and nice to eat on time and see the beach at the same time. Then we went out to the beach and played in the waves some more. Mali got pretty wet and was pretty cold, so we called it a night!

Day 3:
We woke up early (4am again!) and headed to the beach...actually maybe I should start saying Eleri and I, because Eric and Mali slept in a little longer. Both days we got a "you're already headed to the beach?" in the elevator which I replied "we are on central time". We packed up and then headed to the beach for coffee on the beach. It was really nice. Mali played for a little while before we had to head back to get ready for the airport and we took some last pictures. Eleri was actually awake for this beach excursion so I made sure to get pictures of her. I'm thinking that one day when she is old enough to look at pictures she is going to wonder where she was!!!:) We made a stop for tacos...finally! We had fish tacos that were pretty good and fresh. Checking in at the airport was a little hectic, but we made it with out any problems. Our flights were great and we didn't de-plane and only stopped one time on the way back in Denver. As soon as we landed, the flights to Denver (where we had come from) and Dallas were all delayed. We were so thankful we made it back without any problems. I ran to get the car, but forgot my wallet so I had to haul Eleri and myself back into the airport to get my wallet and we all just walked to the car together. The wind/dust storm hit as we were packing our stuff in the car. We spent the night unloading and unpacking. We were so thankful to be home.

I know we will look back on this trip with joy and thankfulness, there were just a lot of disappointing moments. It wasn't so much that it was hard, because I expected that, but I think that our expectations weren't met and really just things didn't go so smoothly. However, I imagine Mali never even noticed and had fun anyway, and that is a successful trip to me. We learned a lot about what not to do and what to do next time. So if you are planning a trip to San Diego, I will gladly give you suggestions! I'm glad to be home and don't really want to go anywhere for a while!:) Overall, it was great though to just have new experiences. I think part of adjusting to being a family of four for me is adjusting to traveling and going on trips. Before, I got to spend a lot of time with Mali helping her and pointing things out and enjoying it with her, but this time it wasn't all that easy. No big deal though, I'm excited about the things that we get to show BOTH girls! Eric plan on going back one day with both girls. (Each year, we use our tax return to take a family vacation, Eric said he thinks that is what the child tax credit is for:))

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And here is a slide show of some of our pictures, the best ones are on Facebook, so look at those if you are interested!

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