Nelson Family Blog: Spring Break Part 3

On Tuesday morning, we packed up and left Jill's house shortly after 7:00am. We filled up with gas (which was $4.89 a gallon) and headed to San Diego. John drove, Jill rode shotgun, and I rode in the back with the kids. We enjoyed watching the scenery for quite a while, and then eventually the kids watched their Ipads and I caught up on some podcasts.

We got to the San Diego Zoo around 10:30am. We bought some tickets, slathered on some sunscreen, and started exploring. We started off with the zoo bus tour, which was pretty fun. We sat on the upper decker part, and we got a nice tour of the highlights of the zoo. The kids really enjoyed being on the top of the bus, but it did get a little toasty up there. We had a beautiful, sunny 86 degree day.

After the bus tour, we decided to walk around for a while. We hit everyone's favorite animals. We saw the snakes for Elliott, all the big cats for Emma, the Polar Bears for John, and a few penguins for me. After some exploring, we ate a very expensive lunch at the zoo. The kids shared a Pizza, John and I got some wraps, and then we all shared some pops and chips (for $87, yikes!).

Once our tummies were full, we decided to ride the Sky Tram. Elliott, John and I rode in one, and Jill and Emma rode in the one behind us. It was cool to see everything from so high, and then we decided to keep walking around. We spent about 6.5 hours at the zoo, and we still didn't get to everything. That zoo is huge. We also saw the Koala Bears, a Leopard, a couple aviaries full of birds, many kinds of monkeys, flamingos, and many more. When we had finally had enough, we left to go check into our hotels. Jill was staying in one hotel, and we booked one next door, at the Days Inn. Jill's was definitely nicer, but ours was clean and nice enough for just sleeping. We ate supper at Pei Wei, which is a fast casual Asian place. The kids got Teriyaki chicken bowls which they really enjoyed, and John and I also got some really good food there. By the time we got back to the hotel, it was after 8:00pm, and everyone was pooped. We showered, watched a little TV, and headed to bed.

Wednesday was a really fun day. We spent most of the day visiting beaches and spending time at the Ocean. We ate a big breakfast and then we started at La Jolla, and found the sea lions. It was pretty cool to see Sea Lions just hanging out on the beach. The kids were pretty impressed with the Ocean. They had an absolute blast playing the sand, running in and out of the water, jumping over waves, collecting seashells, and just generally exploring. We kept going down the shoreline and finding more beaches. We visited Shell Beach, Pebble Beach, and Seal Rocks Beach. We were on those beaches all morning, and then it started getting busier, so we moved on.

We headed back to the car and then went to Mission Beach. The kids really enjoyed Mission Beach. It was a little busier there, but it is so big you couldn't really tell that it was busier. There were people surfing, swimming, and playing games on the beach. Elliott probably had the most fun here. He liked to run away from the waves, and play in the sand. He also made up some games on the beach, and really kept himself busy. I thought I had covered everyone well in sunscreen, but every singe one of us got burned on the back of our legs, and some of our shoulders and cheeks. We lasted on Mission Beach for quite a while, but it started to get hot and we had other stops to make.

We made a quick stop at Sea Port Village. We bought a couple souvenirs, some expensive ice cream for the kids, and enjoyed sitting in the shade for a while. We finally made it back to our hotels in the late afternoon, and the kids wanted to swim in Jill's pool. So, we all headed down and did some swimming (after being at the beach all day).

At around 6:00pm, we got the kids out of the pool, cleaned up and fed, and then tucked them into the hotel room while Jill, John, and I went out to King Crab. We figured the last thing the kids wanted after the long beach day was to sit in a restaurant and eat seafood. They had their Ipads and did just fine without us. We ate some really good food at King Crab. I had fish tacos that were amazing, John got some fish fillet, and Jill had a lobster sandwich. It was delicious. We finally made it back around 9:00pm, and brought 2 very tired kiddos (and adults) to bed. What a day!

On Thursday, we packed up and got checked out of our hotels. We decided to go to Point Loma and check out Cabrillo National Monument. I'm glad we went. We had really amazing views of the ocean, and of San Diego. We also got to check out a lighthouse, and learn some history about the San Diego area. It was sort of foggy when we were there, so we didn't have a chance to spot any whales (not sure if there were any there anyway). John, Elliott, and I even went on a little hike together as well. We stayed there for a couple of hours, and then it was time to move on. We headed back to the hotel because I forgot my water bottle and Elliott left his souvenir pennies behind, but we were able to find all the things (crisis averted).

It was finally time to say goodbye to California (and $5.89 gas). We stopped in Alpine, CA and ate some lunch. We found a hole in the wall taco place, that had amazing food for a great price. We all filled up on tacos and chips and salsa, and then got ready for the long drive back to Arizona.

We did make a stop at the Sand Dunes on the way back. The kids had a lot of fun running up and down the sand dunes (even though it was 94 degrees and sunny, and felt really hot). Elliott was really excited because he found a canvas bag, a whiffle ball, and a deck of Uno cards. That was one of the most random parts of the trip.

After the San Dunes, we made it back to Jill's house. We unpacked, settled in again, and then John and I ran to Walmart for a couple things, and a pizza. We decided we were tired, and sick of eating out, so we got a pizza to bake at Jill's. It was good. We ended the evening with some games of Uno and Sequence, and then watched a little basketball once the kids were in bed. March Madness was pretty fun to follow while being thousands of miles away from home.