San Diego Getaway!

We finally had 2 days with no sport commitments, so Joe rearranged his schedule, and we planned a quick getaway down to San Diego. Although it wasn't very far, it felt like we were on a mini-vacation, and we really enjoyed it!
On our way down, we drove past the beautiful Carlsbad Flower Field, but decided not to spend the money to get out and walk around. Then we tried to get into Old Town San Diego for lunch, but it was completely packed and there was not a parking spot to be found. Our getaway wasn't starting off with much good luck, but we grabbed a quick lunch off the freeway and headed to Cabrillo National Park on Point Loma and went straight to the tide pools. It was absolutely gorgeous and we hit the low tide perfectly.

We had a great time climbing around all of the rocks and seeing what we could find.

We found tons of sea anemones, sea stars, crabs and hermit crabs, lobster shells, a shark pod with a baby shark inside and even part of a seal's head and ribs that had been eaten by a shark!


After the tide pools, we headed up to the Cabrillo Monument and the Point Loma Lighthouse.
The lighthouse is set up as a museum which you can walk through and climb a narrow staircase to the top. It is set up with the rooms as they used to be in the 1800's and early 1900's and showed just how lonely the families of the lighthouse caretakers would be.

After checking in to our hotel on Shelter Island, we went across the street to the boardwalk on the bay for the kids to ride their scooters (or Zoe's rip-stick.) They loved riding along the water, and it was a beautiful evening!

We spent some time on the old fishing dock too, and watched a ton of different birds come and go. It was fun to watch them try to steal the bait from the fishermen when they weren't looking.

Since I didn't get my Mexican food for lunch in Old Town, I was determined to have it for dinner. We found a great place up the road from our hotel, and enjoyed a fantastic dinner. Zoe tried some calamari sticks, but she wasn't too fond of them. Joe on the other hand, devoured them.
We finished the night in the jacuzzi and pool before getting some sleep.


DAY 2

Joe and I both woke up early, so he left to take a walk, and I sat outside our room on the porch enjoying the beautiful view while drinking my coffee. It was so peaceful...

We headed to Mission Beach for some fun. The kids picked up these groovy new sunglasses in a tourist shop. :)

We walked and rode down the boardwalk to the jetty.
We spent a lot of time climbing rocks and sitting to watch the surfers and boats coming and going.
We then spent some time at the Belmont Amusement Park. We were going to ride the big coaster, but the kids decided they wanted to do some of the other stuff instead.

They had a fun tightrope walk...

They did a rock wall and tree climb...

They did some laser tag, and a laser maze, and played some arcade games...
Joe and I stopped at a crepe stand and had a delicious Nutella and banana crepe...it was delicious!

We headed back to the hotel and the kids spent some time playing at the bay. The water was pretty cold, so they mostly played at the shore and in the sand.

For dinner we decided to go to San Diego's Little Italy, which has been completely renovated. It was a fun place to walk around with lots of Italian restaurants and cafes. We decided on a small casual pizza place.

We walked around through sunset, and had some gelato and hot chocolate.

We finished the night again with some swimming and jacuzzi time!


DAY 3

We said goodbye to the marina and our hotel, and headed to downtown on our last day.

We had been wanting to get the USS Midway for some time and have just never made it, so we thought today would be perfect.

The view from the deck was beautiful!

There were so many cool planes and helicopters to look at. We did a short guided tour and also listed to some of the audio tour as well.

Air Boss and Mini Air Boss...

Sitting at the War Room Table in the Admiral's Headquarters...

They loved going inside the helicopters and jets...

Cooper thought it would be pretty cool to live on this "moving city", but I told him he might change his mind if he were surrounded by 4,500 other people and stuck out in the ocean for months at a time! We really enjoyed walking around and learning more about our military history.

We moved on to Seaport Village to grab some lunch before heading home.
The weather was perfect and the views of the bay were gorgeous!
Joe gave Zoe a dollar to give to the street performer, and he happily posed for a picture with her. He was really good!

Zoe has been wanting a caricature portrait for years! We were going to do it on when we were at Disney World, but didn't want to try to bring it home on the plane. So we passed a guy on the street who was doing them, so the kids both took a seat and got one done!


Time to head home, but we sure enjoyed being away for a few days! It's time to get back to our regular schedule and routine.