Every late October, we try to take a trip somewhere fun and warm! Sometimes the kids miss out if we time it with our "babymoon", or a couple-only retreat before the new baby comes! Southern Utah is usually a safe bet, but spending long hours in a car didn't sound appealing. We also wanted to go somewhere we've never been: San Diego! Well, Bevan HAS been there before with his family, but it's been so long, it didn't count. 90 minutes in a plane vs. 4-5 hours in a car was a no-brainer!
We left late Thursday night so Dallin and Anna wouldn't miss too much school. Nora was amazing for watching them and they weren't even sad when we left, if they noticed at all. You can't compete with fun cousins! They had an absolute blast! We got in pretty late for our schedule, but luckily they streamlined the rental car process and our hotel was pretty close to the airport. I was amazed how busy the airport was for 11pm!
We decided to hit up Sea World our first full day, while I was still full of energy. Because it was the week after fall break, the place was completely dead! It was great! It's a fun place with pukey rides and over-priced food and even some sea life! I guess they're trying to veer more towards "education" of sea life than the making them perform for guests, and then trying to make up for it by building more roller coasters. Environmentalists made them tone-down the Orca show... but the dolphin show definitely made up for it! We found most of the exhibits and saw a lot of cool fish! I forced Bevan to ride the pukey rides in place of me. Since Sea World closes so early, we also had time venture out to Ocean Beach for some yummy Mexican food and then walk the long pier over the ocean. It was heaven!
On Saturday, we visited Old Town, and they were busy with "Day of the Dead" festivities! It was fun to walk around to all the old buildings, although every stucco-covered building in San Diego looks old! The Mormon Battalion monuments were especially fun. I love their new exhibits! We wandered all over some hill called Presidio Park, found a museum that looked older than it was (go figure), and ended up at some fancy mexican restaurant again. After lunch we headed out to Coronado for beach time! I love "Some Like it Hot" and always wanted to see the famous hotel! Turns out the beach is pretty special itself. Many people swear it's the best in San Diego! An older couple felt sorry for me and gave us their beach chairs as they were leaving. Bevan built an amazing sand castle that was admired by many beach strollers. And we stayed to watch the sunset... which isn't hard when the sun sets at 6!
Sunday was a little more moseying and a lot of driving. After church in the middle of some twisty neighborhood (San Diego streets drive me crazy!) we headed up north. The temple grounds were VERY closed (couldn't even walk the grounds!) so we wandered over to Torrey Pines golf course... which Bevan found almost as spiritual. I guess it's pretty famous. We also saw another beach + cliffs and then some more beach in La Jolla. We barely made it to Point Loma right before they closed. We didn't get to see a whole lot before being chased out by some NPS folks. There was a lighthouse, there was some ocean, and a million incredible views!
We didn't have much time on Monday before our plane left, but just enough to check out Balboa Park. Beautiful buildings and beautiful gardens! I felt like we saw it all. San Diego was a little more "city" than "tropical destination", but it was still a blast. Now time to go home, have a baby, and endure another long (and hopefully snowy) winter!
