San Diego Vacation, Day 7 - Balboa Park and Mission Bay

And here it is, our final day in San Diego! *sniff* After this it was back to reality...! We decided to spend the morning of our last full day in California at Balboa Park, letting the kids run around the rose gardens, fountains and beautiful buildings. There are about a zillion museums located in Balboa Park - most built around 1915 for the Panama-California Exposition. The architecture is really pretty, like on this one:Courtney really enjoyed watching the fountains.Inside the Botanical Gardens (one of the FREE things there), Mommy enjoyed lots and lots of gorgeous orchids!We stopped for a little group photo (minus Daddy!).There was also a beautiful rose garden that Mommy loved!Carter found some wildlife to torment...After our morning at Balboa Park, lunch at McDonalds and naps back in the hotel room, we went for one last visit to the beach. This time it was on Mission Bay, where the water was calm, shallow and perfect for little people to splash in. Courtney hadn't been thrilled with the water on the open ocean, the waves were a little too scary, plus Mommy wouldn't let go of her hand, even in the shallowest water on the shore, for fear of her being sucked out to sea by the undercurrent! But in the bay, Courtney went running right into the water! She LOVED it!Carter loved sitting in the water and digging in the mud with his shovel.I think Courtney is ready for swim lessons!Carter and Daddy even built their own sandcastle!As I'm sure you can tell, we had a wonderful vacation!! Thanks for stopping by to read about it. :-)

San Diego Vacation, Day 6 - Harbor Tour and another beach!

On San Diego Day 6 we decided to spend our morning on a one hour tour of the bay. But before I get to that, here's the view of the bay from our hotel balcony - not too shabby, aye? :-)From our hotel, we walked a few blocks down to the San Diego Harbor Excursion dock. Along the way we passed by the Star of India, a beautiful old ship with huge, white sails. She was built in 1863 and is the oldest active ship in the world - they sail her at least once a year to keep that status, but most of the time she's docked in the harbor as a museum. If you're at all curious you can read about her history here. I also loved that swordfish statue in front of her!As I was taking photos of the statues along the pier I noticed something out of the corner of my eye - there were two dolphins out in the bay!! Carter and I saw them (and another couple on the pier complimented me on my good eye as they enjoyed them too!) - I attempted to snap a few photos but of course they were hard to capture - and then Carter ran over to Daddy to tell him what he had missed!Aboard the tour boat, Carter loved looking at the water.We saw some sea lions sunning themselves on a dock!We passed the Naval Submarine Base and the North Island Naval Air Station. We got to see two huge active carriers docked in the bay - the USS Nimitz (CVN 68, in the foreground) and the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76)! It was interesting to learn about the Nimitz - there is an Admiral Nimitz Museum out in Fredricksburg (actually, it's now called The National Museum of the Pacific War!!), which is just west of Austin. I've never been, but I've heard it's a nice museum. I didn't realize that not only is there a USS Nimitz, but the entire class of carriers that the USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan belong to is called the Nimitz Class! You learn something new everyday...! (and now I want to go to that museum!!) :-)The skyline of San Diego, as seen from our tour boat.Notice the huge Bay Bridge to the right of the city in the photo above, in the afternoon we crossed that to get to Coronado Island, where we enjoyed more time at the beach. Courtney had fun in the sand...Carter and Daddy splashed in the big waves...And we admired an amazing sand castle built by someone before we got there...There will just be one more post, our vacation is nearly over...

San Diego Vacation, Day 5 - Part 2, Birch Aquarium

In our previous post, we had spent the morning at the amazing and fabulous San Diego Zoo. After the zoo we decided to drive a bit so the kids could nap in the car, and headed up the coast just north of the city to La Jolla, home of the Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, part of the University of California at San Diego. We sat in the parking lot for a while, letting the kids get as long a nap in as possible. At 4:30 we got them out of the car for a whirlwind tour of the aquarium, which closed at 5pm!! This is what we saw as we walked up to the building - my new all-time favorite fountain!! These whales coming out of the water were just amazing!!The aquarium overlooks La Jolla and the ocean - the view was spectacular!First priority during our short visit was finding the shark tank - another thing on Carter's mandatory must-do list. He's a bit obsessed with sharks lately. He asked several times during the trip if sharks were in the water - when we were at the beach, at the pier, etc. I swear I haven't been saying anything to make him share my phobia!!! :-)Carter posed with Daddy in a big shark mouth!!He also got to stand inside a shark cage - the kind people go down into the water inside to view sharks up close - yikes!!We were too late to touch anything in the tidal pools, they were already covered with netting and the animals were "resting". But the kids had fun looking through the glass sides of the tidal pool, spotting some anemones and starfish.I thought these photos turned out pretty neat, considering they were taken through aquarium glass!Thanks for stopping by - tomorrow we'll go on a Harbor Cruise and head to another beach!

San Diego Vacation, Day 5 - Part 1, The San Diego Zoo

We wouldn't dream of visiting San Diego with the kids without a trip to The Zoo!! The Greatest Zoo EVER!! Heck, it was our #1 San Diego priority when we visited the city several years ago, pre-kids! So of course we had to share this wonderful zoo with Carter and Courtney...

Carter was all business at the zoo. He had picked up a zoo brochure at the hotel, and carried it around with him, making sure we saw every animal pictured on it! Here he's checking the park map, determining where we should begin... :-)We actually began our visit with a ride on the aerial tram, high above the zoo. It took us to the far end, where we saw the polar bear (highly important since it was pictured on Carter's brochure...!!) and from there we made our way back to the entrance. Here's Courtney with Mommy on the tram...Of course the stars of the San Diego Zoo are the pandas. This one is 3 1/2 year old Su Lin, who was happily munching on some bamboo. Her mama, 17 year old Bai Yun, was lying down in the next enclosure - they were observing her while we were there for signs of pregnancy! The other San Diego pandas, Su Lin's 21 month old sister Zhen Zhen and her 17 year old father Gao Gao were off exhibit the day we were there. Yes, I am on a first name basis with all the pandas. :-)I loved looking at the giraffes, especially this mama who was trying to get a drink of water (quite an interesting thing to watch, not so easy with those long legs and that neck!) and her super sweet baby in the background.Carter got up close and personal with a magnificent gorilla!Carter loved watching some turtles swim around...... and also the otters!!Carter also thought this mask was pretty darn cool. Ok, maybe Mommy thought it was cool so Daddy is pretty much holding him in front of it so I could take a photo. Details...The whole zoo experience was just a bit too tiring for our sweet girl.After lunch at the zoo, we got back in the car and headed a bit north to La Jolla where we made a quick stop at Birch Aquarium, which will be the next post...

San Diego Vacation, Day 4 - USS Midway Museum

Our fourth morning in San Diego was perhaps the most boring one for the kids - we toured the USS Midway, a huge aircraft carrier that has been turned into a museum. The museum is very well done, with lots of winding paths through the various parts of the ship, a self-guided audio tour and docents on board who were either stationed on this very ship, or a similar one, and are happy to share stories about their experiences. Of course, we couldn't listen to any of that - we were too busy chasing after our tired, bored, grumpy, ill-behaved wild children...!Some things were perhaps a little interesting for little people. Here we checked out the HUGE chains that hold the ships' anchors.Courtney looooves climbing stairs, so she was in stair-heaven on this ship!Up on the flight deck, Carter and Courtney got to sit in the cockpit of a T-2 Buckeye "Pilot Trainer" jet.Unfortunately Courtney did end up in the ship's brig, for bad behavior! (just kidding, if anyone should have ended up there it was a certain three year old...)After the tour we walked down the pier a little further, where they have a "Greatest Generation Walk" with various statues and monuments saluting the heroes of WWII. I loved this statue, it was huge! (notice little Carter by the woman's shoe...)This "Salute to Bob Hope" was very cool too.We tried having lunch at a fish place on the pier, but that same certain three year old threw such a tantrum we had to leave. I can't *really* blame him, we had been running them ragged up to this point!! We ended up heading back to the hotel for lunch, and then putting them both down to nap in their beds - the first non-carseat naps they had on the trip! It was definitely needed. In the afternoon we had a really fun time hanging out at the hotel. We went for a swim in the pool while Daddy ran to the grocery store, where he picked up some steaks to grill for dinner. We stayed at a Residence Inn (for free, thanks to Daddy's Marriott points he's racked up with all his business travel!), which worked out GREAT - separate bedrooms for the kids, and access to a fridge, stove, dishwasher - and the grills down by the pool! They also had happy hour in the evening, so Mommy and Daddy even got to enjoy free wine with their steak dinner - woohoo!! We all got a good night's rest that night, gearing up for the next day - a long, hot day at the zoo...!!