This spring break, instead of the typical beach trip, we decided to do something a little different. I googled "Best places to take kids for spring break" and out popped San Diego. I booked the tickets and we were off on a cross country adventure! Thanks google! The kids were super excited after making it through the 5 hour flight to hit the town! Thanks to the Wonders, we had these great blow up boosters that fit in my purse, so we didn't have to worry about lugging a car seat around!
Jackson was most thrilled about getting off the plane as he started to get air sick with an hour left. Mommy to the rescue! I thought ahead and packed some zofran. He popped that little pill under his tongue and we were good to go! Phew!! One of the great things about San Diego is everything is about 20 minutes from eachother. Thank goodness because my kids were done with the travel!
We heard about a 50s style diner that is great to take kids, so as soon as got our rental car, we headed to the Corvette diner. We put the address in Waze and it was a mere 10 minutes away. Score! It was really cute with dancing, an arcade, the best ballon animal artist I have ever seen, and of course, milk shakes! After we gorged ourselves, we headed to Coronado Bay to check out our hotel.
We stayed in a Loew's and it was beautiful! There was so much for the kids to do there! The pools were heated, they had ping pong, chess, tennis etc. This was the view from our room, which doesn't do it justice. San diego is just such a beautiful city. I have never been to a city that had both mountains and an ocean. Breathtaking!
The unfortunate part of our trip was that we only had 2 full days, so we packed them to the max! The plan was to keep the kids on Atlanta time to try to avoid jet lag. I imagined us sitting in our hotel with the kids wide awake at 4:30 am with nothing to do. Well, that didn't happen. Each day the kids slept until 6:30 California time, which is 9:30 our time. Why can't they ever sleep that late at home? We headed to breakfast and then straight to the zoo!
The San Diego is the world's best and largest zoo and it was true to its reputation. First on the list was to check out the koalas!
Daddy was convinced that Beckett may actually be a koala. :) We were in the right place at the right time and were able to have a flock of Macaw's fly right over our heads. Isn't it beautiful? Oh wait......you can't see the picture? That's because daddy was in charge of that photo.......hence....no photo.
The amazing part of this zoo is how close you are to the animals. If these giraffes had walked to that rail the boys are leaning on, we would have been able to touch them. See Beckett's face? Well, get used to it. It will be a theme throughout the rest of the photos. Apparently, this is his new photo face....Lord help us.
Future zookeeper?
Future construction worker? :)
I didn't snap the photo in time, but that Jaguar jumped right up on the glass in front of Beckett. If the glass wasn't there, I'm not sure if he wanted to play with him, or if he too thought Beckett was a koala and wanted to eat him.
This zoo was also packed full of these massive statues. My kids of course had to climb on every single one of them. Yay!
This zoo is so large that they have a skycap. We made a little boo boo with this. I really wanted to see the polar bears, which were all the way in the back. We made it all the way there and saw the sky ride. Jackson immediately wanted to check it out. We thought we could just take it all they way back around, but we were wrong! It took us back to the front of the zoo and we had to get off. We would have to wait in a massive line to get back on. We decided to head back to the polar bears on foot! I wish I had a fit bit because I would have loved to know how many miles we walked that day. Daddy was convinced we would never make it.
Look Mom! A massive bear statue! Can we climb it?
Hanimals! They were running a family special and I am a a sucker for a special! A keepsake that will last a lifetime! Our handprints made into adorable animals, matted, and framed for only $77! What a steal! I had to do it!!
We each got to choose our animal. Beckett chose a lion, Jackson a sea turtle, mommy a koala, and daddy a tiger. It really turned out awesome! I don't have a pic of the final product because we had to have it shipped to us from the hotel. As soon as I get it, I will post a photo. :)
Daddy has always wanted to get a caricature of the kids, so the San Diego zoo seemed like the most logical place to get it done!
For your viewing pleasure...
A rare photo of a Calilfornia native...
Next on my list was the hippos! I am pretty sure Jackson thought he was a hungry, hungry hippo and going to break through the glass and eat him.
Ahhh....the sea lions. I was so excited to see an actual sea lion on the beaches in San Diego. My family couldn't understand why I would want to see them in their natural habitat when I could see them at the zoo and Sea World. But come on! There is a huge difference, right? I never did get to see a sea lion in the wild, but I did get to play with a sea lion named Diamond. You will have the pleasure of seeing her after a few more pics...
After the zoo, we headed back to the hotel to do a little swimming. Another view from our room. I tried to get the Coronado bridge in the pic. It is a beautiful bridge that connects San Diego to Coronado.
Jackson met some friends and played volleyball.
Beckett enjoyed the hot tub and mommy and daddy enjoyed a cocktail! Funny story. Greg, who is a huge fun of all things with hot water, was in the hottub talking to another dad. He gave us a recommendation on where to go for dinner that night. Turns out, they were from Marietta too! What a small world? Never in a million years did I think we would travel across the country and meet another family from Marietta!
After dinner, we headed to the beach! None of us have ever been to the Pacific, so I wanted the kids to put their toes in the ocean.
I did it first. See! No big deal!! The water was absolutely freezing!! I can see why people in California are always wearing wet suits in the ocean. Brrr!!
Jackson finally braved the icy waters and stuck his toes in the Pacific. Beckett was having no part of it!
The boys. See that cliff in the background? So beautiful!
That face.....I have nothing more to say about that.
Family selfie at the Pacific Ocean!
The next day was our day at Sea World! I bought us VIP passes so we could bypass all the lines and get us special seating at all the shows. The only show I really cared about was the Shamu show, as this is probably the last time our kids will ever be able to see it. It wasn't the same show that I saw growing up. Those trainers have learned their lesson and do not get in the water with the Killer Whale anymore. Still amazing though to see those massive creatures in action!
Sea World had this huge jungle gym where the kids could climb to their hearts content!
I'm pretty sure they would have stayed in there all day if we let them. After a day at the zoo, they weren't that excited to see anymore animals. Lucky for us, Sea World has more than just animals!
They have roller coasters! Jackson is not a fan but he decided to go on the Manta with me. Beckett will definitely be my roller coaster buddy when he can go on them!
The last smile associated with that ride. He made it through it but certainly was not a fan. Daddy asked if he would go on it with him and there was an immediate No!
Another great part of Sea World is you get to feed the animals! Beckett loved feeding the sting rays! For the reasonable price of $5, you get 4 half fish. What a deal! Beckett would put his hand out with that fish in it and the stingrays would come over and suck it right up!
Another nice feature of California theme parks is the food choices are so much better! With our VIP passes, food was included. True to all other theme parked food passes we have ever had, it was more food than we could possible eat! We did, however, have some of the best watermelon and strawberries I have ever tasted!
And now the moment you have been waiting for and you didn't even know it! Meet Diamond. I may not have been able to see a sea lion in it's natural habitat but I did get to meet this precious gem. Greg made fun of me for taking this pic but I wanted to take her home. For another reasonable price of just $5, you get to feed the sea lions some fish! As soon as Diamond saw that you had some fish in your hand, she jumped up on this rock and screeched until you looked at her. Once you looked over at her, that precious mammal would pick up its fin and wave at you. That's right folks! She waves for food!! That's not something you see everyday!!
Polar bear caves! An opportunity to climb my children will not miss!!
After the zoo, we headed downtown to eat dinner on the water. My pictures just don't capture how pretty it is there. There were a bunch of shops so we bought the children their obligatory San Diego tshirts. They also have a cupcake shop that won Cupcake Wars on the Food Network. We had to check that out! 6 cupcakes later and we were not impressed!! Greg heard people talking about seeing the sea lion on the rocks. We of course had to check it out! I asked one of the shop owners if there were any sea lions to see around here. She told us that a lot of times you can see them playing on the booies. Unfortunatley....not today. My burning desire to see a sea lion frolicking in the ocean will have to wait until the next trip!
We had such a fantastic spring break. I think this will be our new thing. Visiting a new city each spring! So many fun memories!!
Beckett's donuts for dads. Daddy couldn't make this one but Paola stood in for him. :) I love his answer to why he loves his Dad. :)
Look what came right as I was finishing the blog! The Nesmith family hanimals :)