For Kaitlyn's birthday this year Rick and I told her that we would take her and the kids to San Diego for a summer vacation. We left on Wednesday, July 31st flying with Delta for two hours to get into San Diego. It was about a fifteen minute drive to the beach.
We arrived early around 9AM, got our car and then and stopped for some breakfast at Denny's.
We drove to our hotel, The Courtyard at Sorrento Hills, and unpacked and got ready to swim.
We swam for a couple of hours and then decided it was time for dinner. We went across the street at the suggestion of the desk clerk to a place called Karl Strauss. We had an hour wait but decided the food was worth it. We were all quite hungry and enjoyed our time there.
The next morning we drove thirty minutes to the north to get to Oceanside Beach.
It's one of our favorites!
We enjoyed the day! The kids enjoyed playing in the water with grandpa and their mom and I enjoyed reading on the sand. The kids also had fun collecting seashells and catching sand crabs.
Toward the end of the day Kaitlyn wanted to do some fishing off of the pier, so she and Rick rented some poles and shrimp for about an hour. They only brought up snails.
That evening we knew we wanted to get over to the Oceanside Sunset Market. It has been a fun place for us each time we go to Oceanside, so we went over to peruse the shops and to get some good street food.
Kaitlyn found a new t-shirt with an octopus on it, and the kids got some cute beanie type animal hats.
We all got some amazing food, as well:)
The next day was Friday, and that was our Sea World day. It was a lot of walking, and I slowed everyone down a lot, but we got to see everything we wanted to. We saw the sea lion, dolphin, and the Shamu shows as well as lots of exhibits throughout the day! We even went on a couple of rides!
By the end of our Sea World day, Merik was complaining that his toe was hurting him.
Come to find out he had an ingrown toenail that had gotten infected. After an amazing Mexican dinner we dropped Kaitlyn and Merik off at the ER that was close to our hotel. Unfortunately they didn't do much for him, and by the next morning it was even worse. We took them to the Children's Hospital where they had a traumatic experience getting the infection out. Even though it was so painful and traumatic for Merik, it helped in the long run because it started to get better.
While they were at the ER that morning, Rick, Haivyn and I stopped to get them some breakfast and took it back to them, and then we went to a Denny's for us!
This is a cute picture of Haivyn and Mark Twain. I thought it was Albert Einstein but she corrected me on that! Don't you think it looks like smart old Albert?
We had planned to go to the beach that day, but we had strict instructions from the doctor that the beach was out of the question for Merik's toe. Lots of bacteria in the sand and water! So we went back to the hotel and enjoyed the pool. We weren't sure if Merik could get into the pool, so he stayed out until we got word from the doctor that it was ok to swim as long as he soaked in epsom salts afterward. It was nice weather and the kids enjoyed swimming while Kaitlyn napped.
That evening we went over to Seaport Village, which is a fun shopping and eating mall right on the water. We ate at Edgewater Grill and had some really good food! Then we enjoyed a little shopping in some of the tourist shops in the mall. It was a fun evening!
The next day was church. We found a church not too far from our hotel and enjoyed both meetings there. Afterward we thought we'd go take a look at the San Diego Temple. It is closed down for renovations, so we couldn't get onto the grounds, but we did get a picture just outside the gate.
It is a beautiful temple. Kaitlyn felt bad that she could not touch it!
After that, we drove over the big bridge to Coronado Island. Being Sunday it was super packed with people, and we had a hard time finding a parking place for the park where we had decided to have our picnic. Anyhoo...it worked out fine. We spent about an hour and a half there eating sandwiches and veggies and chips. The kids ate some oreos for dessert!
We had purchased a kite the first day we arrived and were hopeful to get it up.
We didn't have too much luck but we had a good time trying.
Later that afternoon we went back to the hotel to rest (after all, Sunday IS the day of rest:)
Then later that night we found a restaurant not too far from our hotel and had a nice dinner. I think the name was JR"s.
The next day was another down day at the pool. I stayed with the kids while Rick and Kaitlyn spent the morning fishing at the Shelter Island Fishing Pier. They were hopeful to catch a fish, and Rick did catch one. Kaitlyn was disappointed that she didn't get one but I told her since they were together that it was a group effort;) Afterwards they joined us in the pool for a bit, and then we decided to just get packed up and go over to the Seaport village for lunch and some last minute souvenir shopping.
We had lunch at Margarita's Kitchen and Cantina. It was just a food stand, and we had to clean a table in the courtyard to even eat. It was just ok. Rick bought some beignets for Kaitlyn to try, and she thought they were just ok. So I guess you can say our lunch experience was, "just ok."
The kids took a ride on the Ferris Wheel with Grandpa and made a memory!
We wandered around the ocean walk and ended up at the park where people were flying their kites.
We were amazed at how good these people were at flying kites! They were making their kites do loop de loops and it was really cool! Seeing how we had such a poor experience the day before when we tried it, we thought we'd ask the expert how it's done. He just said you need a good kite and LOTS of practice.
I should say so.
After that, we got in the car and headed over to the airport. Our flight was delayed by about 45 minutes, and we didn't get home until after midnight, but we made some fun memories and enjoyed our time together!
Hooray for summer vacations!!
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