San Diego with Nan and Pop

Sue and Gord have returned, and we're having a great time with them here. They arrived Tuesday night, and on Friday, we went to San Diego for our first trip there in years.

We got settled into our hotel after a LONG drive from SClarita, and then went to the Gaslamp District.

 

 

We got ice cream at the Ghirardelli shop, and went into a few of the shops and galleries. I was pleasantly surprised to find the area safe, as I'd heard it was rampant with homelessness.

On Saturday, we went to tour the USS Midway, the Navy aircraft carrier that has been a floating museum for 20 years.

Inside, we watched a film about the WWII battle of Midway, for which the ship was named in 1945. We then walked around much of the ship, seeing how the sailors lived for the nearly 50 years it was in action.

Up top, we saw a variety of Navy aircraft, like this F-4 Phantom.

This is a UH1 Huey.

We could walk through this twin-rotor HH 46 Sea Knight.

Yellow ribbons commemorated Vietnam veterans, so I wrote on one for my dad's cousin, Gary, who was killed in action around 1966.

My grandpa was an electrician on the carriers in his 20-year Navy career, so I found the info on electricians particularly interesting. 

One room had a few of these Japanese dolls - I remember my grandparents having these, as Grandpa brought them home for his daughter.

After lunch at a chicken place in a cool part of San Diego Stace had heard about from a coworker, we went to Old Town. We found it to be a madhouse! We didn't think about the fact that we were there on the weekend of Cinco de Mayo, and San Diego is quite close to Mexico and its history is intertwined with our southern neighbor.
We managed to find parking, and joined the throngs. What fun!

On Sunday morning, we checked out of our motel and went to Chula Vista, to an aquarium with various native land animals as well.

It was a great day out, and we happened to be there when it was an annual day with $5 tickets and booths and food trucks.

Before the aquarium, we walked around a farmers' market in Chula Vista, where we got brunch and Violet bought a bonsai plant.

It was a great trip! Stace and I were last in San Diego with the girls in 2016, while Sue and Gord were last there when Cora was 2! This time, Cora had to stay back because she had theatre rehearsals.

Old Town, Mines and Apple Pie

We woke up Saturday in San Diego, prepared to end our little family vacation with a full day of sight-seeing.

After breakfast and packing up the car, we went to the Old Town area, a deceptively large complex of historic buildings. It's a state park, with docents and museum displays in the old hotel, schoolhouse, adobe hacienda and storefronts.

We spent a couple of hours here, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Violet loved the shopping part - they each picked out some tiny Mexican crockery for their Calico Critters.

 San Diego is where Stace and I met nearly 16 years ago, and he recalls having dinner at this Mexican restaurant with me, Jim and JT.

 Dia de los Muertos is coming soon, so much of the area was appropriately decorated.

 We said farewell to San Diego and headed about east into the foothills, to the sweet town of Julian. The town got going in the late 1800s and became a place on the map because of gold mining. We visited one of those mines, which is no longer operational but open for tours.

 We all learned a lot about gold mining - and it's not what I had thought!

Gold flecks existed in a vein of quartz running through the hard rocky ground. The vein was blasted out, crushed and processed, an intense production that petered out because the price of gold wasn't justifying the cost of extraction.

 Fourth-graders here learn about California history, and Cora is looking forward to Gold Rush days in the spring. She took special interest in her mining education.

 Here's the huge machine used to crush the rock in the gold extraction process.

 We went back into Julian, which after the gold boom became known as an apple-growing region. Apple pie shops abound, and we couldn't leave without sampling one for ourselves.

It passed muster.

The town has been voted one of the best main streets in California, and I had always wanted to check it out. But, being a three-hour drive from home, it hadn't made sense to do so until this trip.

We got back on the road around 5, and with a stop for dinner on the way, were back home to our kitties and fish by 9.

A lovely time had by all!

San Diego Trip: Sea World!

 On Friday, we enjoyed a fantastic day out at Sea World. We watched all the shows - the orca show, dolphins, and comedic Clyde and Seamore sea lion show.

We saw sharks, polar bears, walruses, loads of fish, even piranhas feeding off less fortunate fish dropped in on a fishing line.

We all enjoyed the touch tanks, where you could touch bat rays, bamboo sharks and feeder fish.

And we also rode several rides - the Manta and Atlantis roller coasters, and an Arctic-themed motion simulator ride.

After Sea World, we had Subway for dinner overlooking a waterfront park, and then went into the cool Gaslamp district of San Diego's downtown. We stopped into Ghiradelli for dessert - a banana split, big enough to be shared among the four of us.

San Diego Trip: Legoland Hotel!

We had heard from friends about how awesome the Legoland Hotel was, with the exorbitant price tag to match.

Everything is geared toward the kids - a huge castle Lego play area takes center stage, with the surrounding moat full of bricks to build with. Lego characters greet you at dinner and put on an evening show. The elevators feature disco balls and dance music, but only when the doors are shut and the elevator is in motion.

As a very special treat, we thought it would be an awesome surprise to walk around the stunningly kid-focused lobby and then show them a room key. (And the mid-week October pricing was just doable for us - forget the weekends!)

The surprise went off beautifully, and the girls loved their own section of the hotel room with bunks and a television.

A welcome packet included a scavenger hunt for the girls to fill out. The answers formed the combination for a safe that included a Lego magazine and tiny building set for each girl.

We chose a "Lego Adventure"-themed room, which was very much like Indiana Jones, with characters made out of Legos all over the place.

In the evening, we watched a bit of the Dodgers playoff game, and then went to check out the pool.

Then we had dinner at a hotel restaurant, and watched a children's show with pirate characters. (You can see one behind Cora in the photo where she's showing off her Lego creation.)

Then, we just had fun building!

The breakfast buffet Thursday was incredible, the best I've ever seen, with so many tasty options. We filled up on yumminess and protein that kept us going through our Legoland adventure.
After saying goodbye to another Lego character, we packed up and went next door to the park for our day of fun there.

Here is the elevator fun!

San Diego Trip: Legoland!

This week, we did something uncharacteristic for our family: We pulled the girls out of school for a couple of days, and took a family vacation - just the four of us - to San Diego.

Why? Well, San Diego attractions run a promotion in October where kids go free, with a paying adult. We'd never taken a trip to Legoland. And Sea World is changing up its Shamu orca show next year, and I wanted my girls to see the show I grew up with.

So, we left school and work at lunchtime Wednesday and headed south, to the gorgeous city I grew up going to on vacation. The last time we went, Cora was two, so obviously it was Violet's first-ever trip.

We started by checking into the Legoland Hotel - a total splurge, but worth it for a once-in-a-childhood experience. More on that later.

On Thursday morning, we walked across the concourse to the Legoland park. Being a random Thursday in October, the crowds weren't too bad, and were able to see and do everything we wanted.

It was such a fun day! Legos everywhere, of course, and Stace and I had as much fun as the girls.

Lego has branched into many themes,
and several themes had their own section in the park, like the Friends area, Ninjago section and medieval castle region.

There were rides, model displays, play structures and a Lego museum showing the history of one of the world's most popular toys.

It was a great day out together, and I know the girls would love to go back someday.