San Diego

Jake and I had airfare vouchers from Alaska airlines because they made us miss our connecting flight in LA this January on our way home from PVR. So we decided to plan a surprise trip over Fall break for the girls. We've been thinking about the San Diego idea for years but have always decided against it to save our money for a bigger winter trip every year. This year it worked with the air vouchers. We ended up paying only about $200 in tax to get us all there. It was a little tricky to keep the trip a secret for a month. Packing was difficult. I had to keep our luggage hidden as I packed. I had to coordinate homework with their teachers but they were only missing 2 days of school. They started to notice something was going on because I kept asking them to be very careful at school and wash their hands after recess. I told them finally that we had a surprise but I wouldn't tell them what or when.

Day 1: We woke them up about 4:30 and put them in the car. However, a huge snow storm came through that night and it was a complete blizzard outside! About 8" on snow on our lawn. Since it was still so early in the fall all the trees still had all their leaves and branches were bending and breaking. Jake and I noticed the crazy storm coming through the night before so we loaded the luggage in the truck. The roads were terrible from our house until Brigham. We had to drive much slower and use our 4wheel drive and we were still sliding around. I was so so very nervous that whole time! I was literally praying that we'd make it safely! Finally the storm cleared to just rain in Brigham and we felt relived but still worried about the extra time it took.

The girls were super excited about their surprise! They didn't seem worried about the snow. Finally we told them we were going to Lagoon and were going to be the first ones in the park! They bought it for awhile until we passed Lagoon. Then Kynli realized we didn't go to Lagoon. So we told them we were going to a park better than Lagoon, Sea World! We were going to California and staying for 5 days! Then I said can you be good while we drive there? They were reluctant but still happy. Then I said, "what if we just go to the airport and fly there?" They were so excited that it will only take about an hour and half to get there! We parked and shuttled over to our check-in counter. There was a huge line of missionaries waiting to check luggage. Luckily the night before I decided to print our luggage tags and we were able to go to the front of the line. We made it with about 5 minutes to spare and felt so relieved! The flight was quick and simple and smooth sailing from there.

Once we got to San Diego we grabbed out luggage and Jake had to walk to get our rental car. There was a little hiccup with that but he got it figured out. He came back and picked us up and we got some food. Our hotel rom wasn't quite ready for us to check in because it was only 10am! We drove just a couple miles down the road to Mission Beach. The sun was awesome. The sand was amazing. The waves were big and loud. The girls played in the waves and got their pants wet but it was so much fun! The outside temp was actually a little chilly. Only about 60 degrees the first few days. Plenty warm for being outside but not warm for getting wet. We still had such a blast at every beach and the girls begged us to swim every day at the hotel pool.

We drove back to the hotel about noon and got checked in. We paid a little more to be the in tower building up high. We had 2 queen beds and brought our twin air mattress for Charli. We got the food in the fridge we packed and packed a beach bag. We drove over to La Jolla and had fun watching the noisy, stinky Sea Lions. Then we went down to the beach and played there for awhile. Charli always enjoys a snack attack as soon as we park it at the beach. The sun felt so nice but the ocean breeze was pretty chilly. After La Jolla we drove over to see the temple since it was close by. We walked around the temple grounds with the girls. Right away Jake and I were so surprised how empty the parking lot was. In Utah you have to wait months after you schedule an appointment to get into the temple. 

The girls were dying to try out the waterslides at the hotel even though it wasn't very warm. So we let them swim for an hour and then went to Olive Garden for dinner. Charli got to choose that night and she wanted Gnocchi soup. :)

 

Day 2: Jake took the big girls for a walk around outside while Charli slept in. They explored the harbor and found sea lions and a star fish. We packed up snacks and lunch and headed off to Sea World which was 5 minutes from our hotel. I bought the tickets a few days before and got Kynli and Charli in for free. The weather was perfect! Right away the girls loves the "cleaner fish!" You put your hands in the water and they were all over your skin instantly. It really did tickle! It was so fun to hear them giggling and squealing. It took Charli quite awhile to try it but once she did she didn't want to leave. Kynli asked all day at the park if we could go back and do the cleaner fish. We had to bargain with her to stop there when we went out to the car for lunch and when we came back in. We enjoyed almost every ride and walked through every exhibit. I think the girls loved touching the animals most though. They loved the petting and feeding the bat rays. We went to the two shows, Sea Lions and then the whale show. The girls talked us into sitting in the soak zone at the whale show and we definitely got wet! I wore my shower cap for the whale show and the splashing rides. I wasn't even a little embarrassed :) The park closed at 5 and we fit everything in we wanted to do including a few of the favorites more than once. Such a fun day. The girls really wanted to swim again right when we got back. They pretended to be all different sea animals we saw that day. We went to a BBQ restaurant for dinner and crashed in bed. 

Day 3: Thursday we decided to use our free kayak and paddle board rentals. We didn't have our phones with us so we didn't get any pictures. The water was calm in the morning. Jayli was on her own kayak and Jake had a Kayak with Charli and I had Kynli on my paddle board. We paddled to the dock with all the lazy sea lions. Then we paddled out to the other side of the bay towards Mission Beach. We played on the quite beach on the east side of the peninsula. We paddled back and had some lunch in our room. We gathered up our beach stuff and enjoyed Mission beach the rest of the day. We walked around Belmont park and got ice cream. After we bathed and changed at the hotel we had dinner at El Indio. Jake and I remembered it from our trip a few years ago. We loved it. After dinner we decided to drive over the Coronado Bridge. The bridge is so huge! So fun to see it lit up at night. We took the girls to the ferry landing to see the big city lights. It's so fun to be spontaneous and do things with just the 5 of us. They caught the end of the hotel movie from our room when we got back. 

Day 4: This was our warmest forecasted day so planned Coronado Island for today. We were getting tired of the breakfast items we packed so we ventured out for breakfast. We ended up in Point Loma at a little diner call Old Town Restaurant. It was pretty good. We noticed a big pier when we finished so we walked out on the pier and watched the surfers. We drove back to the hotel and made sandwiches and packed all our beach stuff. We drove over the big Coronado bridge straight to the beach on Ocean Ave. We boogie boarded, collected sea shells, ate snacks, walked down to see the big Hotel del Coronado. The girls loved to find the sand dollars so Jake took us to a beach that said it had lots of sand dollars. 

Silver Strand Beach was just on the south side of the island. We dug in the sand and enjoyed the last hour of sun. We went back to the hotel to, of course swim for a bit, then showered and went to grab dinner. We chose the Habit and we loved all our food. We ate so much. 

Day 5: This was our last day. Our plane didn't leave until 7 so we still had the whole day to play. We headed over to Mission Beach again. That was probably our favorite. It was really hot today. We boogie boarded and relaxed in the sun and found sea shells. These same things just never get old. We had to check out at 11 but the girls were all boogie boarding so Jake ran back over to the hotel and packed up all our bags and checked us out and brought us food back. Such an MVP. We met a man sitting alone in a folding chair on the beach with an extra chair and vase of roses. Jake asked went over a talked with him. Come to find out, it was his wedding anniversary but his wife of 25 years had passed away in August from COVID! He told Jake they would come to Mission Beach every year together on their anniversary. It broke my heart and I just cried and cried. You can see him sitting behind us on the beach in the 4th picture down. I think every person in the world has suffered through this pandemic but my heart goes out to those who have lost people they love.

We played all morning into the afternoon. Finally we decided to go back to the hotel and swim. Jake grabbed us a big pizza and salad and we ate an early dinner by the pool. We showered in the outside showers and changed before heading to the airport. Jake dropped us off at the airport and then returned our turo rental car. We were all super tired. So happy to have a very short flight back home and sleep in our own beds that night. We got to our house about 12:30 and slept great.