San Diego Vacation Day 6 - Coronado Island

Besides our LEGOLAND adventures, this was definitely my favorite day of vacation. We started off with a yummy breakfast the Olive Cafe in Mission Beach.Then we headed to Coronado Island for a day of beachcombing, sandcastle building, digging, boogie boarding and soul recharging.

Our first stop was Silver Strand State Beach. Spencer was so excited when we arrived that he plopped himself down about 2 feet from the parking lot to start digging in the sand.

I mentioned before that we held off on going to Coronado until Thursday. Well, that was because low tide was going to be around 9:45AM that day (it was quite a bit earlier the previous days) and we wanted to give ourselves the best chance to find lots of seashells. And boy did we!  This beach is incredible. The sand is so soft and glitters like gold (from lots of mica I think?). We filled our bucket with beautiful shells, including several whole sand dollars!

And those of you who know me well can only imagine what my heart felt like when we spotted this scene (be sure to click on the images to enlarge)...

A lifeguard passing by assured us that is was just a dolphin having his breakfast and since the surfer didn't seem too concerned we figured that must be the case.

The rest of the morning was spent working on a sandcastle and just having a great time hanging on the beach. 

We headed back into Coronado to grab some lunch at a great Mexican food restaurant called Miguel's in the courtyard of the El Cordova Hotel. I had fish tacos for probably the 5th time on the trip (delicious!), Dave had some sort of yummy enchiladas and Spencer got a quesadilla. Oh, and Dave had the most amazing margarita we've ever tasted. It put my girly fruity margarita to shame. We also stopped for some yummy ice cream for Spence and me, and a coffee boost for Daddy.

We spent the afternoon on the beach near the famous Hotel del Coronado. The boys were brave and tried boogie boarding. The water was SO cold that I just couldn't bear to get in past my ankles. Seriously, freezing. But they went for it. According to Dave, after a few minutes you're numb anyway. Spencer had his heart set on taking surfing lesson while we were in San Diego, but all the places we checked into were for ages 6 and older. Plus, since he technically can't swim yet, it just didn't seem like the thing to do this time. He had a grand time boogie boarding though! Here's an assortment of beach frolicking/boogie boarding photos.

When the boys had had enough of the surf, we noticed a group of people who looked like they were having a sandcastle competition. We walked over and found out it was a team building exercise for a company. We watched them awhile, then the boys felt inspired to do a little sand art of their own. Dave started making a big head and Spencer said it would be cool if you could see his brain. Yes, that would be cool!

Then Spencer was buried inside of a rocket ship!

No idea what we did for dinner that evening - I should've taken notes! Maybe just PB&J's at home. It was an absolutely fabulous day. If we visit San Diego again, I'll definitely plan for more time in Coronado. I'll close with three more pictures from the day that I just love.

Ahhhhh...relaxation. The beach is my happy place. Recharges my soul.

Sweet (not so) little footprint.

My guys.

San Diego Vacation Day 5 - Zoo, Padres

Spencer was really itching to spend a day at the beach on Wednesday, but we talked him into waiting until Thursday for reasons I'll explain in the next post. So we were up and at 'em early and headed to the San Diego Zoo. We were kinda on the fence about spending another day walking and looking, but we just felt we couldn't pass on the world-famous San Diego Zoo.

When we first arrived, we looked at the reptile exhibit and saw all sorts of cool snakes and such. But after that, we soon realized that we made a mistake by not having a hearty, protein-filled breakfast. Spencer didn't have much energy and wasn't excited about being there. To try to change up the mood, we rode the SkyFari gondolas to the other side of the zoo. That helped for a little while. Then we decided to catch an early showing of a 4D Ice Age movie. But after that he started saying he wanted to leave. So we rode the SkyFari back to the beginning of the zoo and then hopped on a guided bus tour. After that, we let Spencer get his face painted, ate a big lunch in the Outback section, and looked at a map to see what animals we just *had* to see before we left. These included the pandas and of course the gorillas.

 

 

 

How cute is Mr. Woo???

This is Mr. Woo's mom, whose name I can't remember. But she's a cutie, too.

I love gorillas, but seeing them in a zoo makes me so sad.

So, we were fine not seeing every single thing at the zoo - we enjoyed our time there nonetheless.

Our next stop after the zoo was taking in an afternoon San Diego Padres game. Daddy got us some killer seats on the 3rd base line. The game was relatively short and we were treated to some pitching at the end by UT alum Huston Street. Spencer got a big kick out of going to a "real" baseball game. He also decided that if he becomes a professional baseball player, his walk-up song will be Motley Crue's Kickstart My Heart. Parenting win!

Daddy helped him get a commemorative ball that was thrown our way.

Next up: Coronado Island

San Diego Vacation Day 4 - Birch Aquarium, USS Midway

On Tuesday morning we headed to La Jolla to visit the Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. We loved this place - lots of good sea creatures plus interesting exhibits on solar power, recycling, etc. We saw the leopard sharks and rays being fed and then caught another feeding demonstration with a guy in a big tank full of all sorts of fish and eels. There was also a "touch tank" outside with sea stars, crabs, urchins, anemones and other sea life you could touch.

Great view from the touch tank area

Some type of sea dragon

Leafy sea dragon - freakiest creature I've seen lately!

I nerded out when I saw these BigBelly Solar cans b/c my company makes a product used inside them.

Sidebar: We watched a video about how seahorses reproduce. The daddy seahorse carries the eggs in a little pouch, and when they're ready to be born he just starts shootin' babies out of his pouch. It is fascinating and has been a topic of discussion ever since!

After eating lunch at the aquarium we headed to the USS Midway Museum, which was one of the things Daddy was the most excited to see. This was the longest-serving Navy aircraft carrier of the 20th century and it was decommissioned in 1992. We did a self-guided tour and also saw a few sections while led by a docent. One of our guides told us that they jokingly call the Midway "a daycare for retired Navy officers."

Spencer having a Top Gun moment.

This doll/mannequin thing in the commissary was SO CREEPY

E-2 Hawkeye pilots ready for takeoff

Even though we enjoyed both of our activities this day, in hindsight there was a little too much walking/looking and not enough doing to keep Spencer really engaged. We were all exhausted at the end of the day and I think we ate cereal at the house and called it a night!