A couple years ago, Becky and I took a trip to Chicago. Our main reason for the visit was the see my Grandpa and other family who lived there. But it gave us an awesome excuse to travel and explore. Now that Miles is old enough, we decided to take on another adventure. San Diego, here we come. We were able to visit for 3 nights and it was a great time! Our friend, Reese, was able to come along as well which added to the fun.
This was the first time I've left Miles overnight since he was born, so needless to say, I was a little nervous. Stephen is amazing, so logically I knew everything was totally fine. But that Mama bear feeling sure does come through hard. I saw him right before we went to the airport, gave him a kiss and told him I'd see him later. No turning back now!!
We decided on a resort type setting on the beach and we are so glad we did - it was amazing! The hotel was setup with the rooms being little bungalows. Ours was a beach-front room with views of the bay. I assure you - our back door (which opens to the beach) was open the entire weekend. Soak it all in! We spent the afternoon checking out the hotel grounds and had an easy dinner.
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| View from our patio |
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| View from our dinner table |
We spent the evening lounging and chatting in the hotel hot tub.
Thanks to the time change, we were up bright and early the next day. Our main plans for the day - the Zoo! But first, we had brunch at a place called Snooze. Great food, so so mimosas - boo. After brunch, we snagged some rent-able scooters and scooted our way to the zoo. The impromptu grab was such a good choice. So fun!
The zoo was amazing. You can tell the city takes really good care of this place. Everything was so clean, looked new and overall very well kept. Some of the animal enclosures were a little smaller than expected, but the overall experience was well worth it. This place is huge and you could easily spend all day there. We grabbed a map and made our plan to hit the high points - koala bears, panda bears, GIRAFFES (of course), penguins and monkeys.
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| These guys were so funny. They would actually "pose" and then a few minutes later would turn their backs like "Ok guys, move along" |
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| Gondola ride over the park |
After the zoo, we headed over to Balboa park. There wasn't much going on since it was a Friday afternoon, but we heard this was a great place for street entertainers, etc. We explored a bit and then headed to Little Italy for happy hour and dinner.
It was a big day and we were all super beat. Having pasta for dinner didn't help matters. We headed back to the hotel and crashed.
The next day, we got up and made our way to La Jolla - an area I was excited to go see. We had brunch at this rooftop restaurant with expansive views of the ocean.
After brunch, we walked down to the beach to see the sea lions. It's "pupping" season (I guess when they have their babies?), so there were a ton of them just sun bathing. So cute to see them waddling and swimming around. And the views? Wow.
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| All of those dark "lumps" on the beach are sea lions! |
La Jolla wasn't at all what I was expecting. I thought it would be like a park that was hooked on to the beach. From the reviews we read, we were under the assumption we'd be hiking and walking scenic trails. I was pumped to find these "secret" swings that overlooked the ocean. Sadly, it was not that way. La Jolla was more of a beach walk - a large sidewalk along the edge of the beach with adjacent homes and businesses. We discovered the swings would have been a 15 minute drive in the opposite direction. So, we all decided they weren't worth trying to find and headed back to the hotel for some pool time. While I was bummed, the pool was perfect. Drinks, sunshine, friends and, well, amazing people watching! :)
That evening, we got ready and went to Pacific beach for dinner. We walked down the pier to check out the views and watched the surfers try a catch a good wave. We saw some good runs! From there, we snagged a beach-side table with great positioning to watch the sunset.
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| Little black specs in the water are all the surfers |
We'd heard that after about 9:30pm, the great places to grab a drink turn into night-life bars. Not really my scene these days. So, we grabbed an after dinner drink and then headed back to the hotel. Becky crashed while Reese and I spent the evening drinking wine on the patio and chatting.
Before driving to the airport the next day, we had brunch onsite at the hotel. It was "freezing" on the patio, but after bundling up with blankets and having the manager turn the heaters on, it was bearable. We HAD to soak up one last meal with the Cali views - not the same inside. Worth it.
We were all sad to say goodbye, but I was excited to get home and see my boys. Miles was asleep when I got home, but the next morning, I got a big, smiley greeting :)
(a little blurry - he was jumping around ha!)
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