May Madness: March 2019

On Monday, we got up and ready and on the road by about 9:20am. We drove to the Residence Inn and checked in and got to our room by about 5:30pm. We met Tim (who is the salesman for the West region at Wisdom) and Kim Ardoin at Islands restaurant at 6:30pm. We had a fun time talking with them. Jonathan kept playing tic-tac-toe with Kim and asking her to quiz him on math questions. She was really nice about it. Daniel and Andrew were entertaining as always.

On Tuesday, we went to SeaWorld. We got in pretty easily and got through the gates right at 10am, but we quickly realized that the rides didn’t open until 11am anyway. We went to the little pools where you could pet the sea animals.

The first ride we went to was Manta, which was a really cool roller coaster. After that, we headed over to the sea lion show. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, it was already full. Instead, we went over to the pool where there were seals. They were pretty cute. We bought some fish so that the kids could feed them.

Next, we went over to the Electric Eel ride. It looked pretty intense. Andrew and Jonathan both wanted to ride, and I volunteered to go with Jonathan. Daniel also agreed to go. When we were standing in line, Jonathan decided he didn’t want to go on it, so Daniel walked him back to Michael, and Andrew and I went together. It was pretty intense, but still pretty fun. You go up so high and you get a really great view of the city. Emily decided she wanted to try it too, so her and Andrew went on it together.

We walked through the penguin exhibit, and then went over to get in line for the Wild Arctic show. We quickly realized that if we stayed in that line we would miss out on the Orca whale show, so we left and walked across the park for that. The Orca show was amazing! It was fascinating how they were able to get the whales to do the right thing at the right time. The people who sat in the front got drenched.

After the show we headed over to Shipwreck Rapids. Emily and I watched the bags while the boys went on the ride. Unfortunately, everyone else had the same idea after the orca show and the boys were in line for over an hour. There was a lady standing near us who paid the $.25 to shoot the water cannon right at them. Jonathan got drenched.

By then it was after 3pm. We ate a very late lunch at Shipwreck Cafe. We were too late to go to the dolphin show, so we went back to the Manta ride. The kids wanted to ride it again, and they wanted me to ride it with them. It was pretty fun. We tried again to go to the Wild Arctic ride, but by then there was a 45 minute wait and it was already 4:30pm. The kids went on the swing ride, and then Daniel wanted to go on the obstacle course and Andrew and Jonathan wanted to try the ladder game.

By then it was 5pm and the park closed. It was surprisingly easy to get out of SeaWorld. We came back to the hotel and the kids got changed out of their wet clothes. Jonathan and Andrew wanted to go swimming, so Michael got on his suit too and took them so he could sit in the hot tub. Daniel, Emily, and I went to the hotel’s dinner, which was chicken sandwiches and salad and fruit. Then we are pretty much just bummed around all night and relaxed and watch TV.

On Wednesday, we went to the USS Midway Museum. It was amazing! The first thing we did was watch their movie, then we went up to the flight deck. We also took a tour of the bridge, where we saw the flight control room and captain’s bridge. After that, we walked around the flight deck some more and then went down to the flight simulator.

We decided to change our dinner to our lunch and went to the Cheesecake Factory. The meal was delicious, as usual, and I ate way too much, as usual. It rained while we were eating our meal, but thankfully it stopped raining long enough for us to walk over to the mall. The kids had a great time at the Tesla shop. So did Michael, of course.

We spent a few hours at the mall and then left around 5:30pm to get gas and head back to the hotel. We spent a very nice evening relaxing and watching TV, and we ordered some Mexican for dinner.

On Thursday morning, we drove over to the San Diego Temple. It was so beautiful!

Next, we headed over to Everyday California for our kayaking tour. It took us a while to get in our wet suits and get all ready to go, and then we had to walk down to the water which was about four blocks away. Daniel and I went together and Andrew and Emily went together. We sat on the top of two-person kayaks. Michael and Jonathan were supposed to go together, but Jonathan wasn’t able to paddle and was kind of scared so they stayed behind and played in the water while we went on our tour. I was thinking it was going to be colder and also worried it was going to be rainy, but there was no rain and it was just fine. The only problem was that they were big waves, so it was pretty exhausting. It was also super uncomfortable to sit in those kayaks. Daniel and I always seemed to be behind the rest of the group. The tour guide would start talking before we even got there so I didn’t really get to hear anything. The caves were not accessible because the waves were too rough, so we didn’t even get to tour the caves. Basically we worked our butts off, and then turned around and came back. It was cool, but also pretty miserable. We were grateful to get back and get into some dry clothes, then we headed out to find a place to eat lunch.

We had lunch at Hodad's in Ocean Beach. It was a unique place with super loud music, but the food was excellent. Check out that basket of onion rings!

After lunch we stopped at a bakery called the Cravory and got some cookies and cookie dough and ice cream. Then we came back to the hotel. The kids observed that it seems like every day we’ve been here, we arrive at the hotel around 5pm and then just kind a bum around for the night. I actually think that that’s perfect.

On Friday, our first stop was the Mormon Battalion. The sister there, Hermana Meza, had been a companion of Remi Williams and was very excited when we said we were from Queen Creek and we knew her. We enjoyed hearing the story of the Mormon Battalion. There was a series of rooms and videos that told us their story. At the end we had our picture taken in black-and-white, and then we went out to “pan for gold.” The kids had a good time doing that. We also went up to the top and looked through the binoculars to see all around San Diego.

Our next stop was the Donut Bar downtown. It was a bit of an ordeal to find a parking space, but we did and we walked to the Donut Bar and we each ordered a doughnut. They were enormous! I’ve never seen such big donuts. They also happened to be two doors down from The Taco Stand. We wanted to go there yesterday before we decided to go to Hodad‘s, but when we drove by the line was so long it was coming out the door. So after we got our doughnuts we walked over to The Taco Stand. Everything was so good! After lunch, we walked back over to the Donut Bar to eat our donuts.

After that we drove to Seaport Village. Emily and I took some pictures, then we drove over to Coronado. I really liked Coronado. It’s actually exactly what I pictured San Diego being like. We drove past the Hotel Del Coronado, and then kept going and stopped at the Silver Strand Beach. It was cold and windy, so we didn’t stay on the beach for very long.

After that we headed back and went to Belmont Park at Mission Beach. Andrew was super excited to ride the roller coaster. I rode it with the kids. It was way more intense than I thought it was going to be. The kids also wanted to ride the bumper cars so Michael and I watched while they did that.

We stopped at the souvenir shop and the kids got some T-shirts. Even Michael got a T-shirt. I got a magnet that says San Diego. When we were done at Belmont Park, we drove back to the hotel, rested up for a bit, and then went to our dinner reservations at 5:45pm at Benihana. I especially enjoyed the show by the chef, but we all agreed that the food wasn’t nearly as good as what we get at Osaka. They didn’t even have Yum Yum sauce! We came back to the hotel and Michael took all the kids to the pool and hot tub.

On Saturday, we drove home and made it by 5:15pm. It was a great trip!!

Andrew did a great job at his Robotics competition! He and his team have been doing very well this season, especially considering that it was their first season together. They won the Excellence award at three different competitions. The State tournament was very competitive. These were the best teams in the state. Andrew was disappointed that he didn't make it to Worlds, but in order to do that they needed to place in the top two or win a special award. They placed 23rd overall, and 12th in skills. I am so proud of him for all of this work this season! He would bring his robot home often to make improvements on it.

Here he is with his team, getting ready for his matches.