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!!
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