We have returned from our trip to California and are already wishing we were back - San Diego is a fantastic family destination - so much to see and do and the weather was hot & sunny the entire time.
Wed morning we woke up at the crack of dawn (4:15am to be exact), dressed Liam while still asleep (was like dressing a small limp ragdoll) and headed straight to the Macdonalds drive-through for breakfast and some very large coffees. It was so early we had to knock on the drive-through windows to alert the graveyard employees that we were waiting to be served. By the time we arrived at the airport with suitcases, carry-ons, blanket, sippy bottle and sucky in hand we had very little time left before our flight - Liam passed out as we were taxing down the runway & only woke up once we arrived in Seattle - bonus. After a 2 hour wait we were off again - I don't know what it is about taxing down runways but it conked Liam out again and he slept for half of the next flight. Luckily we had 3 seats so he lay down between us and had a comfy snooze. Once he woke up we put down the seat tray and served him lunch - too cute seeing his tiny little form sitting in a big seat munching away at his snacks. Unfortunately I forgot about air pressure and as I opened the straw on his drink bottle the water shot out like a fountain at the unsuspecting flight attendants just as they were passing by with refreshments. I let out a small yell of surprise & so did the attendant I managed to scare. Mental note to self - carry an empty water bottle on flights in the future. We were pretty worried about how Liam was going to do on the flight - I had visions of him getting antsy and trying to crawl down the aisle at high speeds, yabbering at the top of his voice while pushing buttons and any other interesting gadgets along the way and me chasing after him while grabbing onto seats for balance. However he was completely preoccupied with the arm rests and pulled them up and pushed them down over and over again. Plus they came with his favourite: Buttons - even better.
By noon we landed uneventfully in San Diego and after a 1 hour long wait to get our rental car made for our hotel about a 10 minute drive away. The nice thing about San Diego's airport is that it is right near the city centre - unusual but so convenient. Ian was really nice to the lady at the rental car company despite the long wait so she upgraded our car for free and gave us a GPS system - huge bonus. We ended up using the GPS our entire trip and did not get lost once. No wonder they call it the "Never Lost". We simply punched in our destination and the pleasant female voice led the way. I really need one of those for our car at home - I'm horrible with direction.
Our hotel "Park Manor" was located across from beautiful Balboa Park in a gay friendly neighbourhood called Hillcrest. Despite the obvious flamboyance of the locals, the area was safe and close to everything. The hotel itself was apparently the place to be for celebrities in the 1920's and was old but comfortable. We were pleasantly surprised by the size of our suite which had a nice living room, dining room, kitchen, large walk in closet and vanity area. Plenty of room for Liam to crawl around like mad. He became a big fan of the long hallways and endless flights of stairs, perfect for burning off steam. His favourite of all however was the elevator - by day three he had learned how to say button and would go nuts everytime he would spot the doors. Every morning we would head up to the rooftop restaurant for breakfast and let him press the buttons to go up and then down. I believe we created an elevator maniac. Now whenever Liam spots an elevator, no matter how far away, he yells "button"and frantically tries to get to it. The yells turn to screams if we don't comply so we usually give in and go for a ride.
Our first day we got up early and headed off to Seaworld for breakfast with Elmo. After "Jesus" the small hispanic guy at the ticket window processed our confirmations it was off to the Sesame Street Bay of Play to work up an appetite. Oh my God the place was amazing. We literally turned the corner and our mouths dropped. In front of us was the most incredible play area I have ever seen - towers and nets and slides and featuring three family-friendly rides: Elmo's Flying Fish, Abby's Sea Star Spin and Oscar's Rocking Eel. Unfortunately Liam couldn't go on the rides as you had to be able to take 3 steps on your own. He would have loved them - he has absolutely no fear at all. You should be able to substitute the three step rule for high speed crawling - it's not like a child that can take a few steps is going to be able to get off a ride any faster anyway. Stupid rules. With a mop of hair like Liam has plus his tall physique he looks like he's two - the ride attendants had a hard time understanding that he couldn't actually walk. Oh well - next time we'll do all the rides - 10 times over! Since crawling is Liam's forte he loved the baby play area that involved an outdoor covered circular area that was all soft mats and blocks. He had such a ball we ended up coming back to it quite a few times. After exploring the Bay of Play it was time for breakfast. While enjoying our buffet we were entertained by the characters that sang and mingled with the kids. The look on Liam's face when he saw Elmo was worth the entire vacation. His face lit up like a Christmas tree and he broke out in the hugest smile. Elmo was almost 6 feet tall and he was completely mesmerized - he kept trying to reach out and touch him. Cookie Monster also had a pretty big impact. We ended up getting quite a few photos with the characters and a souvenier one with Elmo of course. Admission to Seaworld: $120, Breakfast with Elmo: $40, Seeing the look on Liam's face when he first saw Elmo: Priceless. The rest of the 10 hours we spent at Seaworld involved a whirlwind of shows, exhibits and shopping. Good thing Liam is still young enough to not care about the Shamu paraphanalia. Between the Shamu stuffed toys, Shamu drink holders and Shamu kids lunches you could spend a fortune. Liam mostly liked the shows and would clap along with the crowds to the dolphins jumping out of the water and Shamu splashing. All the stimulation finally conked him out at the end of the day so we had dinner while he napped and a couple of beers that went straight to our heads after a day of way too much sun. Feeling rather happy we decided to gamble away our money with Ian trying to throw small balls into even smaller coloured tubes in an attempt to win a stuffed toy for Liam. By some crazy miracle Ian threw a ball that landed in the only green tube which just happened to be the biggest prize winner. And that's how Liam aquired a giant pirate Elmo that flew carry on with us all the way home.
Since 10 hours of dragging ourselves all around Seaworld apparently wasn't enough, we decided to hit the San Diego Zoo the very next day. The zoo is located right in Balboa Park so we walked there from our hotel and enjoyed the amazing architecture of the museums and other buildings. As with everything else in San Diego, the park is massive (duh - it has a zoo in it). I think the 10 hours we spent at Seaworld had somewhat worn us out so we took buses from point to point which saved a few walking miles. The zoo wasn't as interesting for Liam but he did seem to stare at the deer & polar bears. Since everyone else would start at the beginning of the parks, we would take the trams to the end of the parks and work our way backwards, therefore avoiding the crowds. Smart hey? The polar bears were amazing to see since you can go down a level and watch them frolicking in the water. Hard to believe they would rip you to shreds in 10 seconds. Speaking of ripping to shreds, the mountain lion kept looking at Liam like he was a tasty treat. Good thing he was behind a metal cage - creeped me right out. The pandas were my favourite, there were two adults and a baby that was nursing and they were just gorgeous. It prompted me to pick up a cute panda t-shirt and a panda book for Liam from the gift shop. Liam loved the bus rides and the elephants - probably because they're huge and he recognized them from his safari book at home. We only lasted about 4 hours at the zoo before we all ran out of steam and decided to head over to Grandpa Derek's hotel on the harbour. Had a nice afternoon walking through the village along the harbour front and went to see the USS Midway aircraft carrier. Liam was in button heaven with all the cockpits and communication rooms - he could have spent an entire day exploring all the various gizmos and gadgets. Mental note to self; I could really entertain my child by sticking buttons to his bedroom wall - although he may never come out. Ian & Grandpa Derek took a ride on a flight simulator that rotated from side to side and upside down to make it more realistic. I decided shopping was safer and almost picked up a pair of Top Gun type socks - almost.
Saturday was Ian's birthday so we picked up Grandpa Derek and headed to the nearby mall to do some birthday shopping. The malls in San Diego are mostly outdoor due to the good weather - it's great to walk out of a store into sunshine - may as well work on your tan while you burn a hole in your wallet. I think I ended up spending more time shopping for myself than for Ian - largely due to the Victoria's Secret mega sale. They really need to get one in Victoria. A coffee and 2 hours later we departed the mall and drove over to Coronado Island for lunch on the outdoor patio of the Hotel Del Coronado - the hotel that inspired the Beach Boys song "hotel California". The hotel was absolutely gorgeous - colonial style housing suites and private villas with their own pools and a beautiful beach view. The patio had a band playing while we dined on burgers and Liam hung out in his stroller dressed baby beach boy style with board shorts and a matching hat. Ian was wearing the exact same outfit so they looked very cute together. I could definitely get used to lazing on a patio like that with its white unbrellas & crisp linen table cloths overlooking the gorgeous ocean. Ahhhhhhhh......Next time we are spoiling ourselves and staying at that hotel. After lunch we walked down to the ocean and Liam had his first ever splash in the waves. He absolutely loved it! He would high speed crawl around on the wet sand and pick up chunks of sea weed & mud - the waves did not scare hjm at all despite the fact that he got hit in the face a couple of times and consumed some salt water.
After hanging out at the beach it was time to drop Grandpa Derek off at the airport and pick up our Padres tickets for the evening baseball game at Petco Park - about a 10 minute walk from the mall. Gotta love how well located everything is in San Diego. Petco Park is massive - once you entered through the gates you were given a free Padres t-shirt and then took an escalator to your various level which had its own concession stands, gift shops etc. After perusing the gift shop and purchasing a "My First Padres Tee" shirt for Liam we grabbed a huge bag of popcorn and found our seats to watch the game. Liam was itching to climb all the flights of stairs and we took turns watching him go up and down until he finally ran out of energy. The enthusiasm of the crowd coupled with the big lights & music was contagious - we had a really fun time. The park even has a separate area for kids to play in while you watch the game - for an extra fee of course.
Sunday was all about the shopping - we decided to hit a large outlet mall right at the Mexico border called Plaza Las Americas. It was total heaven - 125 stores and all of them outlet. Every name brand store you could possibly imagine at super cheap prices. We went nuts. We would go into a store and take turns looking after Liam while the other person grabbed clothes - since Liam was tired of being hauled around in his stroller we simply let him crawl around and collect dust from the not-so-clean floors while yanking items off the shelves. By the end of the day he was so dirty his clothes were a nice shade of brown. I was completely shopped out - for the day at least. Ian wanted to keep going but Liam and I were getting cranky so we left "Plaza Las Shopping Heaven" with a vow to return in the near future. With deals like that you just have to come back!
Monday was our final full day in San Diego so we went out with a bang at Legoland. I have never seen Ian so excited. As we hit Legoland drive he literally hit the gas to get there faster and skipped from the car o the ticket window. The place was unbelievable - acres and acres of rides & themed areas and everything made out of lego. Ian started off riding in a little lego roller coaster car while Liam and I explored the lego medieval village where kids were riding on lego horses. Man when Liam is a few years older we are definitely bringing him back - it's a kids heaven. There were huge buildings that had rooms full of lego blocks for kids to play with - even baby sized blocks. You could go into a gift shop and buy bulk lego by weight if you wanted to. Ian couldn't resist buying a Star Wars storm trooper key chain and I couldn't resisit the matching lego coffee mugs with our names on them. Since Liam was too small for most of the rides we stuck to boat cruises & trains - one ride was in tiny boats that went along a river with displays of children's story book lego characters. Liam sat in the front with me all on his own and enjoyed cruising around - looked so small and cute checking everything out. I went on one ride called Land of Adventure - the only ride I actually did the entire trip and was totally excited about. It was supposed to be an Indiana Jones type ride in a car that had guns in it. The idea was to shoot things that came at you along the way. I disappeared through the doors, my heart beating, just waiting to be shot into a roller coaster ride of adventure. Two minutes and two doors later I realised that this was not the case - apparently the ride involved shooting laser lights at lego snakes and mummies that slowly emerged from pots and walls. Exactly thirty seconds later we rounded the corner back into the sunshine and the ride was over. The unimpressed look on my face must have been priceless. Stupid Indiana Jones ride. I should have risked the lego dragon ride instead - at least that was a true roller coaster! Ian attempted a crazy Star Wars looking contraption that you sat in and told what level of difficulty you wanted. The higher the level the more it swung you around like a ragdoll - I laughed my head off watching him dangle upside down - he was jerked around so violently I'm surprised he didn't barf. We spent the entire day walking around and visiting all the different themed areas - everything was fun. The best part for Liam though was the water park - it was amazing. There was a giant pirate ship that squirted water from every end and had water slides coming off it for bigger kids and a smaller water park with swings & puddles for babies to crawl around in. The ground was made of soft foam so the kids could run and crawl around everywhere. Liam had a ball splashing in the puddles. They even had boats that families could sit in that came with squirting guns that could be aimed at other boats and unsuspecting passers by. Legoland was definitely our favourite theme park and a great way to end our vacation.
It's amazing how vacations seem to bring about changes - besides "button", Liam started saying "hi" and "bye-bye" and waving at people, especially the flight attendants who just ate it up. On our way back from Seattle to Victoria the flight attendant carried him around and showed him all the different lights and gadgets - when she tried to give him back to me before landing he started crying. That's a first. She had to temporarily take him back to stop him from freaking out. I also discovered that constant stimulation and sun all day is a perfect combination for a good night's sleep. That and a king sized bed with tons of space for all of us. Liam slept like a bomb, better than he has in 2 months. I was really hoping that would last but unfortunately we were back to the same old multiple wakings during the night once we got home. Damn. Have to find some other way to make him sleep.
So that's our vacation for this year - not sure where we'll go next year but we loved California and could see ourselves making more trips out that way in the future. Elmo, lego, shopping and sun - what more could you want!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment