So this is coming to you a couple weeks late, BUT I left this dreary state a couple weeks ago and now I am here to blog about it. I went on a girls-only trip. My mama, my granma and my aunta all left this long and horrid winter for Sunny San Diego! You may recall that I went there two years ago with my madre and padre. My mom and I loved it so much we wanted to go back and we asked the others to join. Fun Fun Fun was had by all. A LOT of laughing, a TON of sight-seeing and almost too much bonding over bodily noises, bowel movements and my grandma's 'intimates' happened. Ok that last part was maybe too much information but oh well, I am sure it's pretty safe to say that the small group of you that read this goofy blog have a pretty sunny disposition and have a sense of humor to go along with it so I take it you can handle it. :)
So here goes...a loooonnnngggggg recap of our vacation from the far South West.
Thursday, March 14th: The Motley Crew arrive bright and early at the airport. We get to check our bags for free for some reason, pass through security where they have this new machine that is kind of intimidating and they make you raise your arms up in the air so if you have pit stains, you are going to be blushing a little bit. After collecting our things from those gray plastic tubs, putting all of our clothes back on and and making sure we haven't left our possessions with strangers, we head to the bar. Bloody Mary's are poured around 6:15 AM. Vacation has officially started. After a slight delay which involved circling over San Diego airport due to fog for a good 45 minutes, we arrive safely and are on our way to having fun around noon California time. Kris (my aunt, aka, my mom's sister) and my grandma (aka, my mom's mom, aka, Gloria (which she will never be referred to by that name in this post)) both told my mom and I in advance that they were fine with us leading the way. Since everything was still pretty fresh in our minds on what we did last time, they were there to go with the flow and let us be their guides. Talk about pressure. We first took them by the hotel where we were going to stay (it was too early to check-in). Same awesome hotel as last time. If you are ever going to San Diego, I wouldn't stay anywhere else besides this place. OK, well maybe the little beach villa's at the Hotel Del Coronado, but if you want to stay someplace reasonably priced and with an awesome location, talk to me or any of my immediate family for the info. We then went to Seaport village for a little lunch and shopping. We signed up for the famous Trolley Tour to take the next day and headed back to the hotel to check in and relax before dinner.
On the way up to dinner we stopped at Sunset Cliffs--the best view of ocean, houses and cliffs that I've ever seen. It was really cloudy so we didn't get a nice sunset to see, but it was worth the visit anyway. A few blocks down was where we were going to eat dinner. We had heard of this burger joint called Hodad's from a family friend who had seen it on Diners, Drive-In's and Dives. The place is just a hole in the wall with license plates covering the walls as their decor, it's supposedly run by surfer dudes and it has the biggest burgers you'll ever see.
Friday, March 15th: Up and
Adam at 'em (thanks, Jess!), bright and early: It's Trolley Time! After our breakfast at Marvelous Muffins (where we would eat breakfast everyday) we take our rental over to Old Town where we pick up the start of the tour. We skip a lot of the stops and just take in the sights and listen to the driver tell us some of the history of the town. We had planned our stops the night before so we weren't scrambling when it was time to get off or stay on the trolley. We made stops at Coronado Island and Balboa Park and then were back at Old Town. We spent a significant amount of time at each place but probably spent the most time at Old Town. We discovered some hidden places that we didn't see before and took everything in. After that we headed back to ye old hotel, freshened up and had dinner at Pizza Nova.
Saturday, March 16th: Safari Day! Have you heard about the Safari Park? Not the zoo, the Safari. Well, technically it's part of the San Diego zoo umbrella or something like that, but it's separate. It's supposed to be about 30 or so minutes from San Diego. Due to the inaccurate directions the front desk worker gave us, it ended up to be about an hour and fifteen minute trip but oh well, it was well worth it and someone must have been looking down at us and doing us a favor because as we stood outside the safari park gates, looking like four helpless women who didn't know where to turn next, the sweetest man came up to us and asked if we were coming in and if so, to follow him. We follow (I am giving you the Cliffs Notes version of this story) him, he shows his pass to the girl scanning tickets and he says "four buddy passes". And just like that, a complete stranger saved us a $44 (each) admission price. It was good we got side-tracked. Once inside we realized that this was not only a place to go on a safari, but it was a whole-other zoo as well. We went and bought our tickets for the safari and chose the 9-seater, "open-cart" option. An hour-long ride took you on a ride through the open plains of where their African animals roam pretty freely. Of course some of the animals have to have their boundaries--I don't think they'd want any children witnessing massacres out in the open plains or anything like that, but seriously, it was sweet. I would do it again in a heartbeat. After our safari experience we went around the zoo a while longer and we headed out.
We weren't too far from Torrey Pines golf course so we stopped over there for some photos, browsing in the clubhouse and a late lunch. After that it was back to the hotel and sadly enough, the only night activity that occurred that night was Kris and I going to CVS to get cold medicine for my mom. Other than that it was pretty low-key with some card playing, catching up on our Words With Friends games and of course more laughing and beer drinking in the room.
Sunday, March 17th: For sure our busiest day. We started the day by going to La Jolla for some shopping and to check out the famous beach where the sea lions come up to take a load off. It would have been my nephew Deaken's 3rd birthday that day so we started by letting three green balloons float up to Heaven to wish little Deakster a Happy Birthday. We found a perfect spot to let them go at a large park that overlooks the ocean. After we watched them soar away we went and saw the sea lions and did some window shopping. The only store that really caught our eye was a dog store with one of the cutest names for a store I've ever seen. We walked out with toys and treats for our four-legged children.
We had been wanting a good ice cream cone since we arrived in San Diego so we decided to drive back over to Coronado Island and have a cone at Moo Time Creamery at the Hotel Del Coronado. While we were there we stuck our hands in the ocean and headed over to Point Loma. The park was close to closing time so we only had about an hour there so we looked around a bit and decided to go back the next day.
Next it was back to the hotel for a tiny bit of down time and then we were back off our butts and drove out to Old Town for some dinner at Casa de Reyes. Lots of food and a couple margaritas (beer for Kris) later, and we were spent.
Monday, March 18th: Our last day. Monday was spent basically "visiting old friends". We went back to Seaport Village in the AM for some gifts to bring home and then we headed back up to Point Loma in the late morning/early afternoon. We hung out there for awhile, taking in more of the pretty view, reading up on the history, going up into the lighthouse, learning about tide pool organisms and watching at least 8 fighter jets take off from the military base below. It was pretty sweet. We had about an hour left before we had to return our prized rental back to the car place so I requested that we go back to Sunset Cliffs. We took in those sights for awhile, filled up on gas and were on our way to the airport.
After an hour and a half flight delay due to the Minnesota snow, we were back safe and sound a little after midnight.
I think it's safe to say that everyone had a great time! I can't wait to do it again!
