Trip to San Diego: USS Midway, Boats, and Coronado

On Saturday Isaac had to attend his conference most of the day.  So I spent the day with Sophie and Aspen.  My girls have very opposite personalities.  Sophie was very happy at the hotel playing with her toys and watching tv.  Aspen hated being in the hotel and would start crying every time she saw the door to our room.  Sophie would whine and throw a tantrum any time I tried to take her outside.  Aspen loved being outside and sitting in the stroller.  She would sit there happily for hours.  So after letting Sophie watch some shows, I dragged her outside for a walk along the bay to see the pirate shop.  Aspen was so content and loved it.  Sophie cried the whole time, so we didn't last very long (notice the hooded tantrum Sophie is having in the pictures below). 

Later that day when Isaac got back from his conference, we went hot tubing.  Then we were going to meet up with a friend from medical school for dinner.  The rain was pouring down, so instead of walking to a restaurant, we just ate at the restaurant in the hotel lobby.  But it was fun to catch up with Brian again.  We missed seeing Julie and their girls.

On Sunday Isaac had to go to conference in the afternoon and evening, so we went to see the USS Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum that morning.  It was raining again, so we thought the museum might be fairly empty.  But there were more people there than at Sea World or the zoo (at least it felt that way in the cramped space). 

While we were waiting in line for the museum to open, there were a bunch of old war vets who were talking about when they served on that very ship.  I thought it was pretty cool that they were able to come back and show their families where they served for navy. 

Isaac and I both decided that we wouldn't want to be stuck on a ship like that.  There were a bunch of doorways that would bash your shins if you stepped wrong.  And the sleeping quarters were so cramped.  On top of that, the whole boat still smelled like engine fumes even though it has been out of operation for 10 years.

On the top deck were a bunch of airplanes and helicopters that we could sit in or walk around.  Sophie had a good time sitting in the planes with Dada. 

Overall Isaac seemed to enjoy the museum the most.  He really took his time looking at everything.  I get really bored in museums, so it wasn't surprising that it wasn't my favorite thing to do.  Plus we couldn't take the stroller through a lot of the boat, so we had to carry Aspen around for a long time.  Sophie was also really tired and had enough by the time we finished.  But it was still a cool thing to check out for a little while.

On Monday Isaac was at his conference most of the day again.  I spent the morning battling the girls.  It seemed like no matter what I did one of them was unhappy.  If we stayed in the hotel Aspen was crying, but Sophie was happy.  If we went outside Aspen was happy, but Sophie cried.  The weather that day was fairly nice, so I took the girls for a walk window shopping through Seaport Village.  This is a cute little touristy area right across the street from our hotel and on the bay with a bunch of shops.  We walked along the bay looking at seagulls, ducks, and pelicans.  Sophie wanted to get close to a seagull sitting on a rock, but she put her hand in bird pooh and freaked out.  On the way back to our hotel Sophie saw a merry-go-round and really wanted to go on it.  I told her she would have to wait and ask Daddy.

Later that afternoon Isaac had a few hours break for dinner.  So we went on a one hour harbor cruise.  Sophie was really excited to go on the boat.  It was a little chilly and windy, but we sat on top of the boat most of the time to see the ocean.  It was a nice, relaxing little ride that we had fun going on.

Then we ate dinner at Seaport Village.  Sophie remembered that we walked past the merry-go-round that morning and begged Daddy to let her go on it.  So I took her for a ride.  We explained that she only got to do it once and she couldn't cry when it ended.  She was the only kid on the whole ride and she loved every minute of it.  Fortunately for Sophie, it was the longest merry-go-round ride in the world.  It took 10 minutes just to slow down to a stop.  At one point I said to Isaac, "This is the slowest stop I have ever seen".  The ride attendant heard me and said something like, "I know, it's ridiculous".    Then we went back to the hotel to go hot tubing before Isaac had to go back to his meetings.

On Tuesday morning Isaac went to his conference again.  After the girls woke up from their afternoon naps we took the ferry to Coronado.  This was a really nice 15 minute ride across the bay.  Sophie kept calling it a "fairy boat" and was excited to ride it.  Then we walked about a mile to Hotel Coronado. 

We promised Sophie we would take her to the ocean again with her bucket and shovel.  She was so excited to see the "big waves" again.  I changed Sophie into her swimming suit and cover-up in the hotel guest restrooms and we went out to the beach.

Sophie had so much fun running along the beach, running away from the waves, looking for shells, and building a sand castle.  Aspen was so happy and content for the entire walk and at the beach.  She was such a trooper with being so great at all the places we took her to.

It was really beautiful at the beach.  And it is so much fun to see Sophie run around and be so excited about everything.

Then we walked back to the ferry landing and stopped for pizza.  We missed our ferry, so we got to relax and window shop until the next ferry came.  By this time Aspen had had enough.  She was tired and hungry, but we made it back to the hotel before she had a complete meltdown.

On Wednesday we basically just packed all our stuff and tried to find a way to the airport.  We had returned our rental car after the first three days, so we only had a carseat for Aspen.  So we couldn't take a taxi without a carseat for Sophie.  So we dragged all our luggage (and we had a ton of stuff) to the bus stop.  It was a little embarrassing trying to get everything on the bus, but the bus driver was a complete jerk.  Anyway, we made it to the airport and were able to relax for a while.  Both girls napped the entire flight home, which was heavenly. 

Overall we had a lot of fun on the trip.  All our outings were a complete success.  Sophie and Aspen were perfect angels when ever we went somewhere, and I think they had fun.  But the trip was also really difficult and stressful.  The girls were not very happy when Isaac was gone for his conference, so I spent many hours trying to console sad children.  The nights were also really, really difficult.  Aspen was up almost every hour for a week.  I was so incredibly exhausted by the time we got home that I felt like I needed a vacation.

Trip to San Diego: Zoo

The next day we went to the San Diego Zoo.  It was rainy this day too.  So the zoo was also really deserted. 

We started out the day by seeing the koalas.  Apparently they sleep 20 hours a day, so it was really cool that we got to see them awake and eating.  Sophie said, "I must pet the koalas".  So I told the zookeeper she wanted to pet them, but unfortunately he wouldn't let her.  (I just think it is funny that she uses the word "must" all the time.  It makes her sound really bossy, but it made me realize that I say "You Must" all the time too her when I want her to do something.)

 Then we saw the giraffes.  Sophie said, "I must ride the giraffes".  Unfortunately we didn't get to do that either. ;)

We wandered around the whole zoo looking at the animals.  But we thought the coolest part of the zoo was the vegetation.  We really felt like we were walking through a rain forest or jungle a lot of the time (which was also due to the rain that would periodically pour on us).  Sophie did a lot more walking at the zoo and had a lot of fun.

At one point we walked through an aviary.  There was a small bird sitting on the railing we were walking past.  Sophie reached out to pet the bird, and it bit her finger.  I don't think it really hurt, but she was scared and started crying for a long time.  She finally stopped crying because a weird money was rolling on the ground in front of the windows and she got distracted watching it.

Also, I was really impressed with Sophie going potty on this trip.  She has been potty trained since around Halloween, but we haven't really gone anywhere without familiar potties before.  Sophie didn't have a single accident the entire trip.  She was such a trooper and told us every time she had to go.  A couple times Isaac or I would have to rush her away to find a toilet and were worried about how far they were going to be, but she did awesome.

Later that afternoon I had a really bad headache, probably from all the walking and dehydration.  So I was getting tired and ready to leave the zoo.  Sophie also wouldn't nap and was starting to get a little fussy, so we quickly finished seeing the rest of the animals and left.

I was worried about taking Aspen on this trip because she is usually fussy at home.  But she was a complete angel.  Aspen is completely content doing two things: 1) swimming/baths and 2) being pushed in a stroller.  I think she is really bored at home, but at Sea World and the zoo she constantly had something interesting to look at.  Aspen is really intent and watches everything going on around her.  She doesn't smile or laugh all the time, but she is really observant and takes everything in.  She absolutely loved being pushed around for two days and hardly made a peep of complain the entire time, even when it was raining on her (another plus of the covered stroller).

After the zoo we switched hotels to one near Isaac's conference.  We were at Embassy Suites.  It was a much nicer hotel.  There was a main room with a mini-bar, table, hide-a-bed and tv and separate bedroom with another tv.  This made evenings so much more bearable because Sophie and Aspen could fall asleep in one room and Isaac and I could turn on the tv in our room without waking them up.  Our hotel also had a really nice continental breakfast in the morning and a small indoor stream with goldfish that Sophie liked to look at.  The only downside of the hotel was that their swimming pool was freezing.  We tried to go swimming a few times, because Aspen loves it, but ended up just soaking in the hot tub instead because the pool was too cold.

Trip to San Diego: Sea World

The next morning it was raining.  We were scheduled to go to Sea World that day, and worried the rain would ruin it.  We didn't have enough time on our trip to postpone going, so we packed up and went anyway.  It wasn't raining hard, just a weird misty rain.  But it turned out that it was a perfect day to go to Sea World.  The place was practically deserted.  We didn't have to wait in line for anything.  The only thing that was cancelled because of the weather was the animal show. Sophie loved seeing all the animals.

There was a cool tunnel that the sharks swam above.  I told Sophie she better hold her breath before going in, so she did.  Isaac saw her partway through and told her she didn't really have to hold her breath.

Sophie was able to feed the dolphins a piece of ice (but she missed its mouth).  She was too small to reach it and pet it though.

Sophie was scared to touch the stingrays.  She did a couple times and laughed, but most of the time I think she was scared she was going to fall in the pool.

The sun came out just in time for us to go to the Shamu Show.  We sat in the perfect seats for this show.  We were at the top of the "splash zone", but didn't get wet at all.  One section got plastered by their whale, but we were perfectly between two whales and didn't get wet.  We really enjoyed this show, although it was really environmentally cheesy.

Right after the Shamu Show both Sophie and Aspen fell asleep in the stroller.  (That alone was worth buying the double stroller.)  So Isaac and I got to look around by ourselves for a while.

There were also some really cool plants all over Sea World and San Diego.  Isaac liked the ones that looked like dragons/birds.  I thought the Dr. Seuss looking tree with pink or white puff balls were the best.

We also visited the Sesame Street kiddie area.  Sophie loved going on the two rides that were open and did them over and over.  We were then able to meet Elmo and Zoe (because there were only three kids in line).  I thought Sophie might be scared of them, but it was cute to watch her run up and give Elmo a hug.

We finished the day out at the Arctic Exhibit, which was really cool. Overall it was a really great day at Sea World.