San Diego! (Part 1)

When we were picking out a vacation for this year, we debated on if we were going as a couple or a family. Last year we went on a cruise in the Mediterranean as a couple, but since we just got a chance to go to St. Thomas alone as well we felt it was time to include the little people in this. The problem is that toddlers, in general, aren't fond of traveling. We needed a place with lots of things for them to do.

San Diego to the rescue! I have to say, we fell in love with this place after spending a week there. Did you know that the year round temperature is high 75 low 55? ALL YEAR? My family lived there for many years before I was born, and my mom said that she didn't miss the variation of Utah climate one single bit while she was there.

Anyway, we debated on staying at a beachfront resort, but the online reviews showed me that those places mostly overcharge for smelly and dingy rooms, because they have the location and don't need anything else. We stayed at a Homewood Suites right next to the airport, and (at the risk of sounding like a commercial) would never stay anywhere else! The area is much more quiet and family friendly, and our two bedroom suite meant we could give the kids their own room. Free hot breakfast, parking and internet- all things that were expensive at the beachfront places - yeah, pretty awesome.

Enough with that though. On to the pictures.



This walkway bordered the water behind the hotel, and was great for walking around on. And finding cool flowers to take pictures of. I have to admit I am madly in love with Bird of Paradise.



I don't know what this flower is, but it reminded me of a Christmas ornament.




Tyler loved the bridge, and the ship that is right next to the hotel. In the sand. I guess the Navy (including my dad, when he was stationed there) used to use it to for training. Not that I got a picture of the ship itself.






This playground, part of a very large park and only half of the playground itself, was about a five minute walk from our room. The kids LOVED that. I thought it was fun that they had sand in there for kids to dig in as well as stuff to climb on.




Kaitlyn loved spinning on this thing SO MUCH. She had to learn to wait when other kids were on it, but once she got on she wanted to go as fast as possible. I thought she was going to make herself sick. She did make Tyler very dizzy though- we laughed hysterically while he tottered off a couple of times. Is that mean?



We did a lot of things while we were there, and I will have to make seperate posts for those. But since we our first full day there was a Sunday, I thought it would be great to take the kids to the temple and have a little lesson and picnic on the grounds. And since my attempts to get family pictures taken have all fallen through lately, I decided we would get dressed up for pictures and make use of my tripod, since all temples have beautiful grounds that are perfect for family pictures.

Problem #1:
It turns out that the gates to the temple grounds are locked on Sundays.



Problem #2:
The temple is half covered in scaffolding.



I did manage to find a nice spot in the driveway for pictures, and decided we could make the best of things and try anyway. Which brings me to . . .

Problem #3:
Not only do people not smile very well for a camera with no person behind it (this is a composite of many shots to get all the smiles) but humidity makes my nice, shiny and sleek hairdo into a frizzy mess. This is also the only visual evidence I have that I was on this trip.



Sigh.

Thankfully, everything else we did turned out great.