Well, we actually just got home from a quick trip to Oregon this weekend. Sadly, we went up there for a funeral. Kevin’s oldest brother passed away last week and has sure left a huge hole in our family.
Kris was such a good and kind man. He was a large man with a deep voice and a huge heart to match. I have always been so amazed and inspired by all of the good things he did and the service he showed to so many people.
He had a strong and firm testimony of God and he buoyed up and helped so many people during hard times. He offered words of comfort and strength to me on several occasions when I was going through tough times as well. He was a man of true compassion and I will miss him so much. <3
His funeral yesterday was so beautiful. I’m so thankful for the influence he had on all of us and I feel so blessed to be a part of such a wonderful family.
It’s been a bit of a tough year for our family. My precious dad passed away last summer, my dear uncle passed away a couple of months ago and now our beloved brother/brother-in-law/uncle has passed on as well. It’s been weighing quite heavy on my heart, but in a strange way it also makes me very grateful.
Grateful to have had such incredible people in my life. Grateful for the things they have taught me, the influence and example they have been to me and for the legacy they have left. It makes me want to be a better person and to go forward and live the best life I can and honor them.
I’m so grateful for family and just for all of the good people out there in the world.
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Well, today I have a rather unorthodox post to write.
Last summer we went on a very fun family trip to San Diego, July 6-11th. I’ve been meaning to write all about it on here for a very long time now, but I just haven’t. So, today I thought I would do a Throw Back Thursday Sunday post and write about it!
It seems particularly fitting since a couple of nights ago we were driving up to Oregon in this weather….
That is with and without the brights on! Yes, somehow writing about a warm beach vacation sounds very fitting right about now. 🙂
I’m sorry I didn’t write about this sooner and I’m sorry it’s not particularly health and fitness based, but I want to write about it before all of the details leave my memory! I’m also hoping it might help someone else out there who might be planning a wonderful vacation to San Diego!
So, without further ado….
This was essentially the first time I’d ever been to San Diego! When I was a teenager, I did go to a San Diego Chargers game, but that was it. I spent the rest of my time in the Anaheim area on that trip.
We looooved San Diego! Before we left, I researched all about it. I reached out to my friends on Facebook, I asked my family about it and I read a zillion articles/blog posts all about San Diego.
If you are wanting to see a lot of different attractions and not spend a ton of money, the very best tidbit of advice I could give would be to get the Go San Diego Card! It really is SUCH a great value and allowed us to take our 6 kids to a lot of fun places and not go bankrupt in the process.
It’s a 1-7 day card that allows you to go to several awesome San Diego area attractions like Legoland, The USS Midway museum, San Diego Zoo, San Diego Zoo Safari Park, a Harbor cruise, Belmont Park, Knott’s Berry Farm, several tours and museums…and the list goes on!!! If you buy a 3, 5, or 7 day pass it also includes admission to either Seaworld, a speed boat adventure or a Trolley tour.
So great!
Costco also sells a 2 or 4 day version of the Go San Diego Card online that’s an even better deal! Sooooo, if you are a Costco member, that is definitely the way to go! We bought the 2 day passes for around $92/each at Costco (online) and used them to go to Legoland, San Diego Zoo and the USS Midway Museum. It would have cost us about $165/each to do all of those things without the card….multiply that by eight people and it equals A LOT of savings!
The only caveat that I thought was a little bit annoying is that you have to get to the last attraction of the day before 5:30 every day. I didn’t like that because I wanted to cram more into our days, but it worked out okay.
Here’s a list of the things we actually did in San Diego….
- Visited La Jolla
- Walked down to Sunny Jim Sea Cave (access inside of The Cave Store, $3-$5 each)
- Visited La Jolla Cove and saw the seals and sea lions
- Spent some time exploring the rocks and found plenty of crabs
- Stopped by the Children’s Pool and saw more seals and sea lions
- Played at the beach (I’m not exactly sure what the name of the beach was, but it was just south of La Jolla cove)
- Visited Torrey Pines
- Hiked the Guy Fleming Trail (I loved this hike!!)
- Visited and ate at The Corvette Diner
- Visited Coronado
- Rented a Surrey and a Double Surrey (Wheel Fun Rentals) and toured the city (this was one of my favorite things that we did. Loved it!)
- Explored the Hotel Del Coronado
- Visited Coronado Beach (just behind the Hotel Del Coronado)
- Saw the sandcastle man and his beautiful sandcastle
- explored the rocks just west of the hotel and found a bunch of crabs and sea life
- Visited Fuzziwig’s Candy Factory. Sadly, I wasn’t impressed. It was crowded, overpriced and just not that cool.
- Visited the LDS San Diego temple
- Visited the Mormon Battalion site in Old Town
- Visited Legoland in Carlsbad (about 40 minutes north)
- Visited the USS Midway
- Visited Downtown San Diego
- San Diego Zoo
- Seaport Villiage
- saw the kissing statue
- visited and rode the historic carousel
- saw and climbed the cool trees!
- saw the rock balancing man and his creations
AND, here’s a list of the things we didn’t do in San Diego, but wished we would’ve had time for!
- Visit Imperial Beach
- Go to a swap meet
- Visit Balboa Park and all of the museums (I was very sad we didn’t have time for this!)
- Spent more time in Old Town (we went there late one night and just walked around as most of the shops/restaurants were closing.)
- Visit the Gas Lamp district (we drove by and it looked very cool!)
- Head out to Point Loma to see the lighthouse and tide pools (we tried to go there, but apparently they close very early!)
- Visit Mission Bay
- Spend time on the boardwalk
- Go Paddle Boarding
- Visit San Diego Zoo Safari in Escondido (I’ve heard that this zoo is very cool, but we chose to go to the regular San Diego Zoo instead.
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It’s about a 10 hour drive to San Diego from our house. We left Utah during a huge heatwave. We stopped in St. George (Southern Utah) for gas and it was so freaking hot!!! Check out what the temperature was outside!
It literally felt like stepping into an oven when I got out of our van!
Thankfully, we were heading to beautiful, temperate San Diego. 🙂
**La Jolla**
We got into San Diego late Thursday night (July 6th), so on Friday morning (July 7th) we drove up to La Jolla. We stopped by The Cave Store so we could visit Sunny Jim Sea Cave, a beautiful sea cave with a man-made tunnel (the entrance is inside The Cave Store) leading to the cave.
It wasn’t absolutely amazing (it’s a fairly quick experience), but it was definitely unique and fun. The tunnel took two years to dig by two Chinese workers in 1902-1903 with a pick and shovel. It was a really neat tunnel.
Several years after the tunnel was completed, 145 steps were built so people could descend into the tunnel to see the cave. The kids all loved the tunnel and thought it reminded them of a ride at Disneyland.
It was quite steep and a little bit slippery in places, but it wasn’t too bad.
At the end of the tunnel, you enter Sunny Jim’s Sea Cave and it was beautiful!
It was super hard to get a decent picture because of the lighting! We tried and we tried…..and we tried!
I found this pic online so y’all can see how beautiful it is!
Like I said, it wasn’t the coolest experience ever, but it was a fun thing to do! It cost $5 per adult and $3 for kids 16 and under. A little spendy for how quick of an experience it was, but I still think it was worth it.
After the cave, we headed over to La Jolla Cove. It’s a relatively small beach and quite crowded, but it is breathtakingly beautiful!
The kids enjoyed seeing all of the sea lions and seals (out on the rocks in the picture below) and since we were there at low tide, they also had a lot of fun hunting for crabs and sea life in the tide pools.
We didn’t stay too long since it was very crowded. We decided to head a little south down the shoreline and stopped at the Children’s Pool (also quite busy and crowded) for a little bit and then continued further south and found a beautiful beach to play at.
The kids had so much fun playing and body surfing in the waves. They also enjoyed playing in the sand and building sand castles. My little almost 3 year old stressed me out a bit (he has NO fear), but he had an absolute ball!
**Torrey Pines**
After playing at the beach for a while, we decided to head up to the Torrey Pine area so we could hike the Guy Fleming Trail.
It was one of my favorite hikes I’ve ever been on and I’m so glad we decided to go! It was so so beautiful! You have to hike up a paved road to get to the trail, but once you get to the trail, it’s mostly made of sand. My daughter and I actually took our shoes off for most of it and just “hiked” in the soft sand.
When we got to the overlook, it was just stunningly beautiful! As we looked out over the ocean, we actually saw several dolphins swimming around and jumping out of the water. It really seemed surreal. I loved it so much.
It was such a peaceful, beautiful moment and I just wanted to sit there and soak it all in.
We were also hiking just before sunset, so it made it extra beautiful. This was one of my favorite things of our whole trip!
Oh and while we were hiking, my oldest son was right behind me and he said, “Woah mom, your muscles look like you could beat me up!” I said, “Awww son, that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me, lol!”
Soooo, he took a picture….
Too funny. 🙂
**The Corvette Diner**
After our hike, we were all hungry, so we decided to head over the The Corvette Diner to get dinner. It was amazing!!!
I’m so so so glad we went there! It was another highlight of our trip.
The food was great, the atmosphere was so fun and the staff was out of this world!
All of the waiters/waitresses were dressed up in 50’s attire and they were all so friendly and fun. They all danced together a couple of times and it was awesome. They also like to do all of the girls hair up in straws. This is what they did with my daughter’s hair…
It was such a fun experience! I will mention that it is obviously a very popular restaurant. We got there quite late (around 9:00) and there was still a half hour wait. It was well worth the wait, but I imagine it was a lot busier around dinner time!
**Coronado**
The next morning we went over to Coronado Island. That is such a cool place!!!
The first thing we did was head over to Wheel Fun Rentals to rent some surries!
Oh you guys!!!! It was so much fun and was another highlight of our trip!!! I’m so glad we decided to do it! Coronado is such a unique place and it was quite easy to get around town. We’re used to being a spectacle whenever we take all of our six kids anywhere, but this definitely made us feel even more like a spectacle. Ha ha!
They weren’t too hard to drive or navigate, but it was definitely a great workout. We rode around in those for about an hour and had an absolute ball.
**The Hotel Del Coronado**
After the Surry ride, we headed over to the Hotel Del Coronado.
Wow.
What a neat and historic place! It opened in 1888 and has a very rich history. Many notable guests have stayed there.
When we first stepped inside that hotel, it really felt like stepping back in time. It is such a neat place. The elevator there is amazing. It was one of the first fully functioning electric elevators made in America.
The elevator operator let us take a ride to the top floor and she told us to go out on a little balcony there for a neat view. I was so glad she told us to do that and that she let us do that!
It was a beautiful view of the beach and of the hotel.
After that, we just wandered around the hotel for a little bit and peaked in some of the rooms. The Crown Room was incredible!
We then headed down to the courtyard to rest for a little while. I thought it was interesting that the courtyard had turf instead of grass. Ha ha. It looked pretty though.
Our youngest two enjoyed running around for a bit while the rest of us enjoyed just sitting there.
**Coronado Beach**
After exploring the hotel, we headed over to Coronado Beach for a while. It is such a neat beach!
I loved the setting with the Hotel Del in the background.
We also enjoyed hunting around for critters in the nearby rocks and visiting the incredible Sandcastle Man.
We played at the beach for a couple of hours and then headed back to our hotel. We were all so tired!
**The San Diego Temple**
The next morning, we found a church to attend and then headed over to the San Diego Temple.
It is such a beautiful, serene place!
I know we’re itty bitty and you can hardly see us in those pictures! Looking back I realize we should have probably come a lot closer to the camera so you could actually see us and still see the temple!
I guess we’ll just have to go again so we can get some better pictures, right?
**The Mormon Battalion Historic Site**
Later that night, we headed over to Old Town and visited the Mormon Battalion Historic Site. It was awesome! BTW, it’s free and I think anyone, Mormon or not, would enjoy that place. It was very well done.
It’s just a really neat, interactive museum that tells the story about a pioneer group of Mormon men and women who joined the army and marched from Iowa to San Diego. It was fun to learn about and the kids had fun “panning for gold” at the end!
Sadly, it was quite late when we left the Mormon Battalion site. We walked around Old Town for a bit, but most of the shops were closing. It was still cool to visit though.
**Legoland**
The next morning, we headed up to Carlbad to visit Legoland. We’d heard that it was mostly geared toward kids 10 and under and that was definitely the case! I told my big kids to be good sports. My little boys were in HEAVEN, but my big kids weren’t huge fans. Shocker.
We took a few fun pictures with the various lego creations and characters around the park…
I really loved the cities made out of Legos that were displayed. They were so cool! They had San Fransico, Las Vegas, New Orleans and of course, New York….my fave.
I had to get a picture. It was so so cool!
I also have to share this picture of our family on the Ninjago ride. I kicked everyone’s trash, ha ha!!
Check it…..
I never win anything, so I definitely milked that just a bit. Hee hee.
I can’t say Legoland was my favorite place ever, but my little boys sure loved it. We only spent half a day there since my big kids were falling apart. I told them they were punks. 😉
**Seaport Villiage**
That evening, we headed over to Seaport Village. That is a very cool place!
I wanted to get a picture of Kev and I by the Kissing Statue, but somehow my whole “mom, touristy, tennis shoe wearin’ look” made me not want to reenact the picture. Ha ha. Our kids were happy ’bout that.
We headed over to the Historic Carousel and took a ride. I love stuff like that! It reminded me a lot of a historic carousel that we visited on Martha’s Vineyard years ago.
Afterward, we walked along the waterfront and just enjoyed the ambiance.
The kids loved climbing on all of the cool trees there!
My oldest son, who loves kites, happened to see a kite that was stuck high up in one of the trees. My #3 child, who loves to climb, HAD to rescue that kite!
Of course, my oldest son was encouraging him to do it and my #3 child cannot back down from a challenge, lol! He about gave me a heart attack, but he eventually got that kite down!
You can see him up in the top of this tree! My 9 year old was also climbing that tree, but at a much lower “non mom heart attack causing” height.
We had a fun night and I’m glad we all lived to tell about it!
**San Diego Zoo**
The next morning we visited the San Diego Zoo! That is obviously a very cool zoo!
It is a HUGE zoo and I think it has every single animal and bird that was ever on Noah’s Ark! It was insane. We only spent a couple of hours there, but we loved seeing the Panda Bears!
Kev said he didn’t think the Panda Bear looked real. He said it looked like some guy dressed up in a Panda suit chewing on bamboo. Ha ha! It did look that that. It was so funny!
**USS Midway Museum**
We couldn’t stay too long at the zoo because I really wanted to visit the USS Midway Museum.
My dad always loved military stuff. When I was growing up, if we were on vacation and there was some sort of military fort or battleship anywhere close, we were there! Since my dad passed away shortly before this trip, I really wanted to visit the battleship!
While we were driving down to San Diego, my brother sent me over a picture of my dad saluting at the USS Midway. He told me we should recreate that picture.
We found the exact spot my dad was in for the picture, but sadly the museum was closing, so we had to go a little further down on the ground the take the picture. It was still in a similar spot though. You can see that sign that’s behind my dad behind us as well. It’s just the next level up!
We loved touring that ship and listening to the audio tour. I also loved seeing and chatting with some of the docents (the tour guides who have also served in the military) throughout the ship. They were some of the nicest people you’d ever meet and they all reminded me of my dad!
I thought of my dad throughout the whole tour and it felt like he was right there with us. My oldest son said he felt the same way.
After our tour of the Midway, we had to make the long drive home. We had such a wonderful time in San Diego and made so many unforgettable memories! I’m so glad we were able to go and I can’t wait to visit again!!!
I’m so sorry for your current loss, and the losses before this. They never get easier.
This looks like an amazing trip, and your muscles are LEGIT!
Thanks so much Britt! <3 It's sure been tough to lose so many of our family members this year. 🙁
What a great post! That trip looked AMAZiNG except for the snow storm! Your family is so darling! So fun to see a mom who has big kids AND Littles too! So inspiring!
Aww, thanks so much Jen! I love seeing you and reading about you with your darling big and little kiddos too!!! <3