Sometimes the parents need to get away and rejuvenate. Kevin and I were at that point. This year we chose San Diego as our destination.
In our effort to not be away from the children for too long, yet still have three days to play, we left very early on a Thursday morning.
Our first stop was Old Town San Diego.
While there, we went through the Mormon Battalion Museum. It is more of an experience than a museum, but it is a really well done experience! I had a great-something grandpa who was in the Mormon Battalion, so it was extra moving for me to experience.
Old Town has lots of fun little shops to peruse through. This picture earned us several dirty looks! Apparently there were posted “our hats are for purchasing, not trying on and taking picture in” signs that I totally missed!
Another shop had about 100 varieties of root beer for sale! We got root beer floats and they WERE dang good!
Kevin visited with a blacksmith in the blacksmith shop and we looked at tin projects and rocks and gems. It was fun window shopping around, but it was really hot. When we couldn’t quite handle the heat any more, we went for lunch at the Tequila Factory.
The food was good, however at one point, Kevin pointed out a lovely cockroach creeping along the wall of our booth! I blew it away, but it kind of put a damper on the experience!
Next we headed to Belmont Park and Mission Beach. I have wanted to ride the Giant Dipper Roller Coaster there for years! The early days of roller coasters fascinate me (people were super crazy to ride them then!) and this one was built in 1925. It was an excellent ride!
We enjoyed the rest of the afternoon getting some vitamin “sea.” We rented a couple of beach chairs and jumped the waves and people watched.
We did dinner at Draft Bar and Grill right on the beach which was a fun way to eat. Then we started driving up the coast a little on our way to the hotel. We stopped at La Jolla and walked along the walkway. We enjoyed time watching the water spout up. It isn’t quite a blowhole, but it is close.
There is something so peaceful about the watching the ocean…
And watching the sunset over the ocean is even more peaceful.
It was such a good way to slow down and rejuvenate. I’ve had a crazy couple of years and Kevin’s work never seems to stop, so we both needed a de-stresser and this evening at the beach was a perfect start!
La Jolla has a big colony of sea lions who hang out there. This rocky outcrop is covered with them! I took the picture without all the people who were climbing out there to try and pet or at least get an upclose picture of them.
As cute as they are, I know they are still wild animals and I did not want to see one attack.
One many was within inches of petting a baby that was laying right next to its sleeping mother! Crazy people! We stayed a respectable distance away.
I am so glad Kevin and I were able to go on this vacation … and it was just starting!
We stayed in at the Lake House Hotel and Resort in San Marcos. It is right on San Marcos Lake and had such a fun atmosphere. We felt like we were in a sleepy village, not a busy Southern California town.
We took advantage of the man-made lake and went kayaking on Friday morning.
The whole lake is just a mile or two long and we paddled to the dam and back. It was quiet and beautiful.
The whole purpose of the afternoon was to chill by the pool. As parents of 5 boys, we never get to just nap or sit by a pool – we are constantly counting to 5 and making sure no one is drowning! Kevin napped and I wrote in my journal. We did some swimming and then some drying off and swimming again. It has been SO long since we had a pool day like that!
Since we got all rested up by the pool, Kevin decided to take a swing at the free bucket of balls we got as part of our room package…
We got some dessert at the onsite bar and restaurant and sat talking as we watched the sun set on the lake.
Then we sat by a bon fire by the pool until we were so sleepy, we just had to go to bed!
Saturday we knew was our last morning and it was a little sad to leave our little resort!
We drove back to San Diego and enjoyed the view of the temple while we ate a light breakfast.
We get each other forever because of the temple. Pretty cool.
Our big plans for Saturday were back in La Jolla. We were going on a kayaking and snorkeling adventure.
We rented a Go-Pro camera for the adventure so we wouldn’t risk our phones.
We also got wet suits. I’ve never worn one before. It was cozy!
The Go-Pro took some getting used to how to take pictures, but I managed to get a few fun shots.
So after we snorkeled and paddled back to the correct beach, we got to surf the waves back to shore. Because the company we used has to keep people safe and are dealing with all sorts of experience levels, they have employees out there trying to help you. Here was our “back to shore helper”…
I think he actually just got in our way.
Maybe it was an employee helping to launch a different kayak that got in our way. Our paddling was impeded because we would have hit the man and that seemed like a bad idea. I turned on the G0-Pro as we came in. It got turned around, but you can still get the idea of what happened. See it HERE.
I actually felt like that was the best part of the whole adventure! Woo-hoo!!
We asked for recommendations for lunch and ended up at The Cheese Shop. It was a cute little sandwich place and I’m pretty sure it was the older guy owner who was helping me. He was adamant that I try his flourless oatmeal cookies. Good sandwiches. Good cookies.
We had a little bit of time to spare, so we drove along coast a bit more and ended up at some cliffs where there were a bunch of paragliders. It was amazing to watch these people just trusting the wind! They just stepped off the cliffs and soared into the air! Kevin must have all those pictures on his phone because I know he took a bunch.
We did hike down the gazillion stairs to the beautiful beach at the bottom of the cliffs. We only stayed a few minutes.
Then it was over. It was time to head to the airport and come back to the world of responsibility.
It was hard to be away from the boys for 3 days (thanks Grandmama for watching them!), but it was totally worth it. We need these adventures together to keep us close and give us happy memories for the hard days.
