Fun In The Sun - San Diego Style

We had been itching for some beach time all summer, so Rick booked us a last minute trip to fly down to San Diego as one last hoorah before school starts in two weeks.

 Rick and I have driven through San Diego but never spent any time there so it was fun to explore and check out all their beaches.  The kids of course bugged to do all the theme parks, but it was a last minute trip specifically to play at the beach, no theme parks!  And you can't have a beach trip without a convertible...

...which Ashlyn quickly realized was not the best for long hair!  In the 6 miles to our hotel (thanks again Uncle Nathan for the hookup with Marriott!) her hair was CRAZY and took about 10 minutes to brush out.  Not to mention the fact that she had to cuddle with her suitcase on the way to the hotel since it was a small trunk.  She opted for a ponytail the rest of the week.

It sure made for a fun time though.  Plus it gave Blake an excuse to wear his hat backwards so it wouldn't fly off while we were driving...something we usually don't allow cause it makes him look like a thug.

And made for a lot of silly times as we cranked up the stereo loud enough to hear and sing along to driving down the freeway.

 One of the days I even let Blake have shot gun and sat in the back with Ashlyn...

...even though I had a ponytail I still had crazy hair flying everywhere.

Our flight got in at 9:30 so we had the entire day to still play!  We had to find some place to eat first and since we were in California it had to be...

...In-N-Out of course!  Then we checked into the hotel and changed clothes to head to the beach.  Our first stop was Children's Pool on La Jolla, talk about beautiful!

However, you couldn't get in because it was pup season for the seals, so we sat and watched them swimming around and sunbathing for a little while, they were so cute!

 Then there was a long walk way that jetted out into the water that we checked out...

...Ashlyn wouldn't stop for a picture because the waves kept crashing all around us.  We never got wet out there but she wasn't willing to take any chances and ran as fast as she could.

After awhile we hoped back in the car and just a few minutes away ended up coming across La Jolla Shores Beach, which was exactly what we were looking for.

The water was relatively warm, the waves were perfect to body surf and the water was crystal clear to see all kinds of fish.  Blake even saw a baby Nurse Shark!  Come to find out it is the area that thousands of them come to each year in the summer to have their babies.  

 I was glad to see Ashlyn wasn't afraid of any of the waves whatsoever!  She took on bigger waves than I was willing to try and if it was too big she would just dive under it like Blake and Rick do.

 We were pretty sad not have our boogie boards with us, but definitely had fun without them. 

On the second day we went out to Coronado Island...

 ...it was a beautiful drive over a huge bridge to get out there.  On the one end of the island is the navy base so there were tons of air craft carriers to see and military planes flying overhead as we swam.

The beach was beautiful but the surf was a little crazy and the water was REALLY cold... 

...so Ashlyn and I enjoyed it in ankle deep water and also played in the sand.  

 That night we drove around and found the temple and chatted with some Sister Missionaries who volunteered to play photographer for us.  The kids were AMAZED by how big and pretty the San Diego temple was.  Ashlyn agreed that it looked like a castle and Blake was mad she was with us so we couldn't do baptisms now that he is old enough to go in.

Everybody got pretty sunburned that day, so we decided that we shouldn't go to the beach until about 5 o'clock the next day to stay out of the sun. After hearing this the missionaries suggested going down to the Mormon Battalion site in Old Town.  Talk about an amazing experience!  We had no idea that the LDS people played a major role in settling San Diego.  The church did a fantastic job on creating an interactive tour to teach about this part of our church's history.

Blake was even part of one of the presentations to show how the men were outfitted (or lack of) to fight in the war.  The food pouch was the worst part of it all he said - hard tack and water.

At the end we were able to pan for gold, since the Mormon Battalion's main job was to build a wagon road to San Diego which helped with the Gold Rush.

The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring - first stop, the San Diego Padres' stadium.  I had to pan out to get as much of the stadium in the picture as possible but you can still make Blake out on the fence.

The boys were pretty sad when we booked the trip and they realized the team was going to be out of town and they wouldn't be able to go to a game, but we had fun exploring.

 In the outfield there is a "beach" area, complete with beach chairs and Padre sand castles.

Then we spent WAY TOO MUCH time searching for the downtown carousel somebody at the stadium told us about...

And of course we couldn't forget about the Chargers' Stadium...

 ...even if it was just a quick snap shot driving past.  Then we headed back to Old Town for some TASTY Mexican food and headed to the beach to play until sunset.

Everybody said we couldn't miss a La Jolla sunset, so it worked out perfect.  It was pretty but we have WAY better sunsets here in Walla Walla.  

(Extra points if you can find Rick, Blake and Ashlyn in the picture)

The rest of our time was all on the beach and boy do we have the tans to prove it!

After dinner our last night there we came across a Krispy Kreme with the light on so of course we had to stop!

When we walked in Ashlyn was amazed that you could sit and watch them be made and eat a hot fresh one...we realized that she had never been to Krispy Kreme before!  That is border line child abuse!  We went all the time in Portland and Florida, but she wasn't born yet.  She was quick to realize how yummy a hot original glazed doughnut was!

Here is a few snippets of our fun on the beach....

Thanks for planning the trip dad, we sure had a blast!  It is crazy that we only have two weeks left of summer before we are back in the grind of school...summer is WAY too short!