summer trip 2010 - free day

La Jolla Children's Pool

This was originally planned as our third day at the beach but we needed a break from 3-4 hours in the sun and salt water - A, for the third year in a row, got some redness around the bottom of each of eye from the sun and water. So, we decided to head to La Jolla again, but without getting into the water. The first stop was the La Jolla Children's Pool Beach. This is a great area to just enjoy the sound of the surf while spotting seals or looking for shells. We spent a couple of hours here, including a visit to an ice cream truck.

Digging for shells

Sea Lion coming up for air

D could stay here all day

"No more pictures, we're digging for shells"

Cave excursion - at the northern end of the Children's Pool there is a small cave. I decided to go through the cave wearing my "street clothes" and take video with my fairly new iPhone 4. I almost dropped the phone as I misjudged the surf twice.....

Here's a short video of the La Jolla surf

From here we headed to downtown La Jolla to for some shopping. We went through several "not high-end" stores. I walked a block over to the La Jolla Smashburger just to see how busy it was.....it was packed! Every table was taken and the line was way too long. It was about mid-afternoon so we headed over In and Out on our way to Coronado. On the way we stopped at the San Diego Seaport to look for some San Diego branded souvenirs for the girls. M picked out a San Diego nameplate and A wanted a cool looking shell. We drove over the bay on the Coronado Bridge. This was formerly a toll-road but, unlike all the toll-roads currently being built, tolls are no longer necessary since the construction debt has been paid - my guess is that the large Naval base on the Coronado Peninsula has some influence on this as well. Although it is over 200 feet at its peak over the bay, it does not allow for passage for the current Nimitz-class carriers.

Unbelievably, there was no one by us at

the park to take a family picture

We finished the day back at the hotel. Our hotel is in the revitalized Liberty Station area. This evening Liberty Station sponsored an outdoor movie night, Movie Mania. There were booths sponsored by local businesses giving away freebies before the movie started. At dusk they showed "The Blind Side" on a 12 foot outdoor screen. Right before it started I got carryout from Pizza Nova for the family. Our hotel even loaned out outdoor picnic blankets to lay on. There were about 200 people on the lawn between the hotel and the bay trail.

summer trip 2010 - beach fun

The next couple of days were spent at La Jolla Shores Beach. We had a blast at the beach...D got some serious sunburn on her shoulders, as usual.

Both of the girls really got the hang of the Boogie Board on the first day. Here's M on the board with her sister cheering her on....

Here's A on the board....

Both of them were having blast in the sand and the water. M decided she had enough when I spotted a jellyfish floating about 10 feet from us; and, then an unidentified fish that was about 20-24 inches scared the crap out of me (which scared M). A went back out into the water with me later and a seal swam right by us.

Here they are taking a break from the sun....

We packed lunches both days. After leaving the beach we made stops at the hotel pool both days....the girls have lots of energy and wanted to keep going. Our hotel, Homewood Suites-Liberty Station is awesome. Monday thru Thursday they have an evening reception which includes dinner and beer/wine. On Monday night I took advantage of the draught beer before walking across the parking lot to Oggis Pizza and Brewing Company. For some unexplainable reason I ordered a pitcher of their Torrey Pines IPA....bad move as I left half of the pitcher - it was very hoppy. Maybe I just had too many beers from the hotel. Anyways we had a couple of appetizers and walked back to the hotel.

We hit the beach the next day - about 100 meters south of the spot from the previous day. By the end of the day D and I were both exhausted....but, the girls still wanted play at the pool when we arrived back at the hotel. About 45 minutes of pool time it was time to get ready for dinner. D stayed in the lounger by the pool and looked up Mexican restaurants on her phone. It really is hard to find non-taqueria mexican food restaurants in San Diego and, after our recent taqueria experience with the kids I really wanted something not like that. D decided that Casa de Loma looked promising after reading about it on yelp.com. It was very close the hotel and sounded good. The entrance was on a main road with parking behind the building. When walked up the door was open and there was not one single person eating here....hmmm, not a good sign so we left. This threw everyone for a loop - what to eat now? After our second beach/pool day we were tired and hungry. Everyone but M agreed to grab a quick bite at the world's greatest hamburger spot - In-and-Out. M just about threw a fit to get some pizza. We caved and got her mini pizza to go from Chuck E. Cheese which was in the same parking lot as In-and-Out. She ate her pizza at In-and-Out while the rest had burgers. Looking back on this I think M had the right idea....not that In-and-Out was a bad idea....we should have made one more trip to Pizza Nova because there would be other In-and-Out opportunities in LA and Las Vegas.

Later that evening I walked over from our hotel to Los Primos Mexican Restaurant (a taqueria style place) to get an Orange Bang. What is an Orange Bang you ask? Well, if you've ever had an Orange Julius that's pretty much the same thing. This place also Horchata, Jamica, Tamarindo and Pina drinks. For $2 I got a 32oz drink....couldn't finish it, though.