Life as a Tourist

Wow, it’s been a very busy 10 days! I haven’t been posting much because my parents have been in town as has my brother’s 10 year old daughter, Erin. We did just about every San Diego tourist attraction there is! (Minus Sea World)

It’s been like boot-camp for me, taking the babies and often Noah out into the world on a daily basis instead of staying home. Although, it wasn’t as hard as it could have been because I often had others to hold my kids, or push strollers, or distract them for five minutes while I escape into some public restroom for a breather!

Seeing Erin again has been fun. We moved to Ohio four and a half years ago, to do Michael’s medical residency, mostly because we wanted to be closer to my brother’s family. His kids were growing up, and while I was around when they were born, I didn’t know them anymore and lived through emails and pictures. So after four years of being almost down the road from them, moving back here to California feels like we have lost a little something. Something important.

We are hoping Erin’s visit is the start of some tradition of sending our kids back and forth to each other’s families, so that they will grow up knowing each other, and seeing other states. This may even give them or us a chance to have more quality time with our remaining kids, or even a private vacation of our own some day!

So we packed a ridiculous amount of activities into 10 days. Here is our itinerary:

Day 1) Arrival and the Fourth of July Celebration at San Diego Bay

Day 2) Wandering around Coronado Island and the Hotel del Coronado

Day 3) Balboa Park (San Diego’s "Central Park"), the Botanical House, Promenade, and the Sports Museum (Erin is a sports diva at the wee age of 10)

Day 4) The San Diego Zoo. Saw an elephant have a big pee AND a poop!

Day 5) Day at the Beach making sand castles and staring at the reclining Harbor Seals while they scratch themselves with flippers.

Day 6) Drove down to Ensenada but Erin had come down with a nasty fever/dizziness thing that Noah kicked just before she got here, so she ended up having to stay in the US of A. My mom (her grandma) stayed here with her, while Dad, Noah and I went. (Next time she will go, I hope...)

Day 7) Legoland! Erin rode all the roller coasters. Numerous times. They were a challenge for her, but she made herself do them. I thought Legoland was a fantastic place for the 3-8 year old set. It has a load of rides geared toward them that places like Disneyland don’t have much of. But past the age of 8, I think kids find it rather preschooolish.

Day 8) Day of rest. Sort of. Went to an outdoor mall for souvenir gifts for those back in Ohio, and then went to our community pool to swim.

Day 9) Drove out to Julian, a gold rush town where my husband proposed to me. Dad, Mom and Erin took the mine tour (I hung with the babies for an hour) and Erin got to try her hand at panning for gold. Also took a horse-drawn carriage ride around town and ate at a very old soda fountain. Ice cream all around.

Day 10) Hiked the seaside cliffs at Torrey Pines State Park and then went down to Pacific Beach for way too much dinner, ice cream, a stroll on the Promenade, and finished off the vacation with an authentic California Sunset (complete with silhouetted surfers on the waves) before heading home.

Day 11) Up at 5:30am to wake the vacationers. To the airport by 6:45. Fantasized about coming home and crashing but of course I came home to 3 screaming children and breakfast mess and “I’M BORED!!!”

See if I ever show THEM an awesome 10 days in a row again!