Day 4: Zoo and Beach and Burgers... Oh my!

Another early day, I wonder when our bodies will adjust? Breakfast at the cottage again this am then off to The San Diego Zoo! Now let me preface this by we LOVE zoos and have been to many, every time we travel we go to the local zoo and we always visit the zoos where we live. The Bronx Zoo has been our fave by far, but let me tell you, The San Diego Zoo gave it a run for it's money! What an incredible zoo, so many different animals and plants and things to see, plus great options for food, not just your typical park food. With our admission we were able to take the bus tour and the skyfari (skyride), so we did. Oh, and I should note Chris' admission was free due to being in the military, very nice! We got off the skyfari just in time to catch the one show of the day, Camp Critter, and what perfect timing, as we entered a gentelman asked Leia how old she was and then asked if she wanted to pet a sea lion, of course she was like, sure! So she got to be part of the show, she was thrilled... She not only pet a sea lion but fed one and got a kiss from one! It was great!! We then went to the children's zoo and pet some animals. By this time we had seen most everything and wanted to head to the beach so we set out to Ocean Beach. It was beautiful, the sun was shinning, the wind was blowing nicely and the kids played in the sand. We all put our toes in the water but that was enough, the Pacific is COLD! After playing at the beach we got in line for the popular burger joint, Hodad's. The wait was about a half hr but well worth it. The burgers were great and the milkshakes huge! We split 2 between all 5 of us!
Back to the cottage to clean up from the beach and get clothes washed and packed up, for tomorrow we head for our most anticipated leg, Disneyland! We will leave early to hopefully stop at Sweet Tomatoes for breakfast and arrive in DL by noon. We can not wait! Keep checking back to see all we do at Disneyland and L.A.! This adventure is only about a quarter of the way in and has been amazing, I can only imagine how the rest will be!

Day 3: Seaworld

Body still on EST time, was up early again this am. After Chris got back from a run he made us a yummy breakfast that we enjoyed out on the patio, Chris and I even enjoyed some mimosas:) Cleaned up after breakfast and headed to Seaworld, luckily 4 of us were able to use the Military Salute Tickets so we just bought one child's ticket at ITT the day before. When we arrived we decided to Dine with Shamu for lunch, it was a little pricey, close to 150.00 for all 5 of us but it was a very good buffet with plenty of choices. It was cool to be right next to the Orca whales as well, when one did a trick next to our table Chris got a little wet, we all thought that was funny! We watched some shows and kids rode some rides. We went on the Sky Tower and had a great view of Seaworld and San Diego. Leia and I wanted to ride Manta but the line was over an hour and we just didnt want to wait... yeah, we are spoiled with Fastpasses. Finished off Seaworld with the kids playing in the Seaseme Street area. I def liked Seaworld over Busch Gardens, so much to see and do without going on rides.
So, Chris has been talking up Trader Joes since he came to San Diego for work the first time so he took me there. I get it, they have some really cool stuff, lots of treats I would love to have tried! We ended up trying the 2 dollar wine, I'll let you know how it is once we try it.
Dinner tonight is BBQ chicken on the grill made by Chris at our cottage, dining al fresco on this beautiful evening! Next up... The famous San Diego Zoo!

Day 2: San Diego

Went to bed early (for PST) so we were up early! I got some exercise in before we went to the breakfast buffet... One of the many great things about staying at Embassy Suites, they have a killer breakfast! Since we were up early we were ahead of schedule so we chilled in our room while I got ready and the kids watched a movie that was on, Prince of Egypt... how fitting. Around 9 we left to Wal-Mart to pick up some movies for the trip and headed down to San Diego. The drive was nice, I5 got slow around LA but nothing terrible. We got to San Diego in good timing and checked in to our (AWESOME) cottage and luckily it was ready. After bringing in our stuff we headed for lunch, In and Out Burger, it is very popular and now I know why... very yummy! Now off to some site seeing. We stopped at the cliffs first where we watched cliff jumpers jump in to the ocean, we also saw people surfing the waves, pretty cool stuff for us to see! When we left there we went to the National Monument of Cabrillo. We are pretty in to visiting National Parks and historic sites so this was really cool for us. We got our National Parks Passports stamped and the kids did their Junior Ranger activity and received cool badges at the end. We finished there and headed to the ITT to get our tickets for Disneyland and our San Diego attractions, then off to Package Store and the Commissary to get things for the next few days. Since it was Leia's birthday we let her choose what she wanted to eat for dinner, she chose to stay in and have Chris cook. So he made tacos and nachos with dip, we also got an ice cream cake for her to celebrate with. Now the kids are in bed and I will be joining very soon. Great first day in San Diego, can't wait to explore more tomorrow, either Sea World or the Zoo, havent figured out which one yet. Stay tune to see what our next day brings!