Now that all of us are done with our work/school and have the time and limited budget to do whatever we feel like we have been enjoying by taking a few "day" trips...this particular one to San Diego was extended to four days thanks to the generosity of Grandpa and his hotel points!!
Ever since we told Madison that we will be going on a trip and staying in a hotel for a few days she got super excited! Did we ever tell you she LOVES hotels? We personally do not like packing for over night trips because it's too much work for just one night so usually we do our best to make the trip to last at least 2 nights and for this trip we were hoping to stay 3 nights so we can relax more... Fortunately Dave's dad had enough hotel points for 3 nights at the Crowne Plaza which was just perfect! We researched restaurants/beaches/parks and reserved our Ellie/House sitter for the 4 days so everything was pretty set:-)
But allow me to sneak in what happened a few days/a day before...
The Tuesday before Madison invited Dave for a Father's day breakfast at her school... Since Dave had to be at his school by 7:30 they had to leave the house super early to make the breakfast but I believe they had their private breakfast time which was kind of nice...:-) Anyways, here is why Madison thinks Daddy is special:-) The first one is no longer true but glad she has a nice memory of it (Madison K is towards the bottom of the page, not to be confused with Madison D at the top)...
And on the actual Father's day he got a yummy crepe breakfast and I believe the new triathlon suit that he is picking up from a store sometime next week was a gift from me... Madison got him a big tub of red vines which he shares with us daily...:-)
Okay back to the San Diego trip!
We asked Madison to pack for the trip which she got busy doing right away which further proves her love for trips:-)
Here is what she packed... I told her to make sure to pack 5 undies which she did... Can you see them stuffed in the mesh pocket!? Apparently she thought she could walk around with just her undie the whole trip because everything else she packed were toys and books...:-)
As you can see she is very serious about going on trips!
She has her packed suit case, Minnie Mouse Pillow, Rody, A baby stroller and a paper bag full of books I believe...:-)
Of course we had to help her realize somethings she packed are not important for the trip and managed to fit in some clothes and of course as many swim suits as she owns...:-)
Day1: Coronado Beach
We researched kid friendly beaches in San Diego area and yelp and everyone we talked to recommended Coronado Beach so we had to go there... We got down there super fast(in like an hour and a half) and loved the fact that we get to take a bridge to get to the Coronado Island from near downtown San Diego...
I made Japanese Fried Chicken and Shrimp(Karaage) that Dave really likes for lunch we were able to just relax and enjoy the beautiful beach while we snacked...
Coronado Hotel
After lunch we checked into the hotel which was really nice, the best part was that since Dave's dad is a premium member!? we get free daily parking($12/day) AND Complimentary breakfast/snack & cocktail social hour held in an executive club house every morning and evening!!! Awesome!!!
The view from our balcony!
We jumped in the pool right away and afterwards attempted a nap time for Madison but was not successful and it was almost dinner time so we got in the car and left to check out how San Diego Mitsuwa is, BUT 10 seconds after the car departed we lost Madison to a dreamland and we didn't get her back until our final stop at Trader Joe's for some snacks and dinner for Madison...:-)
Day 2: Sea World
I got to sleep in while Dave and Madison went up to the executive floor and to the club room for the complimentary breakfast which we enjoyed for free then we were off to Sea World!! The Crowne Plaza is among the many hotels that are lining up along the freeway and we didn't realize this but it is in a super convenient location so it only took us 10 minutes or so to get to the park but because of the really annoying map app on my iphone we had to turn around and ended up taking us 15 minutes plus frustration... Still we were at the gate as the park opened for the day and got a pretty good parking spot:-)
At first, we pretty much had the park to ourselves so after checking all the show times we headed to the kids area that can get super crowded later on...
First Madison wanted nothing to do with this fun jumper thing, but Dave managed to convince her finally... We are still confused to why we needed to do that though! She loves jumpers!
We left the park to go get Lunch then back to the hotel for some pool time!
After a short break at the hotel we went back to Sea World for some night session including a night time Shamu show called "Shamu Rock!" and Dave decided to ride the Atlantis which is like Splash Mountain:-) Madison and I were able to catch him go down the big drop and the unfortunate decision to sit in the front got him pretty soaked! Ha!
Day3: San Diego Zoo
We decided to spend a few hours at the Zoo but for the first time we took the bus tour which was perfect since I did not feel like walking up and down the hills in the heat too much... We got to see some animals we normally miss off of our normal route so that was really cool but after the tour we left the park for the yummy lunch we looked up and wanted to try:-)
The restaurant is called Cucina Urbano and rated very highly on yelp...:-) When I looked at the menu and read "Make Your Own Pizza" I did not think actually make your own pizza but that's what she got to do which was really cool:-)
Everything was delicious and I got my homemade pasta craving satisfied:-) We probably will come back here again...:-)
For dinner we tried a highly rated Thai restaurant called "Amarind Thai" while Madison slept in her bugaboo and unexpectedly gave us a semi-date night feel:-) then we went to a beach called Mission Beach right by Sea World for our evening stroll and a giant soft serve for dessert:-) It was free to park and had a nice board walk so I'm sure we will be going back there again:-)
We didn't have to check out of the hotel until noon so we slept in and had a nice breakfast and Madison and Dave got to enjoy the heated pool one last time before we headed back home...:-)
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