Blair's Blog

Today was still a little cool, but sunny and nice enough for a harbour cruise. We took the first tour of the day at 10:00 am of the north harbour and had a few rain showers. By 11:00, the sun was out and the second hour touring the south harbour was very nice. The US Navy presence at San Diego is pretty amazing -we saw at least one example of each of the main classes of USN ships – a carrier, 3 attack subs, destoyers, frigates, cruisers, landing ships and a bunch more.

After the cruise we drove up the coast to the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla and spent about three hours there. To finish the afternoon, we spent an hour at the Wild Animal Park. The coolest thing we saw there was the lions – there were four of them and they were quite active, chasing each other around.

We headed back to the hotel and had dinner at the restaurant there before heading to the pool with the kids. Tomorrow is our last day in San Diego before we head back to LA.

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Before we flew down to California, Brenda ordered “Go San Diego” cards for our holiday. These cards allow for admission to dozens of San Diego attrwctions for one pre-paid price. We got the 3 day cards and used them for Legoland yesterday. Today was cool, blustery and rainy so we liked three different attractions. We started with the tour of the USS Midway – a conventionally powered aircraft carrier that was in service with the USN from 1945 to 1992. It was really interesting and we spent 4 hours on the ship.

After that we toured the Air and Space museum before heading to the RH Fleet Science Center for about 3 hours. The kids had a great day.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a little taco shack that some locals had recommended as the place to go to get “California Burritos” – a burrito filled with beef, cheese, french fries, retried beans and who knows what else. It was good, but I wouldn’t hurry out to get another one!

Well, the kids are itching to get to the pool, 10 degrees and windy doesn’t bother them any! Dadly duties beckon…

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Yesterday was our first full day in San Diego, but we had a bit of a slow start after 4 days of flat out fun. Mark still gets a big silly grin when he thinks about his swim with the dolphins!

We headed back north, a 30 minute drive, to Legoland at about 11:00 am and spent the day there. Very different from Disney – not as slick and polished. There were lots of really well done Lego creation, everything from a larger than life Darth Vader to a scale model of the US Capitol building with Obama being sworn in as president. There was a pretty good 3D show, but the rides didn’t quite compare to the last few days.

We wrapped up the day with supper at a 50’s style diner – I had a burger the size of my head! … well almost, I couldn’t finish the thing anyway! By the time we got back to the hotel we were all tired and ready for a quiet night in watching a movie in our room.

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Today was a transition day, we packed up our gear after breakfast and drove from Amaheim to San Diego before noon. We checked into our hotel near the harbour then had a short drive to SeaWorld for the afternoon and evening.

We started off with the Shamu show – we’d pre-ordered a picnic lunch and reserved seating for the show; both the food and entertainment were good. Then, at 3:30, we had Mark signed up for the Dolphin Interaction Program. Mark had a short training class, then got about 20-25 minutes in the dolphin pool wit a trainer and dolphin. Mark thought it was “so amazing” and has had a big grin on his face all day. A neat twist to the story is that there was another boy about Mark’s age in his group and both boys were sort of taken under the wing of a fellow who was there with his girlfriend. At the end of the session the fellow proposed! We’d been let in on the secret before hand and made sure to catch the whole event on camera!

It was a pretty neat day.

Tags: Travel

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