Leaving the Hotel

Monday evening the boys had fun playing some more video games in the free arcade (Kenzie stayed in the room and had the TV to herself for a while).  I lost a few rounds of air hockey to Chris and also lost miserably at some Mortal Kombat, but mostly I just followed Cameron around.

Each night he would put on his headphones, turn his mp3 player on, and then he laid down all on his own and went to sleep.  Once he was out I had to take off his headphones so he wouldn't get tangled, but it was pretty cute.  He played hard, and it wore him out!

I had booked the hotel through a travel agency because it was several hundred dollars cheaper than directly through the hotel, but I was surprised when we checked in that we were given the "Bed and Breakfast" package and were given vouchers for two to the hotel's restaurant.  Sunday we didn't bother because the restaurant didn't open until 10:30 for brunch and we wanted to go to the beach, but Monday and Tuesday Chris and I went downstairs and had a little breakfast date.  Here was the view of the bay from our table on Monday.  Hardly anybody else was in the restaurant at 8:30 so it was very quiet.

We felt pretty fancy ordering the $17.00 Eggs Benedict and the $5.50 fresh squeezed orange juice!  Not something we would ever have done otherwise for sure.

 Tuesday morning it was ever so slightly raining.  Not even drizzling, more like misting?  We almost still sat outside just because, but instead we sat inside the restaurant and discovered they had a jellyfish tank.  I had to take a picture of Chris with his breakfast because he had the Croque Madame which the description on the menu stated was "duck confit, béchamel sauce, brioche toast, two eben-hazer eggs."  La-dee-dah!  (He said it was wonderful).  When we arrived home, it was kind of sad to go back to eating a lonely bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch!  

 In case you might feel bad for the kids being left behind, here was the scene we came back to on Tuesday morning.  They had eaten their donuts and hot chocolate and were all watching TV and playing games at the same time!

 Here was Parker all sprawled out.  They barely even registered we had even left the room for a minute, which was great.

A couple of last pictures as we packed up on Tuesday to head back. 

 The waterfall in the lobby was pretty.  

All of us in a line with our matching duffel bags as we headed through the airport to our gate.  I always think our little procession is pretty cute.  Until the next time!

Sea World

The beluga whale!  Monday we headed to Sea World.  The last time we went to San Diego, we had opted to skip Sea World, but this time we were able to take advantage of the Black Friday buy-one-get-one-free ticket offer, which expired at the end of January, so it was a little better cost wise.  Plus, a good chunk of my bucket list is just animals I need to see, and now I can cross off the beluga whale.  So adorable.  There were three of them swimming around, which we watched for a bit. 

It was kind of hard to get a picture with them, but that's okay, it still counts! We had gone there first, so after that I said, "Okay, I'm satisfied.  We can do whatever now!" 

 This walrus was a complete ham!  He went back and forth between the windows and put his flipper up against the glass as if he was waving.  It really seemed like he knew everyone was enjoying him and he wanted to show off.

 Watching the penguins swim around.

 Sea World doesn't have their orca show any more, but they did have a dolphin and pilot whale show, and also a sea lion and otter show.  The kids were amazed by both shows.  At one point, Cameron appeared to not be paying attention but was scribbling furiously on his drawing board.  When Chris asked him what he was up to, though, he said he was busy writing about how awesome it was!  That was kind of funny.

 All those neat flamingos, and Cameron exclaimed, "Ducks!"

 The sea otters were cute and were swimming around all playfully, too.  I need one as a pet for sure.

 I don't think the park was too busy, even though it was a holiday.  Plus the kids weren't interested in standing in line for any roller coasters, so we avoided long waits that way at least!  It was a nice temperature and cloudy so it was pleasant to walk around.

 Mouths hanging open during the sea lion show.  They laughed quite a bit, too.

Here's a short clip of one of the tricks the sea lion did.

 Parker was excited to ride the moving walkway through the shark tank.  He even bought himself a small stuffed shark at the gift shop before we left.

 The only ride we went on was this version of the teacups in the Sesame Street area.  Chris and I rode separately so he could steer the wheel in the opposite direction so we didn't spin.  It was quite the challenge for him, but I appreciated the effort! 

On our way out, we finally stopped by the orca tank and watched this guy swim around for a bit.  It was a fun day, and we were able to see some animals that were new to us!

Pool & Bahia Belle

 Sunday afternoon Cameron had rested up a bit after the beach and he wanted to go swimming.  It was overcast, but high 60s... very pleasant weather to be outside with a sweater, but it didn't scream "pool time" to me.  Cameron was pretty adamant, however.  The pool was heated, so Cameron jumped right in (repeatedly).

 Here he was pretending to meditate!  It was a large pool, so at least he wasn't splashing the other people who were swimming because he mostly stuck to this one end.

 Kenzie came outside for some fresh air mostly because she knew the room would be cleaned while we were out and she didn't want to be there for that!

 Parker had played video games in the little free arcade next to the pool with Daddy for some time, but eventually he joined Cameron for a quick swim.

 Back in the room, Cameron was quite worn out.  He put on his headphones and listened to music for a bit to relax around dinnertime.  Chris asked him why he had his sunglasses on and Cameron responded, "I just want to be cool."

 The hotel also offered a complimentary boat ride around the bay.  It's a cocktail cruise later in the evening, but the first cruise of the evening was the "family" cruise.  Kenzie thought it sounded like a lot of fun (the cruise, not the cocktails, to be clear!).

I had to look up the type of boat, but it was listed on their website as a classic sternwheeler, the Bahia Belle.  

 It was scenic, and really not overly chilly, but it was quite slow moving and it took a long time to get around the bay.  Parker mentioned he wished we took a speedboat!

 Eventually we made our way downstairs and sat inside at some tables.

 Kenzie enjoyed the sconces and the little details.

 The last few minutes the boys were playing weird hand-slapping games and Parker slunk down in his seat in utter boredom, but otherwise it was a fun thing to do once!  

Visiting the Beach

 Sunday morning a little before 7:00 (which was almost 8:00 our time, so technically they slept in a bit) the boys were up and restless with excitement.  They were not particularly quiet for Kenzie to keep sleeping, so eventually I took them out for a walk around the hotel.  There were several little water areas with large fish and ducks.  

Cameron made me laugh by sighing contentedly and saying, "I love ducks."  It's kind of hard to see them in the pictures with all the reflections in the water, but there were many ducks wandering around on paths and swimming about.

 We walked the sidewalk along the bay for a bit, which was popular with exercisers.  The boys had a hard time staying to the right on the path, though, so we eventually walked on the sand instead!

 Having a morning snack of a croissant back at the hotel.

 We checked out the hotel's parrots on our way to the beach.

 And finally, we made it to the ocean!

 Cameron was so excited!  He is a loud kid, and he was out just shouting with happiness into the waves for almost the entire two hours we spent at the beach.  

 Pure joy!  The water was definitely chilly, but the fact that were were even outside without coats was fun in January.

 It wasn't overly crowded, so it wasn't too hard for the kids to find their own space to enjoy the waves and watch the surfing class. 

 Some Black Hawk helicopters flew by, which looked kind of neat.

 To get Cameron out of the waves for a bit once he was completely soaked and chilly, Daddy started building trenches and that entertained everyone for a while.

Kenzie had fun looking for seashells, although we only found really tiny ones.  Then we headed back to the hotel to eat some lunch.  (Cameron ate and sprawled out on the bed completely quiet, actually!  He had been thoroughly worn out - at least for the time being!)

Escaping the Cold

 Saturday after lunch we headed to the airport for a quick trip to San Diego.  The kids had a 4 day weekend with the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and then a grading day, so we decided several months ago to take advantage of the chance to flee from the cold dreariness of January.

We hadn't even taken off yet and Cameron was already playing games on the little screens on the backs of the seats. 

 One thing about it, the seats are so close together on airplanes now that we aren't far away from each other even in two rows!

 We stayed at the Catamaran Resort, and it was right on Mission Bay so we had a nice view from the balcony.  The hotel itself was pretty old and nothing special, but the grounds were pretty and it was only a block to the ocean, so that was nice.

This made me chuckle as Cameron immediately acted like he was going to relax.  Ten seconds later he was back up running around with excitement!  This first evening we walked over to the grocery store for supplies and then just took it easy watching TV, which is always a good start!