Monday, February 22, 2016

San Diego Vacation Day 1 and 2

It's probably going to take me a few days (or weeks) to get all our vacation pictures blogged. Hopefully I can consistently get to it this week.

Tuesday was pretty much a full day of travel. We allowed LOTS of extra time because we knew it would take a while given all our luggage and kids in tow. We arrived at the airport and curb checked our one checked bag and three car seats. That left us with three carry ons and a stroller in tow. Kyle left to drop the van at offside parking while we roamed around the ticket area. 
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Once we reunited with Kyle it was kinda of a cluster. In the time that he was gone the security line got really long. We checked with a staff person and she said I could go to the precheck line but Kyle and Isaac had to go through regulary security. We went to the precheck line and she said we all had to go through regular secruity. So after a few line hopping and finally taking a look at our tickets we noticed my ticket did say precheck but Kyle's didn't. Since it would be easier to do precheck with the girls I left their line and went back to precheck. The line moved fast but once I got up to the TSA agent she wouldn't let me through without a ticket for baby #2. My ticket said infant in arms and Kyle's ticket said infant in arms... but since Kyle was in a different line and I had both babies she wouldn't let me through. But she did say once I go get his boarding pass she'd let me cut back inline to go through. I went back to the lady at the regular line and presented her with my problem in an attempt to somehow get Kyle's ticket. She suggested to just go to the desk and have a second ticket printed since there was no one at the check in desk. Problem solved! Got a second ticket for baby #2 and was able to cut back into line. Didn't have to take my shoes off but I did have to get the girls out of the stroller, fold the stroller up and put it through the xray machine and get myself and the girls all through the metal detector separately. Luckily there was a nice man behind me and nice TSA agent to help wrangle bodies. 

Once through I stopped to get a coffee and fruit for the girls while we waiting on Kyle and Isaac to make it through the security line. Then we headed toward our gate. Picked up a snack for Isaac and I think we went to the bathroom I can't remember. Anyway once we made it to our gate EVERYONE was already loaded! So we hurried up and packed away the stroller, got the items we wanted readily available and hopped onboard! Whew!

And yes it was a full flight (both trips were) so no luck in getting to set one of the girls off our laps. 
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We did switch back and forth though
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They all did great! Isaac of course was not a problem at all
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Once we landed we got all our luggage from baggage claim. Which by the time we got there they were already moving it over to the unclaimed baggage area! Then we hopped on the shuttle to retrieve our rental van. That was a workout hauling all that luggage! Kyle even had bruise marks the following day from the bag straps. The kids were so happy to be off the plane and seeing the sights. The girls loved looking out the bus window as we went. 
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When we got the van we installed the car seats then headed north to pick up some pack'n'plays from Del Mar. I have an amazing group of moms here in my area and one fellow mom of multiples had a father in the San Diego area. She had pack'n'plays stored at his house for when they travel. She loaned them to us for our visit, which was amazing because it was one less thing to pack!!! We arrived at the house but no one was home. It was little game of phone tag, so we went ahead and grabbed lunch. We picked up some amazing tacos! 
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We got in contact while we were stopped to eat, so it worked out perfectly because we were still down the road. We went back to her father's house and picked up the pack'n'plays! Now back south to Imperial Beach (it was about an 1.5 drive from Del Mar, not too bad with no traffic). We stopped to pick up groceries and sand toys once we were off the freeway near Imperial Beach. 

Once we got through the check in ordeal at the condo and unloaded the van, Uncle Josh came to visit. We headed down to the beach just in time to catch the sunset. 
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Once the sun was down we went back to the condo to clean up then walked down to the local bar restaurant that was in the condo complex for a late dinner. 
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View from our condo on the first night.
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The next morning we woke up and Kyle spotted a seal swimming close to the shore right outside our window!! We didn't realize how lucky that sighting was because we didn't see anything that close the rest of the trip.
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And I got some photos of the beautiful scenery.
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When you're limited on toys, oranges will do!
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We had breakfast at the condo then walked down along the beach
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We played at the local playground then headed toward the pier. 
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It was 9:30 and Mary was already ready for a nap. 
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We headed back to the condo and we did eventually get the girls to nap. Mary figured out how to climb out of the pack'n'play on day one....
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After nap we went back to the beach for some sand play
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Emma's got a bandaid on her battle scar from the trip on the pier earlier
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We went back up to the condo to clean up and hop in the pool before Josh arrived with Grandma Judy from the airport.
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As we were in the condo waiting for Josh, Kyle noticed these helicopters out the window carrying weird ropes. Once we investigated more with the binoculars we realized it was four humans hanging from the rope. I quickly grabbed my camera to get a photo, before running down to let Josh in at the locked condo gate. They were gone when I got back. Must have been doing some kind of training.
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We came back up to the condo to get grandma unpacked then we loaded the girls on our backs and walked down to the beach to see the beautiful sunset on day two
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We then walked over to the little Thai place that was across the street from our condo. Luckily there was lots of good eating in walking distance to us, which helped. The girls didn't really have a good place to eat in the condo so it was helpful to eat out and have them sitting in high chairs. 

2 comments:

Lesa Herrmann said...

So jealous of your trip! Looks like you had a blast, can't wait to see more!

Anonymous said...

Great photos. The girls look so fascinated by the beach & all the sand.
Thanks for sharing
Mom

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