San Diego Vacation Day 4 & 5 Hotel del Coronado, Balboa Cactus Garden, Newport Beach

Friday we took the short drive up the silver strand to Coronado. We explored the famous Hotel del Coronado. Emma was so cute walking along with Uncle Josh.


Isaac was complaining again about the sun... and since Mary broke his new glass shortly after we got them the day before they wouldn't stay on his head. I think this photo was shortly after he said "I wish it were cloudy here!" lol




Isaac and I separated from the group to go get a smashed penny souvenir. Isaac is starting his own collection, I've had mine for quite some time. The other guys headed down to the beach and we shortly followed.




We met up down right in front of the hotel. There was this really cool sand castle


And everyone got in some beach time.








Baby toes in the sand! Coronado beach had the finest softest sand!!


Since Isaac's glasses no longer fit we had to exchange sunglasses, so he was now wearing mine and I was wearing his stretched out ones.


Emma trying to escape


We went back to the van and drove down Orange street to Coronado's ferry landing marketplace for lunch.


We had an early lunch at this yummy Mediterranean place. After lunch we loaded back in the van and hoped the kids would take a nap. Josh gave us another driving tour towards Balboa park and this time we even stopped. Josh, Mom, and Isaac got out to walk through the Cactus garden. Kyle and I stayed back with the sleeping babies. After 10 or so minutes I wondered around by myself to get some photos. It was a hot but beautiful day!














"No Pat No! Don't Sit on THAT!"














We headed back down to the condo at Imperial Beach and headed back out to the beach! But not before stopping by the 99 cent store to pick up a few more things. Kids sunglasses being one of them! Now they all had their own pair that fit. Emma was a fan!












Mary was so funny running away from the waves. She did not want to get wet.












Emma liked to eat sand... can't you tell?






Then we had an early dinner at Coronado Brewing Company.




I didn't get a photo of my food, but Josh and I split an amazing albacore sandwich. After dinner we walked over to the pier area to get some sunset photos. They happened to be having a little festival of some sort.


The kids got to play at the little park






I guess this was close by, I don't remember exactly but it was pretty. Actually it maybe have been in our condo courtyard.


I got some photos of the sunset near the pier










The next more we woke up and got loaded up to head north to Newport Beach where my brother's fiance lives and to see her daughter's softball game. The kids were too cute sitting on the sill in the condo, too bad it's kinda blurry but they are still cute


We made good timing on the drive, hit a small pocket of traffic but nothing major. We had lunch then walked over to the softball fields. The kids are happy with their new sunglasses. (Should have packed the ones we have at home, haha)






The kids got to play on the playground at the softball field and it felt so nice! Oh we are missing park days here back in Minnesota!












The kids were starting to lose it as it was nap time. So we decided to head back south. Josh and mom rode back with his fiance after the ball game. We had plans to meet up for dinner in La Jolla, but we hit some pretty bad traffic on the way home. The 1:45 min drive became closer to 3 hours... We wouldn't have made it to La Jolla before sunset so we stopped in Del Mar for dinner. We attempted to eat at this one place but they were full up without a reservation so instead we ate at a really amazing Peruvian restaurant called Cafe Secret. It was amazing!

By the time we had finished eating Josh was near downtown San Diego so we swung by to pick up mom before heading back to the condo for the evening.

San Diego Vacation Day 3: Whale Watching

Thursday morning we woke up, had a quick breakfast in the condo and headed into San Diego to go whale watching. We met up with Josh near the Midway Museum.


Got to see 'The Kiss' statue and took a picture of mom in front of it.




Ready for the whale watching cruise!


Don't they look happy, haha


That's better










It took about half an hour to 45 minutes to travel through the bay out to the ocean. We got a nice view of downtown.




We cruised past the navy helicopter training facility.


We got a nice view of Point Loma (which we had maybe planned to drive out to but didn't get to it)


Then our sights were on the ocean searching for whales. I have only been on one other whale watching cruise and that was back in 2001 when I was visiting my brother (same brother) in Los Angeles. It was later in the year, maybe March or April but we didn't see any on that cruise. We had read that February was a good time to see whales so Kyle and I had this on the top of our to do list.


Mary was getting sleepy and eventually fell asleep on Kyle


And there they WERE! We actually saw quite a few. I think this picture is from when there was a group of three wading together.


The only good tail shot I got! The captain said when they kick their tails up like that it usually means they are diving deeper, so although we all wanted to see tails it was kinda a catch 22 cuz that meant they were going away. We saw this tail and then at the end my brother saw another (I didn't get a photo of that one) Otherwise it was mainly blow spouts and back humps.




Some sea lions resting on a bouy




It was a perfect day and probably the best day of our whole trip to be out on a boat. The remainder of the trip the waves seemed pretty rocky from our condo view.


We saw a couple schools of dolphins. It was pretty cool. These guys came up pretty close to us. They were fast so they were hard to capture out side of the water.


Sea lion swimming (or seal, we're not sure)










Waving at us with a side fin








We were watching a pair for a while but it was time to get back. This was about when Josh saw the other tail but I had already put my camera away. I knew as soon as I did the perfect shot would come up!








We had lunch nearby at The Fish Market. I thought it was going to me like a 'fish market' with lots of different food booths to choose from... I didn't realize it was a restaurant. We had to wait a little while for a table. We were pretty hungry since it was already after 1:00 at this point. And all we had to eat on the boat was smuggled granola bars, haha.




While Josh went to grab the van we went for a little walk to Seaport Village. Isaac was complaining of the sun so we picked up some sunglasses at a street vendor. He INSISTED on getting these! lol


After lunch Josh gave us a driving tour around downtown San Diego and into Balboa Park. Isaac liked watching the train.


Gaslamp Quarter


Balboa Park




We made it back to the condo in time to watch another sunset! Can't get enough of those!






Then Mary and I walked across the street to pick us up some IB Tacos for dinner (IB stands for Imperial Beach). They were amazing! The best $1.95 tacos EVER!