San Diego Happened

There are lots of things I need to blog about - including our daughter turning two, our son arriving in less than a month, my parents visiting, and Orelia transitioning to a big girl room.

Before I can move on, I feel compelled to share our photos from San Diego, also known as our last vacation for a very long time.

Orelia stayed true to her vacation routine and ate as many bubbles on porches as she could get away with.

Our first day in San Diego, we visited their world famous zoo.  Our first stop, per my request, was to see a panda.  The juvenile panda was adorable and we got to see him romp around and otherwise fulfill my panda expectations.

The zoo is so gigantic, there is an air tram that runs from corner to corner.  Orelia absolutely loved the view from up there.

We thought Saturday evening would be a quiet time to visit Sea World and catch a view of the orcas.  We were incredibly wrong, and had to park about a half mile away and battle insane crowds the entire time.

Sea World was absolute mayhem, but Orelia did enjoy the orca show a lot.  For the record, yes, I have seen Blackfish and felt plenty of guilt.

We spent our evenings winding down on our porch looking out over the ocean, eating room service or pizza.  Occasionally we ventured out into downtown Coronado to feast on a local treasure such as Panera.  Oh to travel with a toddler.

After a couple of days of vacation, I was feeling too exhausted to consider venturing out to the Safari Park, so we went to the zoo again.  Orelia didn't mind a bit.

Her favorite part was probably petting the goats in the petting zoo and sitting in a helicopter.

We certainly aren't to the point where she cares about rare animals versus common ones, though she did enjoy the infant orangoutang we saw clinging to its mother as well as this fish tank positioned in front of the pygmy hippopotamus.  

We technically didn't stay in San Diego, we stayed on the "island" of Coronado (which doesn't really look like an island on a map, so not sure what that's about) right outside the city.

The beach on Coronado was huge and incredibly beautiful.  The sand was the softest I have ever felt, and the first evening Orelia felt it she was in awe.  She just sat down in it and kept running it through her fingers.

We stayed at the beautiful Hotel Del Coronado and made the most of the beach and pool every day.

Orelia found her usual joy in being buried and stomping castles.  A beach is a beach.

We are in the home stretch waiting for baby boy, and I'm probably not even supposed to be an hour away from my house/the hospital anymore.  I'm glad we got the chance to enjoy beautiful Coronado and San Diego while we had the chance.