Diane: San Diego in Eight Days

Here we are on our last night in San Diego. I was so concerned about blogging too often for the first part of our trip and boring everyone that I didn't think about how much we would have to report after eight wonderful, fun-filled days! We did more than we planned here in San Diego. What a nice city. Since it's already getting late in the evening I'm going to ask forgiveness for spelling or grammer upfront!

>>>>First, how about those last few days before a family of four depart on a trip around the world? They are just a bit of a blur now. Last minute insurance details, banking, blah blah blah... never did hear back from the Learning at Home Centre regarding the kids schooling plans....we can discuss that later.... Then packing our belongings into the basement and garage of the house and car. We tried to make the basement look like a semi-normal dwelling for Dylan to live in....For a student he sure has a lot of sofa's and chairs to sit on! And how about that nice big bed to sleep on? <<<<

Myself being a list addict - I couldn't believe that I did NOT put a list together for trip packing. The reason....well, when you pack for a two week vacation you really need to have everything so you don't waste time doing without or getting things you forgot....When you pack for an extended trip, you consider the first destinations and pick up everything else along the way. So, honestly, in general we did okay. Tent, sleeping bags (lots of camping in New Zealand), sleeping bag liners (more for questionable sleeping accomodations and for hot weather), two pair of socks each, underwear, toques, two pairs of durable hiking type pants, two shirts or so, flip flops, swim suits, goggles, rain jackets, camping stove and dishes, first aid supplies, anti-histamines, tylenol, asthma inhalers, immodium, malaria pills, antibiotics for traveller's diarrhea, reading books, note books, drawing pads, tooth brushes, shampoo and stuff...more and more..... Well, we made it to the airport Monday, Oct 12 on time a little bleary-eyed from staying up too late doing a combination of last minute packing, cleaning, and visiting with Laura and Cam upstairs at the house.

So San Diego....

The first day we spent at the pool...well actually, the neighboring hotel's pool since ours was closed for repairs. Good thing we stayed on Hotel Circle with endless hotel choices! Oh ya, we had the pool to ourselves....Canadians you know...

The weather was great all week. 20C everyday with partial cloudiness to help us break into the tropical conditions we'll be seeing.

Second day...Matthew's 11th birthday (yes, those are Twinkies with candles). The San Diego Zoo was the choice of the day! Our hotel shuttle got us safely there and back. What a great zoo. Their animal enclosures are layed out to maximize viewing. Many rescues and stories come out of this place. At first I was suprised by some of the smaller sized enclosures but the animals are treated very well and seem content. Of course, I am no expert.

Matthew loved his 'traveller' Swiss Army Knife birthday gift. He says it's the best gift ever!

We spent days at the local "FashionValley" mall - woo hoo....since none of us like shopping or can buy anything we had coffee, food, and saw a movie (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs), and generally just hung out. Very fun.

Old Town San Diego was interesting. First, we got on the "Trolley" (San Diego's version of the CTrain or LRT) then spent time in Old Town. A really neat place with many separate heritage buildings/museums and most of it is FREE. We attempted to leave the kids at the school to catch up but they forgot their books. Matthew found a book he just couldn't help but pick up. It was in a whole shelf full of ghost story books but this one stood out.....Ghost Stories of Alberta!

We could have stayed for a Ghost Tour but wanted to see the harbour so got back on the Trolley and headed downtown. Lot's of fun and ships to see.

Sea World was by far the favorite. They have a special on - adults at the cost of child admission and two days for the price of one.....we obviously had to go for two days. Taking two days for an experience like this is great. It helps you slow down and enjoy. We saw the killer whale show. "Shamu" is the main killer whale. What a spectacular show! Of course Matthew took all the best pictures with the new camera Dylan sent along for his birthday and for the trip. http://www.seaworld.com/sitepage.aspx?PageID=375

The trainers get in the water and ride out with the whales. They are so well behaved and seem to be enjoying their act - both the trainers and the whales! These were Sarah's favorites along with the special black and white Commerson's Dolphins. These little guys were really cute.

Well, the days were filled with getting wet everytime we turned around, feeding sea lions, petting dolphins and bat rays, going on rides, watching Elmo's 4D movie....we all felt very spoiled. This was a planned splurge for the trip...hope we didn't spoil ourselves too much.

We hope to learn much from many cultures around the world and will be reminding ourselves how fortunate we are to be on such and journey and to have the amazing wonderful lives that we do.

Tomorrow we check out of our hotel, go buy more toothpaste and catch a flight to L.A. where we get on our Air New Zealand flight to Samoa. Our Samoan destinations were not hit by the recent tsunami. Hopefully the internet at our first motel is available enough to blog. My plan.....more frequent updates!