Hellobee

Our family came back from a trip to California a couple weeks ago.  It was a wonderful escape from the cold Chicago winter, especially that particular week when Chicago was hit with a lot of snowfall. We had a great time, despite the girls and I catching the flu mid-week. The first part of our trip was in San Diego. I absolutely love San Diego; it never disappoints and is such a fun place to visit with little ones. We were there for 3 1/2 days which was not enough time to enjoy everything we wanted to do, but we still managed to see a lot and have fun out in the sun.

Coronado Central Beach

As soon as we landed in San Diego, we settled into our hotel and drove straight to the beach. Coronado Beach is considered one of the top family beaches in San Diego so we took full advantage of it being so close to our hotel. I don’t think I realized how much Lil’ Pizza loved the beach until this trip. She was in her happy place, running in and out of the waves and across the sand. It was so much fun going at low tide and finding so many little “treasures” on the sand.

Lil’ Pizza loved collecting shells at Coronado Beach.

Balboa Park

Balboa Park is a huge park filled with museums and gardens. Since we were only spending half a day here, we didn’t visit any of the museums. We spent our day strolling around and enjoying the beautiful weather and the picturesque scenery.  We danced on the Spreckels Organ Pavilion, climbed the friendly alligator sculpture, roamed the Spanish Village Art Center, and rode the 1910 Balboa Park Carousel.

The Spreckels Organ is the largest pipe organ in an outdoor venue. There is a free concert every Sunday at 2pm. It was pretty empty when we went, so we danced around on stage.

Kids love climbing on this alligator sculpture. Lil’ Pizza climbed from the tail to the nose of the alligator.

The Spanish Village Art Center was a very colorful space and was full of sculptures and paintings that could be purchased.

Baby Pizza is riding her first carousel ride on this trip.

We ended up riding three different carousels during our California trip! There were so many other beautiful areas of the park that we missed.  You could easily spend all day here and it is perfect for little ones. If we had more time, I would have loved to visit these places within Balboa Park:

• Japanese Friendship  Garden
• Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater
• San Diego Air & Space Museum
• Pepper Grove Playground
• Fleet Science Center
• San Diego Model Railroad Museum
• Balboa Park Miniature Train

La Jolla

I visited La Jolla almost ten years ago and remembered it to be absolutely breathtaking. It was definitely a place I wanted to visit again with my family. Our first stop in La Jolla was the Children’s Pool. Due to seal pupping season, the area where you could walk very close to the seals was roped off so that people would not disturb or possibly harass the seals. It is still quite a site to see all of the seals sunbathing in the sand and some playing in the water.

My friend told us to visit some tide pools with the kids when visiting San Diego. Growing up by Lake Michigan, I had no idea what to expect when visiting tide pools. Tide pooling is most recommended between the months of November and March in San Diego since low tide occurs during daylight hours. We decided to go to one of the recommended tide pools in San Diego and also made sure to check this tide chart to know when to go during low tide (my friend recommended going when the low tide was 0 feet or less).  We visited the Dike Rock Tide Pools at La Jolla Shores Beach, just north of the Scripps Pier. The girls had so much fun climbing rocks and found plenty of hermit crabs and sea slugs. As the sun started to set, we walked along the shore and took in the breathtaking view.  It was definitely my favorite activity during my entire trip to San Diego. If we had more time, I would have wanted to visit some of the other recommended tide pools in the San Diego area.

I returned to La Jolla for a couple hours on another day with the girls while Mr. Pizza was at a work conference because I wanted to show the girls a few more places. I wanted to take them to the Ellen Browning Scripps Park, which apparently is the most photographed spot in San Diego. Dr. Seuss lived in La Jolla and at this park, you will be able to spot his inspired, “Lorax Tree.” It is a beautiful park and would have been a perfect picnic spot. Lil’ Pizza spent her time at the park climbing as many trees as she could. It felt so peaceful to simply sit among these trees and hear the ocean waves crashing nearby as my girls played together.

Lil’ Pizza and Baby Pizza were just chatting and hanging out on these low, uniquely shaped trees.

Do you spot the Lorax Tree?

We strolled passed La Jolla Cove which is a beautiful beach spot. I didn’t bring a change of clothes and didn’t want the girls to get wet so we missed our chance to enjoy the beach here. It’s a small, picturesque beach set along the cliffs.

Our next stop was the The Cave Store. The store sells merchandise like shells, handmade jewelry, and magnets, but it is best known for the 145-step tunnel that leads down to the Sunny Jim Sea Cave. There is a small fee to go visit the cave and if it I hadn’t already paid, I’m not sure if I would have made it down all those steps with the two girls. The girls weren’t feeling so adventurous at the time and Baby Pizza wanted to be held going down and back up the stairs, so I got quite a workout. It’s definitely fun for kids that like that sort of adventure because the whole experience makes you feel like an explorer going down a dark, steep stair tunnel on a search for something special at the end. But without Mr. Pizza there to help me, I was so focused on not falling down these steep, wet stairs while holding Baby Pizza, all the while encouraging Lil’ Pizza to keep walking down the stairs carefully.

This is the view waiting for you once you get down to the Sunny Jim Sea Cave.

Legoland

Our friends who were in San Diego a month prior to us got an amazing promotion deal at Legoland and had free tickets for our whole family. It was too hard to pass up so we spent one full day at Legoland. Legoland is a great place for young kids. Lil’ Pizza was able to ride most of the rides that she wanted and there was still plenty for Baby Pizza to do too. One of Lil’ Pizza’s favorite rides was the Ford Jr. Driving School where she got to drive all on her own and she got a driver’s license at the end of the ride.

Seaport Village

On the day that I was on my own with the girls, we went to Seaport Village. I’m guessing it’s busier on weekends but on Monday morning, it was fairly quiet and empty. I let the girls walk around the cobblestone paths and we went into the specialty shops and walked along the water. We missed it because we didn’t stay long enough that morning, but Seaport Village is known to have some fun entertainment for the whole family including live music entertainment as well as fun attractions like caricature artists, face painters and balloon artists. Before we left, we made sure to ride the historic carousel which was made in 1895 (our second carousel ride during our California trip).

The girls and I had lunch in the food court area where there often is live music entertainment.

San Diego is a beautiful place that I definitely want to visit again with my family. We could have easily spent an entire day at each of the places we visited. If we had more time, I would have loved to visit the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. I guess next time we go to San Diego, we will just have to plan for a much longer stay!