7 days:
Approximately 1500 miles on the Suburban.
Average MPG: 17.5
81.5 gallons of gas
San Diego Attractions visited: 2
Grandparents seen: 4
Tired boys: 2
Fields peed in (sometimes it’s really good to have boys): 1
Family members happy to all be in one place again: 5
TD1, TD2 and I left for a week with the sole purpose of having a good time. Saturday was a travel day, filled with lots of movies in the car and swimming when we finally arrived at Granma and Granpa’s house. Granma, Granpa and I saw a play in Prospect Park with Granma’s cousins and had a great time. Sunday was a “rest day” filled with swimming, resting, swimming, movies, swimming and sleep. Monday was “go to San Diego day”, except the hotel check in time wasn’t until 3. So Monday also became “see that saccharin sweet movie I was trying to avoid all summer” day. Fortunately, “The Smurfs” wasn’t as bad as I anticipated, and both boys loved it. Afterwards, we headed for San Diego with Granpa to meet up with Nana&Granpa. After an uneventful dinner, Granpa of Nana&Granpa took the boys swimming at the hotel while I made the run to the grocery store for breakfast and snack stuff. Finally, after some FaceTime with MM adn a viewing of “The Gruffalo” on the iPad, the boys went to sleep.
The next morning at 6:30 a.m., TD1 was awake again and ready to go. After convincing him that it really was too early for him to be awake and that Sea World wasn’t even open yet, he consented to play on the iPad until it was time to leave. Eventually, TD2 woke up, breakfast was had in the room (Nana&Granpa found a hotel that had rooms that had bunk beds and a kitchenette, so life was much easier: thanks Nana&Granpa!) and we headed out at 8:45 a.m.
Sea World was fantastic! Thanks to my friend Mike, it was practically free to get in, which made it that much better! I’m not sure the boys were convinced when I explained that really, if you sit in the rows labeled “Soak Zone,” they would end up soaked. The dolphin and whale show was first on the agenda, and they sat in row six. Since they are too young to be left by themselves (and Granpa and Nana&Granpa opted to sit higher in the stadium), I sat with them. TD1 was fortunate to have someone sitting in front of him. TD2 and I were less fortunate. When the first splash hit, TD2 burst into tears because he was, somewhat predictably, soaking wet. The nice lady in front of TD1 told him to crouch down behind her next time, and he did. After that, it was the new turtle exhibit, the shark exhibit, lunch, a Shamu show (can’t go to Sea World without seeing Shamu), most of the other attractions and the obligatory stop in the gift shop. The favorite attraction? The “4D Elmo show” complete with water splashes and 3D glasses for TD2, and the Sea Lion show for TD1. We left at around 5 p.m. Dinner at the hotel diner was just as good the second night, and the boys slept soundly again that night.
Despite the busy day, they were awake at 7 a.m. again the next morning, ready to go to the World Famous San Diego Zoo. I managed to roll out of bed and find the Disney channel to distract them while I showered and packed up everything from the last two days. We weren’t at the zoo when it opened, but we made up for it by not leaving until after 6 p.m. I think we saw almost everything there. The main attraction for the boys was the polar bear exhibit. Second in line was the Skyfari. Granpa and Granpa sat out the last hour and a half, and I couldn’t be more grateful to Nana for going with me to see the last part of the zoo. We were there most of the day and hadn’t seen the monkeys, tigers or hippos by 4 p.m. I checked the map and realized it was kind of a lot left to see. So, Granpa and Granpa stayed at the Cantina, and the four of us set off to see what was left. We returned almost two hours later, to find Granpa and Granpa waiting for us, after having “bought each other” a beer. After saying good-bye to Nana&Granpa, I packed TD1, TD2 and Granpa into the car and headed back to Redlands. The next day was another “rest” day (they only went in the pool twice) and Granma was home with us as well.
Friday was sailing day. Granpa has a sailboat, and offered to take us all sailing with his friend. The boys were really excited, at first. Then they realized they were going to be on the boat, away from land, for a few hours. That kind of freaked them out for a while. Eventually, TD2 calmed down and fell asleep (while sitting on my lap, which he refused to leave). Even more fun was the fact that I managed to get a seasick headache about halfway through the trip. Once we were back on land, I explained to the boys what was going on, and they were remarkably understanding.
The next morning, we headed back home. Everyone was happy, and we enjoyed our trip. Most importantly, we managed to get out of the area for an entire week, saw lots of fun stuff, and I didn’t go completely insane in the process. Thank you to Granma, Granpa and Nana and Granpa for hosting and helping with the boys. Thanks to Mike for the Sea World insider’s view and tickets.
Unfortunately, MM did not have nearly as much fun while we were gone. TD3 managed to get a stomach bug and was temporarily named “Vomit Boy.” Everyone seems to be recovering from everything nicely now, though.
