Spring Break Part 2: San Diego

As much as we wanted to linger at the Dinosaur Museum (aka, return to the deeply odd gift shop inside Dinny the Brontosaurus Apatosaurus Brontosaurus' belly and pester your parents for tacky plastic dino toys), we were meeting up with someone very special - Gangi & Grandpa Marshall!  For the second year running, we managed to convince them to come West for Spring Break, god bless'em.

We tried staying downtown this time, since Daddy was denied his chance to stay at the US Grant when we came in Oct. 2013.  Now that Brennan and Lucie are a little older, staying in a fancy historic hotel is less intimidating.

The bed situation was a little problematic...when we booked, I was assured that we could get a "full size" roll-away bed, and that fitting all 4 of us into a king room wasn't a problem.  I've never seen a roll-away bigger than a twin, but it's been awhile since my cram-as-many-college-kids-in-a-room-as-you-can days, so I went with it.  Which was a mistake, because when said bed arrived, it was a twin.  When I called guest services to ask for the "full sized" version, I was told it was the standard "full size" and no, for fire hazard reasons, I couldn't have another one in the room, BUT they could move us to a different room with - wait for it - two full sized beds.  At which point I felt like Inigo Montoya  and made Daddy get involved as my head might have exploded.

(full confession,  I've waited my entire adult life for a legitimate opportunity to say, "you keep using that word", so thanks US Grant & Starwood for that)

Brennan was pretty excited about his little bed by the window.  Daddy was NOT excited about fitting his 6'4" self in a full size (???) bed or being 3 in a bed with Miss Squirmy McKicksAlot.  And I had already unpacked the behemoth suitcase the kids and I share to avoid airline bag fees.  What to do?

Make Lucie sleep in an armchair, that's what.

In my defense, when I rigged up a bed out of chair/ottoman/oversized decorative pillows, it was supposed to just get us through a night until we could find a Target or REI to buy a camp mattress, and I assumed she'd crawl in bed with us at some point.  But she loved it!  We dubbed it her space pod.  Every night she snuggled in and slept all night.

And she needed her rest - because it was time for our first trip to the San Diego Zoo -

What were the favorite animals?  Not sure.  Maybe cheetahs and elephants.  Mostly, we took advantage of rides - like the double decker bus -

- the Safari Skyway -

- and a pretend ride on whatever giant prehistoric cat thing this is:

We made sure to show Gangi and Grandpa some of our favorite spots from our last visit - Coronado Island, The USS Midway, and Legoland.

But where are the photos from the Midway, or Legoland?  Maybe Gangi knows, because she & Grandpa were in charge, sad as I was to have to give a Legoland a pass this time (*sigh*).  I do have a picture of Lucie on the consolation Merry-Go-Round, where Daddy & I took her after she declined to visit the Midway.  She declared she'd had her fill of airplanes and war history at the Palm Springs Aviation Museum.

Grandpa Marshall took us to one of his favorite places - the Torrey Pines Gliderport.  It was a perfect day for paragliding - I think he was a little sorry he didn't have his wing, but it was still fun to watch all of them flying, especially when the pilots would swoosh right overhead to land.

After a nice dinner in Del Mar, it was time to put the grandparents to bed for their super early flight home.  We had to get home, too - Mommy had promised the Easter Bunny wouldn't forget us even though we were on a flight home, and the kids were anxious to confirm this.  

Thanks for another great visit, San Diego!  'Til next time -