Bryan, Angie, Lexie, Hoyt & Sabrie

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Anniversary Trip Days 1 & 2

For our 5th Anniversary, we decided to take a much needed vacation without the kids. Our last real vacation was our honeymoon so we figured we deserved at least one trip every 5 years. Our destination this year: Sunny San Diego (although the weather wasn't quite as sunny as we thought it would be).
On the morning on August 10 we packed ourselves and the kids and drove to drop the kids off for my family to tend for the rest of the week. It lengthened our drive by about 2 hours, but well worth the awesome babysitting services! We got out about an hour later than planned so we were already behind, but as the drive progressed we had made up about an hour by the time we reached just outside Las Vegas. However, they were doing some sort of closure on the freeway all through Vegas so we moved a mile in about an hour and had to get off and drive through the city, get gas, then find our way back on to the freeway that was open. By this time we were 2 hours behind schedule. We took sandwiches and snacks to eat on the way and I'm so glad we did because if we would have had to stop and get food we would have been even more behind. We finally arrived in San Diego and found our restaurant of choice called the Studio Diner. The deal was that we bought a $25 off a purchase of $35 or more for $2 online and we thought it would be no problem to get to that amount, but the hardest part was eating it all since their portions were huge. We got an appetizer and I got the Count of Monte Cristo sandwich that was awesome and Bryan got fish & chips that had a huge filet of fish. We got dessert to go and ate that later in our hotel. Yummy food, fun atmosphere and we ate for under $20 when tip and everything was figured in...awesome for CA!
We got so far behind that our plans for that night were shot since it was dark and cold. We gassed up and went to our hotel to try and get some rest for our busy day 2.
Our hotel for our last 2 days was paid for because we bought new tires from Big-O and they were having a promotion to get a 2 night stay at a nice hotel in CA. We decided to go for 3 nights so we had to buy a hotel on Priceline for the first night. Being such a cheapskate I bid low and got a room at the Kings Inn Hotel. The rooms weren't horrible, except for a musty, cave-like smell but we knew for about 10 hours we didn't need anything fancy. The next morning we were getting ready to leave the hotel and as we were checking out I saw some kids I recognized...yes, the Bonhams were staying in the same hotel as us on the same night. We thought it was hilarious that we would run into family in San Diego. We decided to all go to the Waffle Spot restaurant and Aaron generously bought us breakfast. It was tons of fun to see them and get to hang out for a little bit.
After Breakfast, we headed to the San Diego Zoo. It was a little cold that morning and we didn't have jackets with us, but after an hour or so it warmed up and actually was perfect weather and not too hot. We first took the bus tour of the zoo which gave us an idea of what we really wanted to visit on foot. We had lots of fun!
Pretty view from the zoo skyride.
Love to sit and watch the apes...they are awesome!
Cute Panda Bear and HUGE Elephant.
After the zoo we headed to Sea World. We had planned on doing our steak dinner between, but we were 2 hour shy of the restaurant opening so we decided to eat snacks and eat dinner later that night.
I absolutely love sea turtles. Aren't they amazing creatures?!
And what would Sea World be without Shamu. Such a great show...with the exception of one thing. As the show was ending and I was taking some videos, a seagull pooped right on us getting Bryan on the arm and me all down the back of my shirt. Some nice people sitting behind us had Clorox wipes so I was able to get most of it off before we had to walk around again, but it was not my favorite moment of the trip.
Loved the sharks and penguins!
On the Sea World Skyride, the view was beautiful and you could see the ocean in the distance.
Bryan's always wanted to see a Cirque du Soleil show, but we've never been able to go. At Sea World they have Cirque De La Mer which isn't quite the same thing, but was pretty cool. Here are a few pictures.
Now these guys were super amazing and strong.
After Sea World we headed downtown to the Gaslamp district to Urban Bar & Grill for a nice steak dinner. I had Filet Mignon for the first time and it was amazing! Bryan also enjoyed his sirloin, and again using the $2 internet deal our $70 meal came in around $40! It was a great meal to end a fun day. We were exhausted and headed for a much nicer Holiday Inn Express where it smelled great and we got a wonderful night sleep!