San Diego Vacation

So we decided that we wanted to go on a vacation, but since we have the little one it limited where we could go because she doesn’t sit well for long car rides and we really didn’t want to go on a plane with her. We were too worried that we would be the family with the screaming baby on the flight; we know how much everyone loves that family. We had been to San Diego several years ago with just Toby and I and decided that we would go back because there was so much more that we hadn’t gotten to see there last time. You can’t beat the weather and the drive was only 2 hours.

We stayed at a hotel down in San Diego for five days. I am a bit of a germaphobe when it comes to hotel rooms so it was a little nerve racking for me just going to a hotel with Makenna when she is in the crawling stage. We brought a large sheet to put down on the floor of the hotel room so that she could crawl and I wouldn’t have a heart attack thinking of everything gross that was on the floor Even with a space to crawl, Makenna didn’t like the hotel room. It was also a little different for Toby and I that we had to go to bed at 8:00pm because Makenna wouldn’t stay asleep if the television was on. That made for an interesting experience.

We did so much though since Makenna didn’t care to be at the hotel we left as soon as we were all ready each morning, usually around 8-9am and didn’t come back to the hotel room until around 7pm. We went to Balboa Park and laid out a blanket almost every evening to let Makenna get some energy out by crawling around before we headed back to the hotel each night. It is such a nice area and gave us so much to see whether we wanted to just sit and relax or go through museums and gardens. Makenna loves fountains so she was very happy when we stopped to gaze at one of the fountains.



We went to La Jolla and saw the Sunny Jim Cave where we walked down 144 fairly steep steps in limited light to see the beautiful sea cave. Makenna liked the sound of the waves as the water came rushing through the cave. We went to the Children’s Pool where there are supposedly a lot of seals and sea lions but we unfortunately only saw a few. There were people in the ocean swimming with the seals; I would not have been that brave.


We also went to the Birch-Scripps Aquarium. Makenna loved the sardines at the aquarium the most. Finally, after taking Makenna to a lot of places with animals over the many months, she finally liked the animals more than the people. Although, she still liked the people too:-) When I was younger this used to be my favorite aquarium, so it was nice to go back and see what has changed.


We went to Old Town San Diego, Seaport Village, Coronado, and Cabrillo National Monument. We had been to Old Town and Seaport Village in our previous trip, but we hadn’t had a chance to see Coronado and Cabrillo National Monument. It was fun to see the lighthouse and the pretty views at Cabrillo, although we were disappointed that we didn’t get to go up to the top of the lighthouse. Oh well.


The place that we most enjoyed was the Maritime Museum. We got the extra ticket so that we could go on a boat tour of the San Diego harbor and it was really neat. Makenna absolutely loved the boat ride. It was awesome to get to see so many different types of ships all in one area from submarines to yachts. Makenna was even a captain and steered the ship that they used for the movie “Master and Commander”. Hehe.




It was a good trip but a lot more difficult with a little one that wanted to crawl all over the place. I think that the next time we have a baby, we will go on a vacation before they are crawling or after they are walking. I am still glad that we went.