California Trip Part 2: San Diego

In theory the drive from Anaheim to San Diego is about 90 minutes. Friday afternoon traffic had other plans. It couldn't decide if it wanted to come to a standstill or let us go 75 mph. We ended up taking a break for lunch at the beach in Oceanside. While we ate near the pier, Finn was wearing his new Perry the Platypus hat. There were teams of bikers around for some event or race. As one group walked past us, a man said, "Curse you Perry the Platupus," and just kept walking.

Finn's first time seeing and touching the Pacific Ocean!

The rest of our drive didn't seem to take as long. We made it to our hotel (the same one Amanda and I stayed at five years prior) and the next morning we went to explore San Diego harbor.

After a bit of walking, we set off on a one-hour harbor cruise. We had considered whale watching, but it wasn't an ideal time of year and we thought the kids would get bored with a 3+ hour excursion.

We did some more walking then and found a nice seafood place overlooking the water. Great view and great food!

Julia sometimes complains that the trees in our yard are too small to climb. So she gladly takes any opportunity to climb one when she can.

Our hotel in San Diego had a pullout bed for the kids. They didn't want to sleep together though, so Finn opted to sleep on a bed made of couch cushions. They traded off after a few nights.

This is what would have happened if the kids had forgotten that it was Father's Day.

We went to Old Town for Mexican for breakfast and then walked around the historical sites in that area. Finn measured up well to the local flora.

A short drive to La Jolla was very worth it. Awesome views of the ocean along some rocky cliffs. Lots of seals, sea birds, snorkelers, and kayakers. We had a picnic lunch in the shade and enjoyed the cool breeze.

That afternoon we drove to Coronado Island. We walked along the beach, checked out the historic Hotel del Coronado, and played in the ocean.

Heading out to Point Loma is a beautiful place to reflect on those who gave their lives in service to our country.

Our last full day in California was spent at the San Diego Zoo. As crowded as the entrance and a few other hotspots were, it's amazing how at times you would look around and hardly see a soul. There are lots of twists and turns and something interesting around each of them.

The kids enjoyed themselves. It's always fun when you're the first person to spot something exciting.

We made sure to ride the sky tram to get a bird's eye view of things.

Julia became enamored with one particular goat named Freckles.

Her newly purchased monkey clung to her neck during the bus tour of the zoo. The ride was a welcome late afternoon break.

Julia has adored capybaras ever since doing a report on them in 2nd grade. They have quite a large exhibit of them at the zoo and she was in heaven. There were a few adorable babies in the mix.

And of course, Julia and Finn had to climb on anything that was supposed to be climbable.

Our last night in San Diego was spent back at Old Town at a different Mexican restaurant.

While at Disneyland, Amanda had picked up a brochure for a Harry Potter themed store called Whimsic Alley in Los Angeles. Since we were flying home from LAX, we left San Diego early enough to be able to check it out. Traffic wasn't an issue so we had plenty of time. Amanda could hardly care less about the place, but the other three of us thought it was pretty awesome. Even though Julia had done a good job of rationing her spending money, she didn't have any left at this point in the trip. As an early birthday present we let her pick out a few things.

As we left, we saw a newly opened little cookie store, Milk Jar Cookies. We had extra time so we stopped in for a snack. The cookies were probably the best I've ever had.

The trip came to a close and though we had a good time, we were all tired and looking forward to getting home. Well, maybe not Julia if you go by the look on her face.

California Trip Part 1: Disneyland

Skippy wanted to come with us. Instead we shipped her to a friend's house for a week while we flew west for some California fun.

Pre-flight, parking lot picture of the kids. It's the time of the vacation where everyone's excited, expectations are high, and nobody's tired.

We flew into LAX, got our rental car, and then made the short drive to Anaheim to spend our first three nights at Disneyland. Disneyland consists of the Disneyland park and the newer Disney California Adventure. Our hotel had a direct entrance to California Adventure and was just a short walk to Disneyland. It was a good place to be. The kids were excited to have bunk beds and it made the room feel bigger too.

Our little balcony overlooked Downtown Disney, which has shops, restaurants, and live music at night. We could also see the nightly Disneyland fireworks from there too.

It wasn't very easy to get good pictures of us while we were on rides. I let Amanda and the kids go on a number of rides that didn't interest me. The last time I was on a tilt-a-whirl, I was nauseous for an hour afterward. So that's not how I wanted to spend my time. Of course we had to hit some classics like the flying Dumbos and the teacups.

Even though it's nothing new to them, the kids are always thrilled to see a carousel.

They did try quite a few bigger, more exotic things too. Amanda's waving in this picture and Julia and Finn are next to her.

One that we all enjoyed (twice) was Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. Two people in a car with laser-tag-esque blasters to shoot at aliens. It keeps score depending on how well you aim. Being interactive made it that much more fun!

Finn and I did Star Tours twice. It's a simulated Star Wars adventure where there are a bunch of different options for the story so there are hundreds of different story possibilities. Finn would not stop talking about it afterward. I enjoyed it too, especially because Finn was so excited about it. One of the times we were touring the galaxy, Amanda and Julia went on Space Mountain. Julia said she liked it but wasn't interested in going again.

The sign below was seen around many of the rides. We joked that it was used to indicate, "No dancing!" So Julia and I would try to sneak in some discreet dance moves while waiting in line.

The lines were something I was concerned about. On Julia's Make-A-Wish trip a few years ago to Disney World, we never had to wait in lines. I wasn't sure how the kids would handle it or how bad the lines would be. The lines weren't as bad as I was expecting and by skipping the worst lines, using fast-pass, and planning things out, we rarely waited more than 10 minutes.

Cars Land was not quite a year old when we were there. It's a full scale replica of Radiator Springs from the Cars movies.

The characters in this area would actually drive to their designated place. They did a really great job of having it all feel realistic - the cars would say things that were actually relevant to what was going on around them, like commenting on a kid's hat.

At night in Cars Land, everything went neon and the background faux-mountain landscape looked even cooler.

In the below video, Julia is in one tractor by herself and Amanda and Finn are in another. Once I found them, I tried to zoom in as best I could.


One morning we did a character breakfast. The focus was Chip and Dale and characters from the Brother Bear movies.

At one point the kids were all led around in a parade of sorts through the restaurant and then ended with some dancing.

Lately Julia has been showing off "her pipes" a lot, like she did in the above picture with the bear. She also did it while posing with her brother in front of a suit of armor.

And at the Downtown Disney Lego store, with the hulk.

Tom Sawyer's island was a nice break. A small ferry brought people across a river to reach it. The island consisted of bridges, pirate caves, lookouts, and hidden treasure. There were never many people around and the traffic on the river (giant New Orleans paddleboat, sailing ship, and canoes) provided other things to look at too.

We saw plenty of Disney characters too. Finn wasn't always interested in it, so he was in a few of the pictures against his will. See Mickey and Minnie below for examples.

Toon Town was, as the name implies, animation come to life. A portion of it was taken from Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but otherwise it was a little town with all the Disney characters' houses.

Disneyland didn't seem as princesses-heavy as Disney World had been. That being said, we ran into a few of the lovely ladies around. Merida from Brave chatted with the kids for a bit.

Yeah, I know, Tinkerbell isn't a princess, but you know what I mean.

The Tarzan tree house brought us high above the grounds for some nice views.

Julia posin' after dark.

If Finn was really driving, I think we all may have been feeling the way Julia looks.

Each kid got headgear. Julia chose Minnie ears and Finn went with Perry the Platypus.

After walking past it everyday but always heading somewhere else, we finally found time to go on the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail (featuring Wilderness badges from the movie UP) the morning we were leaving. I'm sure we spent an hour wandering through it. The kids were given a map with different places marked off for them to stop and complete tasks. Some tasks were simply to make it to a certain place, but others were physical challenges the kids had to complete.

Of course, the parents had to tag along for the trek too. I wasn't sure about being 3-4 stories off the ground walking on netting.

The kids did the zipline too, complete with a hefty throw back at the end.


We all had a good time with our time at Disneyland. The next leg of our vacation was to make the 90 minute trek south to San Diego.

Things with Strings and Summer Plans

The kids got an afternoon Grandma and Grandpa visit at the end of May. It was a cool, windy day and Finn remembered his kite in the garage. So Julia, Finn, my dad, and I went to the park to fly the kite (and Julia brought the basketball).


Julia was getting a good workout until we reminded her she didn't need to keep running the whole time; it was the wind's job to keep the kite aloft once airborne.


The ol' feller took a turn flying too. I took a turn as well, but being the guy with the camera, I didn't get my picture taken.




Though Julia had to fight against the wind pushing her shots, she still showed Grandpa Dayton her b-ball skills.


Last weekend we took advantage of free fishing in Wisconsin and I took Finn fishing for the first time. We were at Willow River State Park. The weather was less than ideal, but he had a pretty good time even without catching anything.


This summer should bring some fun times. We're starting off with a trip to California, splitting our time between Anaheim and San Diego. Finn has T-ball. Both kids will have swimming lessons and a fun summer school class. Julia will be going to Camp Courage for a week for the second year in a row. I'm sure we'll make a few trips to central WI too and a few other adventures around western WI.