Hi friends!
If you follow me on social media (Instagram: coconutpersonalfitness & Facebook: Coconut Personal Fitness), I’m sure you saw alllll my California pics from last week. We went out to San Diego to visit my parents and it was amazing, as always. If you didn’t already know, I LOOOOVE the beach and ocean and water and all things associated with it. So as a land-locked Coloradan, my heart cries out to go see the ocean a few times a year. Lucky for me, I have family out by the beach 😉 and of course it’s always nice to see them too haha.
So I thought it’d be fun to do a recap of all our activities. We had a jam-packed trip full of fun activities and I loved every minute…well, minus the toddler fits of course 🙃
Tuesday
Travel day! By now, little miss is a pro-traveler (she’s been on 5 round trip flights already!), but this was the first time she got her own ticket and seat! Let me tell you…paying for an extra ticket was a pain, but the freedom and joy it brings to the flight experience now is AMAZING! She played with stickers for a little while (mainly during takeoff and landing), and then we set her up with Trolls on the iPad (which, btw, is the perfect length movie for a flight from Denver to San Diego 😆). She was glued to the iPad almost the entire flight! I actually got to read my book and take a little nap! WHAT!
So, encouragement to you parents of under 2yr olds who are tough to hold on to during the flight, know that it gets so much easier when they get their own seat! Also, lots of snacks and stickers help too.
Wednesday
Today was maybe my favorite day of the trip. Because my dad is retired military, he scored free tickets to Sea World for all of us!
We spent almost the entire day here and enjoyed petting sharks, the Shamu show, the sea lion show, and so much more…including meeting Elmo and Zoe!
Madeleine ran up to Elmo and gave him a HUGE hug! And this girl is not a hugger, but she kept hugging him over and over again. It was so precious, I almost cried. I haven’t been to Sea World in about 15 years, so I had completely forgotten everything that was there. It was so cool!
Thursday
Today was a little slower, which was nice after a full day at Sea World. We walked around Balboa Park and explored the big carousel that goes 13mph…which is fast for a tiny little person on a horse!
We also enjoyed the Japanese Friendship Garden, which was a lovely little hike around beautiful and relaxing ponds with koi fish that Madeleine could’ve watched all day.
After Balboa Park, we headed over to my Gma’s house, so little miss could see granny (aka ‘Greggy’ 😂) and finish the day with some pizza.
Friday
Friday was another big day as we went to the San Diego Zoo. Arguably, one of the best zoos in the nation, we spent many many hours here.
It’s so fun to see Madeleine expand her knowledge. Last time we came here, I don’t think she really understood where we were or why, but this time she was all in. She could point out different animals and ask to see animals she liked. So fun!
We finished the night at Balboa Park’s Food Truck Friday. I’ve never seen so many food trucks in my life, it was so hard to choose! We finally landed on some Korean BBQ for dinner which was ok, but not up to my standards that I had for California food trucks.
Then for dessert, we leveled up and got some yogurt based donuts covered in peanut butter and chocolate. Oh.My.Word. So good! I could’ve eaten 10 more little donuts!
Saturday
Saturday started off with a little pool time and trying to get Madeleine to get in the water more. She loves the water, but only as long as her feet touch the bottom, so she pretty much hung out on the floaties and on the top 2 steps haha, but we still had fun!
After we put M down for a nap, we headed out on our weekend away and left little miss with Papa. We got some amazing food from a tiny little poke shop, It’s Raw Poke Shop, in Ocean Beach and walked out onto the pier to eat it. The view was amazing and the poke bowl was to die for.
We also drove around sunset cliffs as neither of us had ever been there before and what a view! If you’re ever in San Diego, I highly recommend checking the cliffs out at sunset.
We then headed downtown for some drinks and desserts and had some amazingly, decadent desserts at Extraordinary Desserts. So much yum, I can’t even describe it!
Sunday
Sunday started off with an amazing breakfast at Breakfast Harbor. I didn’t get many veggies in during the trip (another post coming about food and workouts on vacation, stay tuned) but this place offered a veggie omelette and I jumped on it. I was craving something more nutritious and this definitely filled the void.
After breakfast, we toured the USS Midway. Growing up a Navy brat, I had many family dinners on the aircraft carrier my dad toured on (USS Nimitz) and even spent a week on it with the Tiger Cruise. Walking all over the Midway and smelling the salty metal really brought back some fun (Tiger Cruise) and not so fun (Daddy being gone for 6-9 mo at a time) memories. It was very cool to see some parts of the ship that I never got to see as a kid though. Places like the sick bay, the engine room, the boiler room, even the laundry room was interesting! It was a super cool experience.
Before heading back to Nona and Papa’s, we stopped for lunch at none other than Kansas City BBQ…the filming place of the piano scene in Top Gun! If you don’t know, Top Gun is one of my all time favorite movies! I can quote almost the entire movie and I could watch it 100 times and not get sick of it, so this was a real treat!
Monday
Finally…THE BEACH! We went to the same beach we did last time we were here, the La Jolla Children’s beach. A perfect beach with not much wind, not too much of a crowd, and perfect weather. I could’ve sat and listened to the ocean all day. And little miss, loved running into the water and watching the crabs scurry in the tide pools. Unfortunately, I lost my fitbit on this beach so the sea lion that was hanging around this beach can now track his steps 🤷♀️.
Tuesday
Another long travel day full of stickers and Trolls and then we were finally back home, to crash.
Where are you going on vacation this summer or where have you been?