Matte California Adventure-day one

We had a big first day of fun on Monday. We spent Sunday night at the Kings Inn on Hotel Circle in San Diego. I found it on the Internet and it got good reviews plus had a fun sounding breakfast place in it so I booked it. 

 The sign reminded me of those tacky places at the beach when I saw it and I was a little concerned but the place was couldn't find a parking spot packed when we arrived at nearly 1 am from the airport so it had to be good enough for one night. And it was fine. 

Here's our rental for the time we're here til we get to San Fran. It's a little Jeep Patriot. 

Paul has a first cousin who lives here so she and her husband met us for breakfast at The Waffle Spot at the hotel. Her dad was stationed here while in the Navy and retired out here. He and Paul's dad were brothers. Paul said they would visit Louisiana every summer. It was great to meet Lee Ann and her husband John. 

John and Michael hit it off and had a fun time joking around. John plays the harmonica among other instruments and is known as Harmonica John Frazer. He brought us a couple of CDs of his music  and we've enjoyed listening to them in the car on the road. Michael is interested in the harmonica and drums which John also plays so we teased about sending his out to CA for the summer to learn from him. 

The food was really good by the way. Mallory and I split the apple cinnamon waffle which I just knew would have a big ol blob of Apple compote plopped in the middle. But the batter was actually a nice apple cinnamon flavor and it was delicious. 

Lee Ann brought us some passes to the zoo and some coupons for Legoland which was really awesome (ha ha) and we said our goodbyes and were off. 

We enjoyed the zoo. Started off doing the guided bus tour. Nice overview of the layout. It's a big zoo which covers a lot of area as you can see from this map. 

Then we set off on foot to explore some more. Saw some interesting things like this snake necked turtle...strange. 

We also did the aerial tram which provided a great view. 

When we left the zoo we stopped by La Jolla on our way north. It's a neat little area of San Diego and the La Jolla Cove is especially cool. We introduced the kids to gelato and then headed down to the water. 

The Pacific Ocean is gorgeous. The beaches are rocky and different from the gulf coast white sand beaches where I grew up going. But it's stunning in its own right. 

We left La Jolla and drove up to Carlsbad and checked in to the Legoland Hotel. It deserves its own write it. It was FABULOUS! More next time. 

Going Back to Cali

Our family left today for a  trip up the California coast. We'll be spending nearly two weeks staying in six locations and seeing all we can see while out West. I'm going to try and do a blog post recap of the day to just have for our personal memories from the trip. 

Today after a wonderful Mother's Day morning worship service at church we piled in our van  with the Kenedy family and headed north to St Louis. We stopped at McDonalds to hit the drive thru which was pretty comical with 7 people relaying their orders to Paul. Believe it or not the whole order was right with the exception of their leaving out Mallory's sweet and sour sauce and the straws for the drinks!

We got to the airport at 3:30 for our  6:10

flight, went thru security without a hitch and settled in in the gate area. We all got a treat: Mallory and Dad got shakes at Baskin Robbins, Michael got an Auntie Anne's pretzel and I got a frappucino at Starbucks. 

The kids flew when they were little but don't remember it so this is really their first flight. They had fun exploring the airport and looking out the windows at the planes. Michael brought some binocs and is so cute looking thru those things. 

The flight was delayed but we finally took off around 8. 

Both kids wanted to sit by a window so we're on the plane now with Mallory and I on one row and Michael and Paul directly behind us. 

We're going thru Vegas and then on to San Diego tonight. They layover will be short because we left later just hoping to make our connection and get to San Diego to get our car and find our hotel. We have reservations at the King's Inn and plans to meet Paul's first cousin and her husband in the morning for breakfast at 9. 

Mallory is reading The Boxcar Children next to me. I have always loved that book!

We landed in Vegas and were informed our flight was delayed to San Diego too. No biggie. I enjoy people watching. The San Diego State baseball team is apparently on our flight out. They've been in Col Spgs playing the Air Force Academy. Won both games:)

One last note. Airport food is so outrageous. We got one sandwich, a little protein snack with a couple of boiled eggs, some cheese and nuts and a bottle of water and it was 25 smacks! Crazy.