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.