House of Estrogen

SoCal Day 5: Coronado -> L.A. -> Anaheim

Day 5 was really just designed to be a travel day. The plan was to leave San Diego in the morning as soon as morning traffic had died down, get to L.A. around lunch time, have lunch, see the Chinese Theater, the Dolby Theater, the Hollywood sign, and then get out of town heading to Anaheim before traffic got bad.   Best laid plans...

The older two girls decided they wanted one more beach visit since they had missed the afternoon at the beach that Addie and I did. That was going to throw us completely off schedule, but who can resist one more beach trip? We went back to Coronado Beach this time. It is such a gorgeous, wide beach with the finest white sand.

It was early enough that we basically had the whole beach to ourselves. We could sit out there pretending we were classy enough and rich enough to be staying at the beautiful, iconic Hotel Del Coronado.

We spent the morning playing in the waves and the sand, enjoying our last day in the San Diego area.

This picture on the restroom on the beach made me giggle. Frank L. Baum, author of the Wizard of Oz, spent many winters at the Del during the years that he was writing the Oz books. Some say that the Emerald City was inspired by the Del. I wonder how Baum would feel about his characters adorning the bathroom doors!

After showering and checking out of the condo, a So Cal bucket list item could be checked off - lunch at In-n-Out Burger.

Our impression was... well... meh. We were underwhelmed. That's OK though. We can now say we've had an In-n-Out Burger.  The milkshakes were tasty. After lunch, we were Hollywood bound! This L.A. detour was Nina's idea.  She was dying to get a picture with the Hollywood sign in the background. Although neither J.C. nor I had any desire to brave L.A. traffic, it seemed cruel to come within 30 miles of Hollywood and not let Nina get her picture. Without further ado... happy girl.

 

Another So Cal bucket list item checked off!  After pictures, we did the world's fastest tour of the Hollywood and Highland area, bought a couple souvenirs and hopped back on the road to join L.A. rush hour traffic. It took us a full two hours to drive the 30 miles to Anaheim. We can all now say we have seen the Hollywood sign though.

We arrived at our condo in Anaheim and walked over to Downtown Disney for dinner. Our dinner at Napolini was a mixed bag. My salad was excellent, but J.C.'s pizza was inedible. He threw most of it away. Poor guy... it was not a great way to end a pretty exhausting day.  We all collapsed in bed right after dinner to get a good sleep before our first Disney day the next day.

SoCal Day 4: La Jolla

Our day spent in La Jolla was our favorite day of the trip.  If you are ever in the San Diego area, I highly recommend driving up to La Jolla for a day trip. The coastline is just gorgeous. The rocky cliffs and beaches were so foreign to us as we are accustomed to the flat, sandy Atlantic beaches in the Southeast. The girls loved exploring.

We visited Children's Pool which is a small beach protected by a sea wall.

It was originally built as a safe swimming beach, but now it is mostly just a hangout for seals and sea lions. In case you have ever wondered about the difference between seals and sea lions, seals are pictured below. They have the short flippers which are sort of useless on land. Seals move around land by awkwardly flopping their bodies. Sea lions are two photos down. They have the big flippers that they can perch on and use to walk around. Thanks to our Seal tour on the first day of our trip, we are now proficient in identifying seals vs. sea lions.

Next we walked to Boomer Beach. There isn't any swimming allowed there, but Nina and Addie especially had a ball checking out all the rocks and caves. This was when I was really missing my poor dead-battery dSLR camera. Sigh.

 

This place is just breathtakingly gorgeous.

 

When Nina found this rock, she couldn't resist doing her best Ariel pose from the Little Mermaid. It's the perfect rock, right?

    

Our last coastal stop in La Jolla was La Jolla Cove which we all loved. We were greeted by a sun bathing sea lion hanging out right next to the beach.

The water was a bit chilly, but it was so clear and beautiful.

If I were to visit La Jolla Cove again, I would rent snorkel gear.  We just used the goggles we brought from home, and that proved sufficient for the girls that day. They kept popping up squealing about all the different types of fish they were seeing.  There were lots of people snorkeling though... definitely a great spot for that.

 

 Our whole morning in La Jolla was just fabulous. It is a beautiful place to visit. When it came time for lunch, as we were quickly discovering in all of Southern California, parking is a premium. Although I had names of several recommended restaurants for lunch in La Jolla, we ended up just going with the approach of "find an empty parking space, and then wander around from there looking at menus" to find a spot for lunch. That was much less headache-inducing than attempting to choose a restaurant first and then find parking. We ended up at Wahoo's, a little fish taco joint, for lunch. That was pretty good.

Our next stop for the day was a bit of a disappointment. We headed up to the Torrey Pines Gliderport. The U.S. Nationals Paragliding competition was going on that week, so we were sure we'd see all sorts of great paragliding and hang gliding. I've heard it is extremely cool to watch the gliders take off and land. Unfortunately, gliding requires wind. Picky, those paragliders are. We managed to land there on an afternoon with no wind.

We had fun wandering around, checking out the cliffs, imagining what it must be like to see the gliders, and crossing our fingers for wind.

Alas, wind just wasn't in the cards for us that day. I'll definitely head back to the gliderport if I'm ever in that area again though.

Our last stop for the day was a Target in San Diego where we were all highly amused and intrigued by the cart escalator. We're easily entertained, apparently.

Despite the gliderless gliderport, our La Jolla day was a big hit.

SoCal Day 3: San Diego

In the early stages of planning this trip, I assumed we would hit the most well known and popular San Diego tourist spots - Sea World and the San Diego Zoo. As our planning came together though, it dawned on us that none of us really cared much about going to the zoo. Pandas are one of the main attractions there, and we had seen pandas recently on our trip to the Atlanta Zoo. I think we are learning over time that we just aren't a big zoo loving family. I initially felt a little weird parental guilt about taking my kids all the way to California and not taking them to the iconic San Diego Zoo, but I got over that. It was the right call for our family. As for Sea World, as much as I have enjoyed previous trips there, after seeing the movie The Cove and reading a lot about the movie Blackfish, I came to the conclusion that I just couldn't ethically in good conscience support Sea World any more. It was a fun, entertaining park in the past, but it needs to make some changes.

So... there went the two biggest San Diego attractions. My next phase of planning called for us to visit the U.S.S. Midway on our second day in San Diego, after the Seal tour. Then on the third day, we would hit the Safari Park.  The heat changed all that though. After the Seal tour and a visit to Old Town, we were all hot, sweaty, run down, and exhausted. The forecast for the next day was 85 on the coast (where the U.S.S. Midway is) and 95 inland (where the Safari Park is located). Nobody had any interest in walking around a safari park in 95 degree weather. It was an easy decision to drop the safari park completely and move the U.S.S. Midway to the morning when the weather would be cooler, and we would all be well rested. That proved to be a great decision.

I highly recommend visiting the Midway in the morning right when it opens if you choose to go there. It is a lot of walking, and you want happy, energetic, well-rested kids.

Also, when we first arrived, we spoke with one of the volunteers who recommended that we quickly head straight up to the island which is the section of upper most decks where the radio room, control deck, and captain's quarters are.

He said that first thing in the morning there is no line at all for the guided tour. Apparently later in the afternoon the line gets really long and often gets shut down well before the end of the day. We were so thankful for his advice. We quickly made our way over there and enjoyed our tour with very little wait.

The tour guide chose Nina as our captain for the day.

J.C. decided he was definitely too tall for an aircraft carrier. Despite repeated warnings about watching his head from every volunteer docent we passed, he still managed to bang his head several times. It was almost impossible not to.

All the girls enjoyed the visit to the Midway more than I thought they would. It was mostly on our itinerary because *I* wanted to see it. Everyone in the family got something out of it though, and I never heard "I'm bored" or "When can we leave?"  Nina, in particular, was really intrigued by all of it. Every time we turned around, she had her headphones on, listening to a part of the self-guided audio tour. She filled out the entire junior captain scavenger hunt. It is fun to watch your kids get completely absorbed in history or art or something a little unexpected.

One of the big highlights for me was showing the girls the SBD Dauntless, the plane that their great grandfather flew in WWII. They certainly came away from this visit with a much better understanding and appreciation of what his life was like while stationed on a carrier.

We had lunch on the Midway (surprisingly great food there...I recommend it), wandered around a bit more after lunch, and then headed back to the condo for naps.

Addison had other plans though. Apparently I had said that we "might" go to the beach or would "probably" go to the beach or some other such vague wording about our afternoon plans. She was not going to let me forget that. She begged and pleaded. Elise, J.C., and Nina stretched out on the couch to watch Star Wars while Addison gave me her best pitiful look, imploring me to take her to the beach.

The last thing I wanted to do was brave San Diego traffic on my own, but I didn't want to let her down. Plus, I'm a sucker for the beach. I told her we would drive to Mission Beach. If we found parking, we would stay. If we drove around for half an hour and never found a parking spot, we were coming back. That sounded fair to her, so off we went. Thankfully, a car pulled out of a prime parking spot shortly after we arrived.

I'm so glad she convinced me to go.  We had the most wonderful afternoon.

 

We spent hours playing in the waves, playing in the sand, and really cherishing the rare one on one vacation time.  It was magical.

I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend the afternoon. As much as I thought I wanted a nap, my afternoon with Addie was so much better.

Perfection.

As we were leaving, we got a little taste of the quirky world that is the Mission Beach Boardwalk. This character was playing piano on the boardwalk. Addie will tell you that seeing him was one of her favorite parts of the entire trip.

Day three was a great day. The Midway was one of those sleeper hits that I had predicted the girls would tolerate but not necessarily enjoy. Instead, they all enjoyed it, and then the beach was fantastic.

SoCal Days 1 and 2: San Diego

Our Southern California trip got off to a bit of a rough start with a lost and a found. The house was in complete disarray with all the downstairs belongings moved either upstairs or to the garage for the hardwoods to get refinished while we were out of town. In the chaos of misplaced items, I couldn't find the charger for my good dSLR camera. The battery was completely dead, so we had to give up and leave for a beautiful destination with just an iPhone and crappy point and shoot camera for preserving our memories. Sigh. That disappointment was quickly forgotten though when I discovered the "found"... lice... or more precisely, louse. Is there any worse way to start a vacation? It was literally about 15 minutes before we were to leave for the airport. A child's head was itchy. I investigated, and found one lone louse. I suspect he had friends, but I wasn't able to find any other bugs or any nits. I may have caught them early, but it was still a lousy (or louse-y?) way to start a vacation. This is the second time I've had to spend vacation evenings doing lice treatments and picking nits. There are few things in life that repulse me more than lice. Anyway... despite lice and lost camera chargers, we were off.

 

I wasn't going to let our lost and found adventures spoil our fun. We arrived in San Diego Friday night, grabbed our rental car, navigated through San Diego traffic, found our condo, ate a quick dinner, and got to bed. Surely day two would be better.

Saturday morning, we headed to the Embarcardero for our Seal tour.

 

It ended up being the perfect start to our trip, and I highly recommend a Seal tour if you ever go to San Diego. We boarded the big open air bus and were treated to a nice guided tour through town.

After about a 30 minute land tour, the bus drove straight into the harbor for the 60 minute sea portion of the tour.

We learned all about San Diego history, the military presence in San Diego, seals, sea lions other marine life, and about all the landmarks and attractions around the harbor. Did you know that the U.S. Navy trains dolphins to search for sea mines? You learn all kinds of cool tidbits during a Seal tour.

The highlight of the Seal tour is seeing all the sea lions, cormorants, and pelicans up close.

(All those pictures would have looked so much better taken with my big dSLR camera... but I digress). After the Seal tour, we were all hot and hungry. What we should have done was eaten lunch right there at the Embarcardero. Instead, I steered our little family over to Old Town San Diego where both traffic and parking were much worse than I anticipated. That becomes a pattern for our whole trip. By the time we finally found a parking spot and the closest Mexican restaurant, we were all famished. San Diego with its famous "72 degrees all year round" weather was about 90 degrees that day. This poor little one was ready to collapse.

After re-energizing with some authentic Mexican tamales, we were able to have some fun exploring Old Town.

We saw the old one room school, studied every rock and mineral in the rock and mineral shop, learned about spinning wool, and came to the conclusion that living in San Diego back in the 1850's was HOT. VERY VERY HOT.  What happened to the freaking 72 degrees we were promised? We had sweat pouring down our backs. We explored Old Town as long as we could tolerate the heat and then headed back to the condo.

After a little rest time, we had our next adventure in the joy that is San Diego traffic. We decided to head across the Coronado Bridge to Coronado Island to show the kids where their grandmother was born, get some dinner, and spend a little time on the beach. It all sounded so simple.... Bridge, dinner, beach.

Instead, it was "Why is everyone in the universe going to Coronado Island RIGHT NOW???"  A quick google search, and we found out it was fleet week for the U.S. Navy. As part of the fleet week entertainment, there were all sorts of car races on Coronado. To add insult to the traffic insanity, we got lost trying to find the restaurant. After driving nearly to Mexico and turning around, we finally got to dinner with starving kids once again. We were 0 for 2 for feeding them in a timely manner that day. We finally got to the beach well after dark.

The kids ran around on the water's edge for a while, and JC and I and remembered it was our anniversary... seventeen years! I think that makes us old.

Whew... long day... lots of fun, but exhausting. We all conked out and got a good night's sleep ready for more adventures the next day.

SoCal Picture A Day: Day 5

SoCal Picture A Day: Day 4

Emerald Isle 2014: Family Fun

Last weekend, I had a glorious child-free weekend with girlfriends at Myrtle Beach. We gabbed, walked, napped, swam, ate, drank, laughed, shopped, and relaxed. It was definitely a different vibe from our family trip to Emerald Isle last month, but both trips were fabulous. The beach is always my happy place. I love this quote from the book "Where'd You Go Bernadette?" (a great beach read, by the way).

"When your eyes are softly focused on the horizon for sustained periods, your brain releases endorphins. It's the same as a runner's high."

~ Maria Semple   

I'm thinking these faces have some of those beach horizon endorphins coursing through them.

We did a lot of boogie boarding.

Elise did some jumping.

Grandparents came... my parents for the first part of the week...

And J.C.'s parents for the second half.

This was a very laidback vacation. We didn't play putt-putt, or go to the aquarium, or take a boat ride. We just played in the pool,

buried sisters in the sand,

 

got lost in a good book,

got illegal lessons in driving a golf cart,

rode bikes behind the golf cart,

went out for seafood,

and some of us may have taken afternoon naps.

Overall, it was a very mellow, relaxing vacation spent with family. In other words, it was just about  perfect.



     

Emerald Isle 2014: The Baby

Not too long ago at work, a coworker of mine who hasn't known me very long asked another coworker who is a friend of mine, "How old is Ann's baby?".  The friend looked at him with  confusion wondering if there was some other Ann he was talking about. She said, "Ann doesn't have a baby."  He said, "Oh, I overheard her say something about her baby." It suddenly dawned on her. She knows me well. She said, "OH!!  Ann's "baby" (and I'm sure she very aptly used air quotes) is six. She isn't exactly a baby any more."

I beg to differ, and I present my proof here:

This is how babies sit, no?  Do you know ANYBODY other than a yoga instructor or toddler who would willingly, comfortably sit like this?

Babies, toddlers, and gymnasts are the only ones with this sort of flexibiltiy and balance, and I'm quite certain she is not a gymnast. Or a yoga instructor.

Therefore, by some official mathematical corollary (we'll just call it the House of Estrogen Baby Corollary since I don't know the official name), this child is definitely still a baby. And always will be. Once she is sitting more like a tween, I'll come up with some other logic. My baby. Yes, she is.

 

 

 

Emerald Isle 2014: Swamp Life

We have been vacationing on Emerald Isle for 10 years. In all those years, we have somehow never stayed on the far Western end of the island. Apparently, the flora and fauna are a bit different over there, and we were taken by surprise to walk out on our balcony to find a big swamp.

With its proximity to the pool, we were fully expecting to see an alligator lounging by our pool at any moment.

We never spotted any alligators, but other swampy wild things were in abundance. We had a cute little muskrat hanging around all week.

Dragonflies, praying mantises (praying manti?), and frogs were everywhere. Addie was terrified of all the frogs (particularly when one jumped on her),

but Nina was in frog heaven! She was scooping up frogs right and left all week long. It was like we sent her to swamp camp!

There were a lot of deer on this end of the island too. The week was a great study in beach biology. Maybe I can call it homeschooling?

At any given time if we looked out in our backyard swamp, we could count at least 5-10 turtles. Our favorite though was this creepy dude who showed up in our driveway. It is an alligator snapping turtle. Appropriate name, huh? As a friend of mine said, "It looks like an alligator crawled into a turtle shell."   We kept our distance though as his jaws can easily chop off a finger.

When I booked the beach house, I wasn't expecting a swamp, but it definitely added a little interest, education, and fun to our week!

 

Emerald Isle Picture A Day, Day 6

Well hello there snapping turtle in our driveway!  You're looking rather prehistoric today.