California Vacation Part 2: San Diego

The drive from Big Bear to San Diego is about 4 hours, so we broke up the trip by visiting one of Jason’s co-worker’s horse ranch in Temecula, CA.  The kids loved seeing all of the horses in the barn and taking a ride on Flash!  Trudy was a champ and rode with each of the kids.

 

Next stop:  La Jolla….

Casa Beach is home to all of these seals and sea lions.  It was great fun to watch these awesome creatures in action!  As the tide got higher on the beach the animals moved higher up the beach as well!  I took Marin down to the water to check it out and it was COLD.  We knew we wouldn’t be swimming in the ocean any time soon on this trip!

The next few days in San Diego were busy.  We played on the beach, visited an aircraft carrier (think Top Gun), and took the kids to a Science Center & IMAX.  We originally thought we would hit the San Diego Zoo & LegoLand, but after talking to several families with toddlers, they advised that these were geared more toward kids who weren’t napping—just too much to do and see in one day!   That just means we’ll have to come back for a visit at a later date!

Midway Museum:  An amazing ship!

Walking to dinner one night, we came upon this ‘Silver-Coated Mime.’  He was very good at his job, but he scared the bejeepers out of the kids!! 

Reuben H. Fleet Science Center

This place was amazing…it was very similar to a Children’s Museum, but had more Science interactive things for kids to explore.  Of all things, Marin’s favorite activity was turning the conveyor belt and watching her ‘groceries’ move.  Of course, Oliver loved the fire truck!

Walking over from the Science Center to the Rose Garden.

Rush Concert:

Jason & Jeff finished out our vacation strong and went to a Rush concert.  Jas met up with a few of his co-workers and had a jolly good time.

It was really hard to leave those 70 degree California temps and ocean views to come back to the heat and humidity in Austin.  Oy!  Lucky for Jason, he’ll be back there in a flash for work! 

Off to Big Bear, CA

A vacation to the mountains couldn’t come fast enough for us this summer.  We’re not super fond of triple-digit temps in Texas, so we always try to head north to escape the heat!

We vacationed with our dear friends and Marin’s best buddy, Oliver.  Unfortunately, we had to take separate flights so the entire day of traveling was spent with Marin asking, “Where’s my Oliver buddy?”  “When will I see my friend?”  “Are we there YET?”  *sigh*  She was great on both of our flights and insisted on meeting the pilot each time!

We met up with our friends at the airport in San Diego around 5 p.m., grabbed a few groceries, some dinner and headed for the mountains!  Woo-hoo!!!

Picnic at the Austin airport.

Fascinated with the airplanes and all of the action!

Finally, it’s OLIVER!!!  Such a sweet boy!

Ready for a long ride up the mountain!

Our first day in Big Bear we hit the local zoo—similar to the Austin Zoo where they take in injured or abandoned animals.  Nothing fancy, but it was solid toddler entertainment.

Checking out the snakes!

Massive brown bears!

A pack of wolves--I’ve never seen a pack of wolves in action (thankfully) other than on tv.  These guys were our favorites.  We howled at them, they howled back.  Wooo-woooo!  We howled again, they howled right back!  What a fun game!  A dog was walking on the outside of the wolves’ cage and it was amazing to see these creatures jump to action.  They all (maybe 10 wolves) flocked to the fence and started crouching down and following the dog.  Lucky for that dog, the fence was between him and the wolves otherwise he would have been lunch! 

Here’s Marin howling at the wolves--Look at those lips! 

Even the Daddies loved the zoo!  Ha. 

The next day, we went exploring on a trail that followed Big Bear Lake. 

Marin was excited to throw rocks every chance she got!

Little love…so sweet.

 

The next day we rode the Alpine Slides!  This was great fun for everyone!

I even broke the rules and went down one time—very, very slowly!

Jason and Marin coming down the mountain!

She loved it!

But I think she loved her post-Alpine Slide treat better!

 

Our last day in Big Bear we were all itching for a good hike.  So, we found a hike advertised in a flyer that was considered ‘easy’--about 2 miles long with a ‘champion’ tree at the end of the hike.  Sounded like a winner…The Champion Lodgepole Pine Trail.

Little did we know we had to drive to the top of the world to get to the trailhead.

And ultimately, we had to park the car and walk because the road to the trailhead became too rocky for our mini van rental.  There were some intense moments with Jason backing up over rocks near the edge of the cliff—but that’s a story we don’t want to relive!

Thank goodness for our Ergo carrier!  Marin napped nearly the whole hike. 

After an intense hour drive, a 45 minute hike, here’s the base of the ‘Champion’ tree.  A tree can’t be labeled a ‘champion’ until it’s over 400 years old (Who knew?) and this baby was 440 years old!  It was so huge we couldn’t get a picture of the whole tree in one frame.

It was 110 feet tall with a circumference of 20 feet!  Pretty amazing. 

Another opportunity to throw rocks on our hike!  Yea!

We saw this sign a little too late! 

I’m not sure that rental mini van will ever be the same, but what Hertz doesn’t know won’t hurt ‘em, right!?

We loved our time in Big Bear and will certainly try to go back again!  Next stop…San Diego!