San Diego, California: Our day started so well. No urgent tourist attraction to attend, so we let the rug-rats sleep-in a bit. The kids enjoy going down to the cute little Airstream trailer near the hotel lobby and picking out a plastic tub of sugary breakfast cereal to consume back in the hotel room. Leo gets a vanilla latte. Lucile opts for the hot chocolate. She never finishes it. After his run, DT brings me a bagel to share. (We bring our own coffee situation with a collapsible kettle, pour-over cone, coffee, and filters, in a small tote.) Our room has a kitchenette, with a sit-down bar, sink, fridge and microwave, plates, bowls, cutlery, etc.
The hotel resident rescued blind seals were lounging in the sun this morning. Yes, the sun finally showed herself before noon today! It is like the entire town woke-up and came out of hibernation. People were suddenly everywhere and smiling. If you look carefully, you can see the Night Heron in the middle of the photo. The caretakers slip the bird a little fish now and again when feeding the seals, so the heron is quite happy "babysitting" the blind seals.
I was last on the shower/bath list this morning, so DT had the kids playing shuffleboard and pool by the time I emerged from the room:
So today was the day we were supposed to visit the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Didn't happen. Not a tragedy, but after we had planned this trip Leo was invited to a very important birthday (Girls. Twins.) party that he did not want to miss. Can you blame him? San Diego is 120 miles from Los Angeles. Dave and Lenny figured to meet about half-way, have lunch, and swap-out Leo. We met in San Juan Capistrano at a historical Mexican restaurant. El Adobe de Capistrano, once favored by Richard and Pat Nixon (random). Lenny was waiting for us when we arrived and we had a fun time and really enjoyed our meals. I did order the President's special, much enjoyed by the resigned President.
It took us 90 long minutes to reach San Juan Capistrano (should have been 40 minutes), and it took Dave, Lucy, and I 3.5 hours to reach our hotel in San Diego. It. Was. Awful. After sitting on I-5 for an hour, we slipped-off to drive through so many coastal towns. Traffic was terrible along the shore, but at least it was moving and views out to sea were spectacular. Lucy and I wanted to reach La Jolla to visit a great needlepoint shop, but we drove past the shop 20 minutes after it closed! Lenny spent two hours getting back to LA as well. We only hope Leo has a super great time at the birthday party!
After reaching our hotel after 5p, we went immediately to the pool and hot tub. Most people were already leaving the pool and heading out to dinner. It was sunny and warm in San Diego today - apparently the first sunny day in months - so the town was swarming with tourists. Dave mentioned a fun-looking restaurant so I had booked a table, but when we arrived via our Uber, we learned the restaurant was 21+ on weekends and Lucile did not have fake ID. The host was quite nice though and gave us several suggestions, one being a hotel across the road which turned-out to be the sister hotel of the hotel we were staying in this week. Another tiki-type-themed hotel, the Catamaran Resort, had several restaurants and they were able to seat us immediately at a lovely outside table.
Behind our table we could watch a luau situation on a large lawn overlooking the bay. Hundreds of people were attending... and since a luau was also offered by our hotel (across the bay), we decided the two sister hotels shared the luau. We were able to watch the dancers and enjoy the music, without having having to pay the (probably) high price for the luau.
So I can't say for sure, but our hotel, the Bahai Resort, has two sternwheeler boats. We think (we do not know) the hotel carries guest from the Bahai to the Catamaran for the luau, then cruises into the bay at 8:45p to watch the Friday night fireworks show from Sea World?
Can't say for sure, but we Ubered back to our hotel in time to watch the show from our balcony and the Bahai sternwheeler boat was floating around in the bay.
Long day for us, so I will close.
Until my next update, when we will see Leo again, I remain your discombobulated correspondent.
Lucille favors you and her Mother. Leo favors his Dad and Dave. They will never forget the time you both spend with them. You give them your time and attention.
Dang! You all were in my back yard! So sorry you didn’t have a moment to walk the historic Rios district and enjoy!
But your right, traffic to San Diego (Sat) and from San Diego (Sun) is near grid lock!