San Diego Adventure - Day 2

Before leaving VA, we had basically charted out our schedule for the week. Our first full day in San Diego was going to be spent at the zoo! Charlotte woke up at a decent time - around 6 I think. We got up, got showered and dressed and headed down for the "free" buffet breakfast. Yum!! Charlotte enjoyed her typical breakfast of a banana and 1 of 3 starches (pancake, french toast or regular toast). We had already decided that we'd skip trying a morning nap and just head out to the zoo, which opened at 9am.

The hotel where we stayed was so convenient, it was only about a 10 minute drive to the zoo. We pulled into the parking lot and in my typical fashion of asking questions that should have been asked before we left, "do we have the tickets?" Uh Oh! We forgot the tickets that we had printed out at home in the hotel room! No worries, we had the confirmation email and were able to go to guest services and get new tickets printed. Phew! We had purchased the 3 for 1 ticket which you could use at the zoo, sea world and the wild animal park and could come and go as many times as you wanted to all three places during a 5 day span.

We got through the gates right as they were opening the zoo and started studying the map. We covered as much of the zoo as we could. This zoo is absolutely amazing (in our opinion), there is so much stuff to see and you can really get up close and personal with everything. The paths wind through beautiful greenery and there is something around every turn. I was so happy that things were also able to be seen from Charlotte's level so she really enjoyed the view just riding in her stroller! Oh, and the awesome weather made it even better....mid 70s and a cool breeze!

We wandered around for several hours, grabbed lunch and then went to the children's zoo where they have an area where you can pet goats and other farm animals. By this time we were all getting a bit tired - we had done a lot of walking! So we decided to hit up the gift shop and then head back to the hotel for Charlotte's nap.

Here are some of our favorite pictures from the zoo adventure: (some of these are actually from our 2nd trip to the zoo on Friday...we decided to go back to get a better look at some of the exhibits that were more crowded on our first visit - the orangutans and gorillas, as well as to see our favorite part of the zoo again - the elephant odyssey)





After Charlotte's nap we decided to walk on down to Seaport Village, a shopping and restaurant area right on the water and very close to our hotel. They have an old fashioned carousel that I decided Charlotte needed to ride! Steve was nervous about this idea (I don't know how he is going to make it through her teenage years if he is nervous about her riding a carousel with me holding her the whole time!) :) She seemed to have a fun time, and I think I realized that I am just not cut out for these "spinny" rides anymore...at least not on a regular basis!



We strolled around a bit and looked at some of the shops and then decided to have dinner at one of the restaurants there - Edgewater Grill. It was a lovely view of the water, but eventually got pretty chilly with the breeze as it had turned a bit overcast. I had of course forgotten any sort of long sleeve shirt for Charlotte that evening, but she ended up being fine. This was the evening that we discovered he developing fear of small birds though (those little ones that hop around...sparrows maybe, and pigeons). Problem with outdoor dining - birds at your feet! Problem with San Diego - there is lots of outdoor dining! Luckily we were able to distract her enough and the meal was relatively calm (as the week progressed, this was not always the case).

Our view from the table -

Coronado bridge in the background -


After a little more wandering, we headed back up to the hotel to call it a day. Overall a fantastic day in beautiful San Diego!