I won’t say we took this trip on a whim, but last month we kind of did. We wanted to take a spring trip, and San Diego sounded nice enough, so we just went for it. From all accounts, there’s really no bad time of year to go, and while it was a bit cool, I’d characterize the weather during our visit as very pleasant.

We booked a Homeaway rental for our trip, and it’s been our best experience yet. The downstairs of this couple’s home had been converted to a standalone living area, complete with kitchen, washer and dryer, and its own entrance. Maya referred to it as our San Diego home, which must have made us sound very well-to-do to anyone who overheard her. It suited us well. They had a stroller and a high chair in their closet. They had a rail we could put up so Maya wouldn’t fall out of bed. The house is right in Mission Beach, so we were less than a five minute walk to the bay-side beach in one direction and the ocean-side beach in the other.

Our travel days were a little odd this time. Since Maya has started piano lessons now, we wanted to leave after the kids’ music classes on Saturday morning, so we booked an afternoon flight. It was great for us getting packed and loaded up at a slightly less insane pace, but it did make for an incredibly long day.

As usual, Ian was un-thrilled with flying and let everyone around him know about it. Toward the end, I must have looked as desperate as I felt because the man sitting next to me took pity on me and told me I was doing a good job. It was a very kind gesture, and I appreciated it. Maya was great on the flight. The iPad and her enthusiasm for getting to go to San Diego carried her through the trip on the plane, baggage claim, and the shuttle to the rental car place. While we were waiting for the rental car though, her pent-up San Diego-beach-zoo energy became too much to contain. She full-on sprinted back and forth through the rental car place, and let me assure you, not all our fellow travelers were impressed with her display. Sean and I may as well not have been there for the amount that she heeded our advice to not run into people, or run out the door and out into traffic. (She didn’t run out into the street; it was just the scenario that played through my head every time she bolted toward the door.)

We finally got our rental car secured, two car seats installed, and luggage and children loaded up. Thanks to Waze and the instructions from our landlords, we found the house with no trouble. Also the San Diego airport is right in the city, so once we were in the car, it really didn’t take us long at all to get to our house. We got everything set up pretty quickly and kids to bed. Then we did something we’ve not done before on our family vacations: Sean ran out to the grocery store and loaded up our little kitchen with simple breakfast items for everyone and some snacks for the kids. Our normal mode is to try to sample as many local restaurants as we can. However, during our Denver trip last fall, this often meant that we didn’t really get a start on whatever activity we had planned till 10-10:30 or even later. Thanks to the time zone change being in our favor and quick breakfasts at “home,” if we wanted to, we could get a pretty brisk start on our day.

We decided to spend Sunday at Balboa Park. We could have spent our entire vacation here and not seen everything that sounded interesting (which was, you know, all of it). Balboa Park is a collection of museums and other attractions sprinkled throughout sprawling outdoor spaces right in downtown San Diego. The San Diego Zoo is in Balboa Park, but we would be devoting an entire day later in the trip just for that. Even saving the zoo for another day, we still had to be selective about what we tried to see. We started our morning visiting the Nikei Gator (haven’t been able to confirm this spelling) sculpture outside the Mingei International Museum. That’s where the kids played while Sean ran and grabbed a map.

Next we took a hike through Palm Canyon. I hauled Ian in a backpack carrier, and Maya doodled along collecting rocks and sticks and other interesting pieces of nature. The walk was easy and peaceful, the scenery beautiful. Since we took the short walk at Maya-pace, by the time we finished, it was nearly time for the puppet show at the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater. The show, Whispers of the Forest, was anchored by a giant talking tree who was visited throughout the show by various forest creatures all while an ax-weilding man napped in its roots. Ian was ok with it as long as there was plenty of action, but it was tough to contain him during the show. Maya was fidgety in her own seat, but did better once she climbed up on Dad’s lap. I think Sean and I were a little ambivalent about the show, but Maya still occasionally regales us with bits of the story they told, so I guess it left an impression on her.

The wise folks at the puppet theatre have a display of variously-sized puppets for sale on the way out the door. Maya chose a little yellow duckling, who she has named Quacky. She loves Quacky, and apparently, so does Ian. We would regularly hear the kids in the back seat of the car during our trip (for the remainder of the vacation, Quacky and Oddipuddy shared status as things that must ride in the car with Maya). Maya would “quack quack quack” her duck puppet at Ian, and Ian would giggle.

Our lunch at the Tea Pavilion was acceptable. They were out of sushi … and chicken. The limitations were frustrating, but the kids eventually ate more or less enough to pretend they had had enough food.

After lunch, we took a very pleasant walk up to the Bea Evenson Fountain. It took a lot of convincing to keep Maya out of it. Actually, now that I think about it, keeping her from diving into fountains was a recurring theme during our park visit. After the fountain, we meandered over to the Spanish Village Art Center. By this time, Ian had fallen asleep in the carrier on my back. We strolled over painted rocks, listened to an acoustic guitarist strumming out jukebox standards, and window-shopped the various arts and crafts on display. In one corner lived a fat squirrel named Mr. Fluffytail. He had his own bowl of peanuts tucked into one of the flower beds and seemed unalarmed by the passersby.

We made our way back to see the free 2p concert at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion, which houses the largest outdoor pipe organ in the world. It was truly amazing to listen to that giant organ, but by this point, Maya was getting really antsy, so we only listened for a few minutes before loading up and heading back to the San Diego house for a rest.

Since Ian had had such a good sleep on my back, he was disinterested in further napping at the house, so he and Sean checked out our local beaches while Maya had a little snooze. Once rest time was over, we all went to the ocean-side beach, collected shells, and played in the water a bit. We didn’t let Maya bring Oddipuddy and Quacky to the beach, so instead, she insisted instead that they sit in the stroller together while we were gone. At one point, Maya stopped playing in the sand long enough to inform me that they had texted her. Curious, I asked her what they had to say. They wanted to let her know that they were having fun in the stroller. I guess they didn’t need us and our stinky old beach.

Dinner that night was at a Mission Beach restaurant called Single Fin Surf Grill. It was solid. Sean and I had a couple of local beers. The kids had fried fish tacos. The adults split three dishes. The two memorable ones were Sriracha Shrimp tacos and Nasi Goreng, both of which were wicked good.

We gathered up the next morning to drive into downtown and try out the Donut Bar for breakfast. The line wasn’t too bad and it wasn’t long before we had way too many doughnuts to sample. Maya had one called Homer’s Donut. Sufficiently carbed up, we headed to the New Children’s Museum to let the kids run around and have fun. And they did have fun, but the adults were less impressed. Maybe the museum was in some kind of transition phase just then, because there weren’t very many exhibits. I think I just expected more. Even with letting the kids take as much time as they wanted to playing and exploring, we still were finished well before lunch time.

Lunch was a bit of a disaster. We decided to try Underbelly, a rambunctious little ramen bar. The food was great, don’t get me wrong. But there were no high chairs. Ian is to the point that he’s just about impossible to feed while he’s on my lap. He’s difficult to contain and he won’t sit still on his own. Within minutes, I had sauce on my pants, Ian was in tears, and of course, no one was really able to eat. Instead, Ian and I went for a walk and played outside on the sidewalk while Maya and Dad finished up their lunch. It was actually really nice. There was a fountain Ian could splash around in, and the entire city was sprinkled with purple-bloom-coated trees that we later discovered are jacarandas. Later that afternoon during rest time, I had the rest of my buns. Believe it or not, they were still actually pretty good.

That afternoon, we decided to walk to Belmont Park. It was only about a mile away and we didn’t feel like figuring out parking (not remembering that it was the off season and parking wouldn’t be a problem). This was an error. For one, a mile at 3-year-old pace takes an amazingly long time. For another, it had gotten cold by then. Most of us were fine in the cooler air since we were walking, or in my case, packing Ian on my back. But poor Ian was cold.

We wandered around Belmont Park, watching the roller coaster cycle for a bit. We rode the carousel, which Maya seemed to enjoy and Ian was unsure about. Then we went inside to the arcade so the Ian-monster could warm up before our walk back. Maya and Dad played skee-ball and shot hoops while Ian and I moseyed around poking at buttons and pushing in the little doors that allowed access to prizes. Maya (with Dad’s help) acquired enough tickets to trade them for a piece of candy and a tiny plastic octopus.

We picked up Mr Ruriberto’s for dinner and hiked it all the way home. There were a handful of acceptable tacos, but the real winner was the carne asada fries. If I were ever to find myself slightly knackered in San Diego, I’m pretty sure carne asada fries would be what I would want to eat.

The next morning, we hit the road early to get to the zoo. The San Diego Zoo is widely held as one of the best in the world. We had been talking it up to the kids, telling them about all the exciting animals they’d get to see: the standard elephants and monkeys and giraffes, sure, but also more exotic creatures like pandas and koalas. Maya wanted to know if there would be ducks. Every time we talked about it, she made sure to verify that there would be ducks. I honestly wasn’t sure what to tell her.

We were there at the opening and got to see the ceremonial release of the parrots. Maya was thrilled watching the jewel-hued birds launch from their cage up into the trees. Because we had heard there could be long lines and because Ian and Maya aren’t spectacular at putting up with said lines, we decided to head to see the zoo’s star attraction, the panda bears, first thing in the morning. We were rewarded with absolutely zero line and two rotund black and white bears, mother and son, happily munching on bamboo. The son even climbed up and checked us out a little.

The weather was fantastic and the grounds were beautiful. If the kids were a bit older or it was just Sean and I, I think we could have happily meandered away our entire day. As it was, we had to pick and choose a little. The pandas were great, but my favorite thing to watch all day long was the polar bears swimming. Those giant (and I mean giant) bears were just swimming languidly about in their water, and graceful as otters. We watched them pop up and munch on carrots, mess around with a toy ball, and dive in to swim some more. We also saw koalas, which are kind of unique. They didn’t really move a whole lot while we were there, but that isn’t surprising since they spend something like 20 hours of their day sleeping.

We ate lunch at one of the zoo restaurants and had the best smothered tater tots I’ve ever eaten. They were cheesy and topped with bacon and holy wow I was happy. (I changed my mind. If I ever find myself knackered in San Diego, THIS is what I want to eat.) While we sat there, much to Maya’s delight, we were frequently visited by what seemed like a whole flock of mallard ducks, complete with a string of ducklings with a very protective mother. They hung around the tables clearly scamming for some people food. I think it was probably the highlight of Maya’s zoo experience, and Ian was pretty tickled about it too. And I was relieved that she got to see the only animal she actually asked about!

After lunch, we decided to ride the aerial tram. Ian was pretty much finished with being held or in any way restrained by then. The ride was pleasant though. We got to see the zoo and the rest of Balboa Park from above. Sean even managed to capture an airplane in one of the photos.

Sean and I could have easily kept wandering around looking at animals, but the kids were getting tired. On our way out of the zoo, we stopped in at the souvenir shop so they could each choose a stuffed animal. Ian shopping for stuffed animals is adorable. He’s a very snuggly guy, and that extends to his animals. He must have hugged and tried to kiss every animal toy we encountered. Eventually, Sean held up a couple of stuffed pandas for him and he chose his favorite. Maya on the other hand, simply could not decide. Had it been up to her, she’d probably have gone home with a giraffe that was bigger than she was. As it was, after picking up and putting down who knows how many and covering the entire store several times (and driving Sean bonkers in the process), she went home with a big, red macaw.

After a good rest, we went out to meet a friend of ours from college and her husband for dinner at Station Tavern. The food was tasty enough, and of course the company was great. I was a little worried (terrified) that we were again not going to have a high chair for Ian, but in the end, it worked out. In between kid-wrangling, we had a very nice time catching up. My favorite line from the evening though was from Maya at the bathroom. Let me back up by saying that this kid did an AMAZING job of dealing with a variety of difficult potty situations on this trip. We are so proud of her! In this case, she told me she had to go, so we headed over to the rest room. We had to wait a bit for another person to finish so Maya had some time to check things out. She had been learning how to tell which one is the men’s room and which is the women’s, so she’d been very focused on the signs on the doors. After staring at the door for a while, she looked up at me in surprise and said, “She’s doing it on the moon!” I was a little confused until I saw what she saw, the way she saw it. There was a handicapped access symbol on the door, and sure enough, if you don’t know better, it kinda does look like she’s doing it on the moon.

We took the next morning at a leisurely pace and arrived midmorning at Coronado. The beach was wide and pretty, and the kids had fun running around in the sparkling sand. The seashell collecting was great closer to the water. At our beach (yes, we’ve already come to think of the bay-side beach by the rental house as ours), the seashells were mostly worn and broken. Here they were whole and their texture was still distinct. Maya loaded up Sean’s designated seashell pocket and tucked a few in my pockets to boot. From our brief toe-dipping at the ocean beach by our house, we knew the water would be cold, but the kids wanted badly to get in, and we were going to let them. After suiting them up, we took off toward the water. Of course we knew Maya would be excited, but even Ian was tugging me along as fast as his little legs could go, grinning and squealing about that ocean. We stood there, probably not even mid-calf on me and let wave after frigid wave roll into us. Ian giggled as they crashed into his belly and chest and didn’t seem overly fussed when his face was splashed. Maya wanted to go further in.

Eventually the kids were looking kind of blue, so we took them out against much protest. We tried it one more time after letting them warm up for a while. Maya was all in, naturally, but after a few waves crashed into his legs, Ian remembered how cold he had been the last time and wanted to be picked up. It was getting to be lunchtime by then, so we went up to the beach bathroom, showered the sand off the kids, and got them dressed.

Lunch that day was really great. We tried out Fish Market and managed to get a seat right by the windows in their glassed-in patio. Even with two wiggly kids, it still managed to be peaceful. We could look down and see water through the slats in the floor. The birds landed right outside our floor to ceiling window. We watched all manner of boats trolling around. We even enjoyed our food. It was like picnicking without the hassle of breeze-blown food and unwanted insect life.

We took the rest of our day at a leisurely pace. We went back to the San Diego house to rest then played at the seashell beach (Maya’s name for the bay-side beach). It was this afternoon that Maya decided that they called it SANDiego because of all the SAND on the beaches. This is the same girl that has deduced that fluoride shouldn’t be swallowed because to comes from the floor. We assume that later on, she’s going to be a pun-spinning genius. Later on, Sean picked up dinner from Arslan’s Gyros. It was one of those follow-your-nose deals. It had smelled so wonderful when we walked past it that he decided to try it out. Even a little cold from the delay between pickup and meal time, it was still pretty good, and because we could just sit at home and eat, it was a nice, stress-free decompress for mom and dad.

On our last day in San Diego, we took the kids down to Cabrillo National Monument, intending to check out the tide pools. The main parking lot near the tide pools was closed for renovation, which turned out to be a stroke of good luck. We parked at the next lot down and walked along the coastal path back toward the tide pools. That hike was gorgeous, punctuated by rocky bluffs, crashing waves, and lots of pelican fly-bys. Maya, true to form, hiked the entire thing by herself (except for one giant set of stairs toward the end that Dad just wanted to power through). The tide pools themselves were not much to see just then. My guess is that the low tide wasn’t quite low enough for us to see the good stuff. Still, the hike alone was worth the visit.

We stopped in at the visitors center and took a walk up to the old Point Loma lighthouse. Maya was exceedingly enamored with all the bees that frequenting the many flowers lining our path. She still talks about all those San Diego bees getting nectar from the flowers. Ian was enamored with moving moving moving. The more he got to walk, the better. He had been cooped up in the backpack carrier during nearly the entire hike, and now he just wanted to roam.

Point Loma Seafoods was our destination for lunch. We had beers on tap, freshly prepared fried sea creatures to eat, and a big dining room to settle into. I was the big winner for that lunch, having tried out whole-belly clams for the first time. YUM. I’m sure the delicious beer and reasonably content family colored my impression a bit.

The only thing Sean had specifically asked for on this trip was to visit the Ghirardelli Ice Cream & Chocolate Shop, so that’s exactly what we did after lunch. They plied us with samples on the way in. Sean and the kids split a giant chocolate brownie, and I enjoyed an extremely rich cup of drinking chocolate.

After this, we did our now-routine have a rest at the house and then visit the seashell beach afterward thing. We took the beach ball along this time. We had been meaning to the whole trip and just kept forgetting. The kids both knocked it around for a while in the sand, and thanks to the lack of wind, it didn’t run away from them too badly.

Maya and Ian both desperately wanted to get into the water. Maya had even managed to sneak her toes in with Daddy’s supervision. Looking down at his own feet, Sean was startled to notice a jellyfish. His dad-instincts kicked in and he immediately checked out what Maya was doing. Yeah, her toes were about an inch away from one of them. Further exploration revealed that they were thickly spread all over the shallows where the kids wanted to play. She was not impressed that she would have to stay out of the water.

It wasn’t long afterward that the real drama occurred. A little gust of wind caught the beach ball and it flew into the water. Faster than I’d have imagined, it was swept out where we couldn’t grab it, even if we were willing to tromp through jellyfish. In fact, in no time, that ball was halfway across the bay. Maya was distraught. Full-fledged unhappy, tears running down her face, distraught. She exclaimed in her sad, sad voice, “I need my beach ball very badly.” We were both so impressed with her grammar skills, especially under duress, that we looked at each other in wonder. And then she informed us that the jellyfish needed to get out of the water so we could go get her ball for her.

Once everyone was settled we drove down to the Crystal Pier. It was neat to walk out, hand in hand with the kids, past the cottages on the pier and out to the very end where folks were lined up fishing. We watched the big waves roll in and took in the surfers riding them for all they were worth. I mentioned that the water was cold, right? Most of these folks were wearing wetsuits, but there was one crazy man out there in nothing but swim trunks. He must be part polar bear. It was amazing to watch them. Ian enjoyed trying to climb the fence and Maya enjoyed trying to catch sea gulls.

Our last meal in San Diego (not counting toaster waffles for breakfast) was takeaway from Rubicon Deli. Their sandwiches were pretty great, and the kids weren’t too crazy at dinner time. It was kind of the calm before the storm since we basically had to completely pack for our return trip after the kids had gone to bed.

The return trip was pretty uneventful. Ian screamed. Maya played with the iPad. All in all, it was our usual kind of flight. Thinking back on the trip, I wish we had substituted something else for our day at the New Children’s Museum. A trip to La Jolla to see the Birch Aquarium and take a hike along the beachside cliffs might have been time better spent. All in all though, I think it was a great trip. No, Ian still doesn’t fly well, but I do think he got more out of this vacation than the one to Denver. Maya loved her visit, and Sean and I loved it too! We now regularly discuss relocating to San Diego, though we aren’t sure we can stomach the sharp uptick in cost of living.