Our family just took a short (about three-day) trip to San Diego, California. Why, you ask? No particular reason, but perhaps a lot of little reasons combined. It was a school holiday last weekend (Rodeo Days is a four-day weekend for schoolchildren in Tucson); we had been itching to get back to California ever since
our trip to Disneyland a few years ago; we had some passes that would get us into a few museums for free; and lastly, we booked the hotel in celebration of our refinancing our house last fall!
So we got the jump on the holiday weekend, leaving one day early, on Wednesday, Feb. 20th. As luck would have it, we drove through a massive storm front going west. For us, the storm manifested as an unusually cold, nasty rainstorm. By the time the front made it to Tucson and Sahuarita, it had turned into
a snow storm. That's right...due to our vacation, we missed the heaviest snow to fall (and stick!!) on Tucson in almost six years. Our kids were legitimately upset they missed the snow, and I confess to feeling a little jealous seeing all my friends' snow-filled pictures on Facebook (I do love me some cold weather, after all!).
At least we got to see some snow on the drive. The storm managed to leave a healthy "dump" of snow atop the mountains outside San Diego...
...and then, when we made it to the beach, we forgot all about the snow for a while, in favor of something else we don't see too often in AZ:
Lots and lots of water!!
The girls loved it at first. They kicked their shoes off, running to and fro and screaming with delight every few minutes. They played with the washed-up seaweed, they rolled up their pants, they drew patterns in the sand...all was well. But as they ventured closer and closer to the ocean (which had some choppy waves, probably leftover from the storm), their balance grew clumsier. Celeste fell face-first into the sand at one point, and got washed over with surf. She started shivering (it was evening, after all), and I had to take her shirt off and put my jacket on her.
A few minutes later, Aurora met a worse fate...she walked out too far into the water and was knocked over by a small wave. She was completely submerged and was rolled over and over a few times before coming to rest in the sand, completely soaking wet (and wearing a
sweater, no less!). Unsurprisingly, her weeping and wailing was something to hear. Somehow, we managed to assemble everyone together for a family picture on the beach...
...before hustling everyone back to the hotel for a change of clothes and a nice warm shower. It cheered the girls up. However, the damage was done...Aurora developed a fear of the beach that would persist for the rest of the trip (more on that later)
Here's the view from our hotel room. As you can see, there's a road a mere few feet away from the window. That road is, in fact, a freeway on-ramp! There was a lot of traffic noise outside the hotel, and it was a little scary to walk along the sidewalk beside that on-ramp. However, we had no other complaints with the hotel; the service was friendly and prompt, the room was clean and comfortable (if a little small); and it was in a very convenient location (five minutes from Sea World, ten minutes from the beach, walking distance from Old Town San Diego)!
After our beach adventure, we spent the rest of the evening looking for a place to eat. Nathan originally had a barbecue restaurant in mind for our dinner, but it turned out to be located inside a bar, and we couldn't bring the kids inside. Bummer! We had to settle for a family-style Italian restaurant not far away. It was comfy, but looked as if its glory days were over. Still, Nathan and I really enjoyed our food, and the girls loved their pizza!
We collapsed into bed that night tired, but happy. Legoland was coming up the next day!
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