We have been looking forward to this vacation for some time now. We set aside money via the app Digit and collected our spare change for our planned activities. We ended up with $526 through the app Digit and about $350 in change. We knew ahead of time this would be plenty to cover the extra activities we wanted to do.
It was our kid’s first opportunity to fly on an airplane and they were very excited right up until the time arrived. I assured them that everyone gets a little nervous when they fly so it was ok to have some hesitation. The flight went fairly smooth, no hiccups outside of an one hour delay at our layover in Denver. We arrived in San Diego on Saturday, June 3rd. We had the entire week somewhat mapped out but left a couple free days for relaxing or unexpected occurrences. We did a lot of relaxing on this vacation whether it was in our room, by the pool, or by the ocean. Relaxing is unusual for us when we vacation because I plan out every minute of the trip. I had to stop that. It became too overwhelming to stick to a schedule and mimicked our home life way too much. Prior to the vacation we planned two major activities, San Diego Zoo and Universal Studios Hollywood. We selected what we thought were the least busy days… a Monday and a Wednesday. It worked out great because neither park was overly crowded. The drive to Universal Studios Hollywood is normally a 2 ½ hour drive but we experienced the Los Angeles rush hour traffic. The drive ended up being 3 hours. The drive was worth it because we had a blast. After leaving Universal Studios that evening we took the opportunity to see the Hollywood sign and The Staples Center.
This vacation also gave us the chance to try restaurants that aren’t here in St. Louis. We tried In and Out Burger, Hash House a Go Go, Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles, and Filippi’s Pizza. Some we ate on multiple occasions because we enjoyed it so much. Don and I always fit in a date night while on vacation now that our kids are old enough to stay at the hotel alone. We opted for a restaurant with an ocean view and a cigar bar that happened to serve ice cream and pastries (no alcohol). It was a great time.
We visited several oceans; Pacific Beach, Mission Park Beach, La Jolla Beach (the prettiest minus the seaweed), and Coronado Beach. Mission Park Beach was the most kid friendly because they had an amusement park right by the water. It included all kinds of rides, arcade games, miniature golf, and shopping.
On Day 6, Jordan was ready to come home. I couldn’t believe it after all the fun we’d had. All the kids claimed they missed their own beds. The Sheraton has pretty nice beds so the comfort wasn’t an issue. I just think my kids are a little different. Most of the trip was cloudy but still nice. The last two days were nice and sunny. It was the perfect way to wind down the trip. We left on Saturday June 10th. The plane ride was bumpy and I don’t think Jordan wants to fly ever again. Jurnee said if her first flight going was anything like the one coming back home, she would never want to fly again. I don’t care what they say; if I plan a vacation they will want to go. They just have to complain a little and I’m used to that.
I won’t bore you with the day by day details. Instead I’ll just include pictures from our vacation with the captions to describe.
Despite us saving up and getting discount rooms, this was still one of our more expensive vacations because we stayed an entire week. That meant purchasing food out everyday all day. The kids also need their own room at this point in order for me to stay sane so that meant paying the discounted rate for two rooms. We cut as many corners as possible but enjoying the vacation is always top priority. We definitely did that!
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Johnson Family Workshop 