Day 2 San Diego

We woke up in the morning to no water in our hotel room. I mean, none from the tap and no ability to flush the toilet, which isn’t good first thing in the morning! John went outside to see that a pipe had burst in the street, and crews were there working on it. Water was flooding the street. Perhaps this would be a good excuse to get a rebate on tonight and be able to go to a new hotel.

We decided to go check out some beaches and areas of San Diego. We started with going to Coronado. We headed over the massive bridge to this area that is actually an island (I think?). Here’s a view off the bridge:

Once over the bridge, we travelled down the road towards the beach. On the way I spotted a Starbucks. Stop! Stop! Oh my, I’ve so missed my latte! Do I look like I’m enjoying it?

We had a latte, and the kids had hot chocolate. Yummmmm…

Then we headed to the beach to have a look.

Unfortunately the beaches had this nice little sign:

Someone told us that due to the flooding some sewage had leaked into the water north, and most of the beaches in this area were now contaminated. Yikes!

The we headed for La Jolla (pronounced La Hoya) on the advice of a friend. This area is a very neat little community with beautiful beaches.

The water was rough here, and you can see the waves smashing off the rocks on the shore:

and the same rocks after the wave:

There were a whole bunch of these little creatures living in holes on the cliff:

Kelsey hand fed one:

Here’s a view of the same rocks from the other side:

We then walked over to the beach were the seals live. This used to be a Children’s Beach, but the seals have taken it over as a place to have their babies in the winter. Unfortunately, last season a lot of people got really close to the seals and stressed them out, and all the babies were born premature and all died on the beach. So sad! So now they have a line drawn in the sand and they have volunteers who hang out there to stop people from getting too close. But, there are a large group of people who just want to kick the seals off of the beach so it can be used by humans again. We thought that was horrible, as there are so many beaches along here that humans can use, you think they could leave one for the wildlife.

We then drove down to Mission Bay, and stopped at Mission Beach. This is definately a surfing community, with a wonderful boardwalk that I’m sure is very lively in the summertime. Here’s Jorden walking the wall:

and a surfer going out into the water:

and then him surfing:

Jorden and Kelsey quite enjoyed watching the surfers.

January 14th

Well, yesterday when we returned to our hotel, the pipes were still busted and we had no water. I went to the manager and told him we would be unable to stay without water, and he agreed to give us a refund for that night so we could go to another hotel. So that worked out perfect for us! We packed our stuff up and decided to go get a room near Disney/Knotts so that we could get up in the morning and go to Knott’s Berry Farm for Jorden’s birthday. It took us about two and a half hours to make it to Anaheim due to traffic, and we arrived in the Disney area around 6:00. We went to the Desert Inn and they only had one night available for us, but we were all hungry for dinner and just wanted to get settled, so we took it. This is a pretty cute hotel with an indoor pool and fireworks viewing deck and is directly across the street from the entrance gate to Disneyland.

We decided just to walk over the Denny’s for dinner, then we found out that there were not going to be any Disney fireworks for the rest of January! What a drag, we were hoping to catch some. We had pondered doing a day at Disneyland, but since we had just done Disney World a few months ago (and that was our second time there) and we had done Disneyland the summer before last, that we had done enough Disney for awhile.

The next morning, the 14th, was Jorden’s 9th birthday!! We had left it up to him to either go to Knott’s, or do some other touristy things, and he decided on Knott’s. We went to Denny’s again for breakfast, and Jorden had a special pancake and we all sang Happy Birthday. After breakfast I went and booked a room at the hotel next door, the Del Sol, where we stayed last time we were at Disneyland. It’s also an okay, simple hotel with microwave and fridge, but outdoor pool. Brrr! We wouldn’t be using the outdoor pool this time! I don’t know if it was THAT cold, but we had just been in Mexico a long time so were freezing! We moved our stuff over to the room, and then headed off for Knott’s.

Before we left, I decided to check out the directions online on Knott’s website, and I happened to see a link for Events. On this page on their site I noticed that on this day if we brought a non-perishable food item for the local food bank, the $45 adult admission fee would be cut down to $16.95!!!!! Glad thing I checked!! That saved us quite a bit of cash.

We were the first in line at the gates at Knott’s, and brrr…it felt chilly. Before long though, the sun started heating us up.

The first thing we saw and road was Ghost Rider, a huge, old, wooden roller coaster. I figured (wrongly!) that a wooden coaster couldn’t be THAT bad, and so I agreed to go on. This was a mistake, for both Jorden and I, to choose such a ride for our first one. This coaster is bumpy, twisty, LONG, and jerky, and I absolutely hated every minute of it. Before it ended Jorden was in tears! Poor guy, I felt awful leading him off the ride crying (while everyone stared…probably thinking I was mean for taking him on there!! =)

After that, Jorden didn’t want to ride ANY more coasters, and unfortunately that’s what this park is made of. But Kelsey, she’s a maniac when it comes to these scary rides. She really digs them! So next we walked over to the Silver Bullet, which is a coaster where you hang, your feet dangling, and it turns you upside down 7 times.

Jorden and I watched Kelsey and John on this coaster, and I noticed right away that it looked pretty mellow, it went pretty slow. So when they got off, I let Kelsey talk me into trying it out. Well, John forgot to mention to me how much it goes upside down, and keep in mind that I get motion sick! Well the ride was tame, but for someone like me it’s not so great, and I wasn’t feeling well when I got off.

We then walked over to Montezuma’s Revenge, which is a coaster that goes 0 to 65 mph in about 2 and a half seconds. It takes off, does one loop, and kind of a half-pipe. John and Kelsey came off with huge smiles on their faces!

While they were on there, Jorden rode the Mexican Hat Party ride:

After that we spotted a really mellow looking coaster called the Jaguar that Jorden wanted to ride. So we rode it twice. Then Kelsey and Jorden wanted to ride a few more times, so John and I waited outside. The kids really liked riding together, not with the parents, they seemed to enjoy it more with each other! We thought this was great.

I should mention that there were absolutely NO LINES the entire day, it felt like we had the park to ourselves!

Next, Kelsey went to ride this crazy pendulum ride. After this it was time to go catch the Old West Stunt Show, which was quite funny and entertaining, the kids loved it.

Then we wandered back to the Xcellerator. This roller coaster is absolutely mental, it goes 0 to 85 MILES PER HOUR in only 2.3 SECONDS!! There was no way I was going on that ride, and Kelsey wanted to but wanted a snack first. We decided to let them have the big gooey ice cream sundaes they wanted since it was Jorden’s birthday! Afterwards, Jorden and I watched as John and Kelsey rode this crazy thing, that also goes straight in the air and comes straight back down again!

We then went into the Ghost Town area (which was amusing, because with the amount of park attendance today, it really WAS a ghost town! =). We stopped in the saloon for the show. Now, John’s absolute worst fear when watching these types of shows is that somehow he’ll end up getting picked to go up in front of everybody in the show, he HATES that. Well guess what?? He got picked and dragged up on stage! The kids and I had a good laugh at Dad’s expense! =)

After this show, we hung around a bit, and then the kids looked at some souvenirs they wanted to buy before we left. Jorden took a photo with a nice lady, or so he thought

Then we headed around and took a look at the crazy log ride. It was too cold to be soaked, so we didn’t go on, but enjoyed watching and seeing all the unsuspecting people watching on the bridge get COMPLETELY drenched from the splash of the ride…haha.

Then John and Kelsey decided to go on Rip Tide, which looks like a slow moving, mellow ride…..until it starts spinning like crazy! I couldn’t believe Kelsey didn’t come off this crying, or worse…puking.

That’s little Kelsey and John!

We then took this ride that just lifts you into the sky to see the amazing views. Here’s a photo of the wooden roller coaster from up there:

and the tangled mess of coasters:

Jorden then road Wipeout, which looked like a simple ride, but which ended up being fast and going in circles. Jorden came off of that not very impressed, as it went too fast too long.

After that we grabbed a strawberry funnel cake to share between us all (I LOVE FUNNEL CAKE!!). Then the kids road Jaguar coaster another five or six times. After that, Kelsey was rided-out, and Jorden was also looking wiped out. So we left the park early back to our hotel.

After a short nap at the hotel, Jorden decided to pick the Rainforest Cafe in downtown Disney for his birthday dinner. So we headed there.

On the way we stopped at Build-a-bear. This kids love this place! Last summer when we were here the kids made their own bears, and Jorden had his with him on this trip. So we went in so the kids could buy their bears some clothes. They have everything their, and Jorden chose a football outfit complete with helmet, football and cleats for his bear. He also bought a skateboard for him (of course!). Then when Jorden wasn’t looking, I picked up an outfit for his bear to put away for when we get home, as I suspect he’s going to be spending some time with the cardiologist at Children’s Hospital. It was doctor’s scrubs, complete with hat, face mask, and everything and a doctor’s kit with stuffed versions of a needle, blood pressure thingy, stethoscope and some other things. Kelsey also bought an outfit with Mickey hat and gloves, and she dressed her Winnie-the-pooh in it.

Jorden was tired at this point and wouldn’t pose for a photo!

We headed to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner, which is a really neat place to go with kids.

After dinner we let Jorden order the Volcano, which is a humongous $12 dessert! He ended up only taking a few bites, and telling us he wasn’t feeling well. That’s NOT like Jorden! So we all had a little bit, and then we headed back to the hotel for bed.