I spent the week between Christmas and New Year with Mei's family in San Diego. We had torrential rainfall in Southern California just before Christmas, and it cleared just in time for our visit, but rain is predicted again for Wednesday, so we tried to plan around that possibility. Our first adventure is to the Wild Animal Park, part of the San Diego Zoo. (They are changing their name to Safari Park.) This park differs from most zoos by having large areas of minimally fenced enclosures where large animals can roam fairly freely. For those of us who haven't been to Africa, it's amazing to see elephants, giraffes, rhinos actually strolling. The park itself is huge but the area near the entrance has more typical zoo-like animal enclosures for smaller critters. There's an entire area that we didn't get close to which houses North American animals. The park has a fairly basic tram ride that takes you around the main large African animal areas. You pay extra to either get closer to the animals, to see areas not included in the basic tram (for instance, the Asian animal area), or to see parts of the park not open to the public. Strollers are definitely needed for younger kids. My friend Alisa lives near by and she and her daughter Allegra joined us for the afternoon. The kids all seemed to enjoy the various animals in the park. I was most amazed by the 1 1/2 day old baby elephant! We were told that the baby was born with the entire pack in attendance. A park volunteer told us that the pack members would approach the baby to introduce themselves and meet her. There were quite a few young elephants of various ages in the pack.
In the evening, we had dinner at Kansas City BBQ, a restaurant that advertised having been in the movie Top Gun! Of course, Stephen the movie buff had to visit. It turned out the food was really good, and they had some baked beans with an amazing sauce, really the best beans I've ever had! Mason helped his dad with some ribs and gnawed them down to the bone! He definitely got that trait from his Po po (my mom)!
Wednesday did bring the rain that was predicted. San Diego is not designed for indoor activities (even malls are outdoor). The hotel concierge suggested the San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park. It turned out that pretty much every family with kids had the same idea! The place was packed. It's not a large museum but they had some excellent exhibits, including dinosaur fossils, live lizards and reptiles, and crystal and jewelry. The tiny cafe was completely overwhelmed by the crowds though, and lines for the various nature movies were very long. Mason watched a 3D movie about a Hawaiian coral reef with Stephen and I. Some of the 3D effects were a little too much for him, but he was able to sit through the whole thing.
Thursday was clear but cold. Alisa and Alle were able to join us again, this time with Derek, Alisa's husband and Alle's dad. The Holiday Bowl is played in Qualcomm stadium and the two teams in it this year are Washington and Nebraska. So that's why all the tourists from those places! As part of the festivities, there is a balloon parade near our hotel. The idea is kind of like the Tournament of Roses Parade for the Rose Bowl, but with large balloons (like the Macy's Thanksgiving parade) and much smaller scale. The two competing teams' bands marched along with various high school bands from far away states and the balloons were all perfect for young kids. Alle and Neve remembered each other from the Park visit and got to be fast friends, bonding over the Nutcracker (which they'd both seen earlier in the month, at different venues). After the parade and a seafood lunch at a nearby restaurant, we all went to tour the USS Midway, which is a decommissioned aircraft carrier now serving as a museum. Derek served in the Navy (he's now a commercial pilot) so we had a private tour guide, which was great since the carrier is gigantic and there was so much to see. The tour starts in the hangar bay, where the planes are stored when not on deck. They had exhibited there lots of old restored combat airplanes, tons of cockpits that visitors could sit in (popular with both kids and adults!), flight stimulators. We didn't even go down to the lower decks. The flight deck was really cool. They had more combat planes and helicopters, including the Tomcat which is the plane made famous in the movie "Top Gun" (I feel the need...the need for speed). As they did in the hangar bay, some of the larger helicopters were opened so you could walk inside them. They also had 'standee' figures showing the various coloured uniforms for the different deck crew members. From the flight deck, you can go down into the admiral's quarters (fancy and relatively spacious), radar room and dining area. Derek explained how planes land on the deck as well as how they are shot off by the catapult. The whole place is really amazing, and I can imagine spending a whole day just exploring it. The entry fee includes an audio tour, for those who didn't bring their own personal tour guide. Before we could explore the whole place, it was past time for Mason to take a nap. Neve came with me and the Martin's as we walked further up the waterfront while Mei took Mason back to the hotel. There is a series of outdoor sculptures along the walkway which the girls loved. We stopped at the Maritime Museum, which consists of a series of old tall ships (including the HMS Surprise, which was most recently in the movie "Master and Commander"), submarines and a ferry boat, which sold hot drinks. While Derek went to explore the Surprise, Alisa and I sat on the ferry deck sipping hot drinks and catching up, while the girls played Nutcracker on the small stage. Pretty soon, it was late afternoon and the sun was setting. We all walked back to our hotel where the Martin's picked up their car and Neve and I returned to our room.
Once Stephen returned from a visit with relatives and Mason woke from his nap, we walked to the Gaslamp for an Italian dinner. Mason ate some crab, lobster ravioli, steak from the adult's dinners, while Neve had some really yummy spaghetti and meatballs.
Friday morning was even chillier but again sunny. After packing up and checking out of the hotel, we drove over to Balboa Park to give the kids a chance to run around a bit before we hit the road back to Los Angeles. The Park is full of different types of museums and we parked near the Organ Pavillion and a Japanese Garden, which had a koi pond that the kids loved. This looks like a great place for families when the weather is nicer.
All in all, despite some uncooperative weather, I had a great time and I think the kids enjoyed it too.
Some of the pics I took can be seen here.
1 comment:
Sounds like a great trip!
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