San Diego Getaway Part I

We Bears don't travel much, and when we do, we don't go far. When we found out Bear had actually scored an entire week off work for the first time in eons, we decided to turn our day trip to the San Diego Zoo into a 3-day mini getaway, and to cram as much fun and yummy food as possible into one gas tank's worth of travel. I think we did pretty well!

We decided to gamble on a "name your own price" deal at Priceline, where you have to submit your credit card number in advance and don't get to choose your exact hotel. It gave us a ridiculous deal on the Westgate Hotel, which by all reviews I found online, is luxurious to the max and way beyond what we would've expected for a Days Inn type of rate! We arrived prepared to feel like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, totally out of our element--we don't even own luggage and carried our stuff in a duffel bag, a gym bag, and four reusable grocery bags--but aside from the mandatory valet service (for which they charged us out the wazoo, thank you very much!), it turned out they save their most basic rooms for Priceline customers, and our experience wasn't that posh at all. I was a little bummed that we had to lug our own stuff up to the room, which didn't have a mini fridge for the girls' all-important chocolate milk and juice stash, and that our room was located just above a fire station, so we got to hear sirens all night long. The shower was an interesting experience, as I'm pretty sure they replaced the shower nozzle with a power washer! In any case, given what's going on in Japan right now and how fortunate we were to be on vacation in the first place, I certainly wasn't about to complain about what comedian Louis C.K. would call these "white people problems," but for the sake of anyone planning a trip to San Diego anytime soon, I'll say I wouldn't go out of my way to stay there again. (If I had it to do over again, I'd have gone for the one-bedroom suite at Park Manor, which probably would've ended up costing the same as Westgate once the valet charge was factored in and would've made for cozier sleeping arrangements; plus, Park Manor has a free shuttle!)

So, to the fun! We arrived on Sunday and spent the day at the zoo with our friends and their four kids, who were on their last day of a similar vacation and headed back toward home afterward. We were glad that our trips at least overlapped by a day, and we all enjoyed the zoo and the deliciousyummyscrumptious carb-fest they introduced us to over at Graziano's Pizzeria afterward!

Here are a few pics from the zoo:




We'd had to stop and buy Ellie some new shoes on the way there because hers got misplaced, so I had to take a pic of the sparkly pink cuteness on the way up to the gorillas:


On Monday, we headed to Richard Walker's Pancake House for breakfast. The girls had chocolate chip pancakes, and although part of me wanted to try the apple pancake (it's a pie thinly disguised as breakfast food, really), the rest of me wanted to live to see the rest of the day, so I went with the strawberry waffle. Yum. Fifty bucks for breakfast was a little steep by my standards, so I wouldn't necessarily go there on a regular basis, but we weren't disappointed by the food!


After breakfast, we had some calories to burn off, so we headed over to Seaport Village and hung out until it was time for our whale-watching cruise.

When we got to the Hornblower harbor, my paranoia about our boat being overturned by a rogue whale were alleviated when I saw the size of it--being a "three-hour tour" and all, I was glad that our ship was no Minnow!

Unfortunately, the whales were shy that day and all we saw were a few dolphins and a group of sea lions lounging on an abandoned deck. Oh, well--the ride was fun, save for a tiny touch of the yuckies when the waters got a little rough, and although Keira was highly disappointed at the lack of whales, we had a good time and were given vouchers for another trip next time we're in town. Plus, the waves rocked Ellie down for a lovely nap right in the middle of the trip:

I haven't the slightest idea why I'm giving an upside-down peace sign in this photo, but I love having a few pics of all of us together--they're hard to come by!

Since Priceline customers only get a single king-sized bed at the Westgate, Kiwi slept on the floor in her sleeping bag, and Ellie slept in the pack-n-play. Here they are, all tuckered out for the night:

This was Bear's favorite day of our trip, but my favorite day was yet to come!