San Diego Getaway Part II

On Tuesday, we decided to try out Lucky's Breakfast in North Park. Because of the stellar food? No. The luxurious ambiance? Uh-uh. The efficient service? Nope. The reviews of this place said to "leave your high horse at the door," because it's run by an ancient Chinese man and his wife...alone. There's counter-only seating, and they get to you when they get to you--in between taking orders, going back to the tiny kitchen to prepare them, serving, and cleaning up. We loved the simplicity, and even though the food was definitely nothing we couldn't have cooked ourselves, it cost us a grand total of $14 for the four of us...and Lucky even took the time to cut up the girls' pancakes for them before he served them. How cute is that?

While we waited for our turn, Bear perused the paper (hey, the news ain't good) and Kiwi made hungry puppy-dog eyes:


After breakfast, our plan was to hit the Balboa Park museums, but they were packed, so Plan B was to head to La Jolla and check out the Birch Aquarium. We got there just in time to see divers going into this giant aquarium to clean the glass and feed the fish, and Keira said, "Hey, Mommy? Can I be a diver when I grow up? You're gonna have to buy me one of those suits." You got it, kid.


You may already know that it's male seahorses who carry and birth their young--hence Ross Gellar's not-so-comforting "I wish I were a seahorse" comment to Rachel when she was a week overdue on "Friends"--but I, for one, have never seen anything like this video of one giving birth. Allow me to take this moment to express my extreme gratitude that I will never have young humans explode out of my abdomen with what appears to be the force of a gunshot!


Here are the girls just outside the aquarium; note that they still register joy on their faces, having not been exposed to the above video:


Next up was La Jolla Cove, where we had lunch and then walked down to the beach. The sea lions hang out on the rocks and swim in the waves right along with the surfers, and I had so much fun watching them try to get washed back onto the rocks with their friends.


We hung out on the beach for a while, and aside from Bear taking a spill on some rocks while carrying Kiwi (thankfully, they were both OK), it was a gorgeous day:

At this point, Bear and I were pretty worn out, and we decided to try out Kid Ventures, an indoor play area that has a full cafe right in the middle, so parents can enjoy coffee drinks, sandwiches, snacks, smoothies, and free wireless internet while their kids play. This...place...is...amazing. I wish I'd thought of it myself! In the same main room as the cafe, it has a huge pirate ship and castle:

Off the main room, it has individual themed rooms (nursery, disco theater, fire station, supermarket, art studio, library, and diner), and inside each room, they've thought of everything. The accessories and costumes are organized, the staff keeps all of the toys clean and in the right places, and each room even has its own music piped in that goes with its theme. Everything caters to kids' imagination, and the attention to detail was unbelievable. It's totally worth the drive to take the girls back sometime, and at $12 for the first kid and $8 per sibling, it's not a bad deal for a day's worth of unlimited free play (and parental relaxation)!

To my utter shock, it wasn't the theater, but the nursery that captured Kiwi's attention, and that's where she spent most of her time. I love that they have a very multi-cultural selection of dolls!

ARRRR! say the pirate girls.

Juice break! We almost never buy juice boxes because I don't like creating the trash, but I'd brought a big pack of them along on the trip, and the girls were stoked. The trip might as well have been sponsored by Capri Sun (and chocolate goldfish crackers):

We really wanted to try El Indio for dinner, which was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives and came highly recommended by our friends...but alas, we didn't have big enough appetites when we left Kid Ventures, and ended up heading back to the hotel room for the night. This had been, by far, my favorite day of the trip, even though it hadn't even been on our official itinerary!

Wednesday was departure day, and although we had a great time, sleeping on a rock-hard bed with fussy girls in the same room wasn't exactly a recipe for quality rest--I was definitely ready to come back home! Before we left, we stopped at The Broken Yolk for breakfast, which is where Adam Richman of "Man vs. Food" was defeated by their notorious 12-egg omelet. We had ZERO desire to take on that challenge, but the fruit boat Bear ordered turned out to be his own personal episode of "Man vs. Fruit":

(For the record, fruit won.)

We hit the Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park on our way out of the city, and although it's an awesome hands-on museum, it was pretty much over the girls' heads and didn't have much that applied to their age group. Kid City is a fun little section for kids under 5, but after the pure awesomeness that was Kid Ventures, the girls weren't very impressed and were ready to head home before long. Here are Bear and Ellie-Bug, doing a little building before we left:

Whew! We definitely found a lot to do in three and a half days, and all without spending a fortune or using up an entire tank of gas. Keira cried as if her heart was breaking when she found out we weren't going to live at the hotel forever, but the girls are both already enjoying being back at home and getting back into their routine. Although we hadn't purposely scheduled the trip around the time change, messing up their schedules and exhausting them every day will probably go a long way toward making sure they're ready for bed at their normal time, and not an hour later, from here on out! Hopefully, we can make this an annual trip, but for now, we've had enough adventure and are ready for a few quiet days at home. Thanks for a great time, San Diego!