For the second year now we made our way to San Diego for Thanksgiving. We left Anaheim early on Thanksgiving day and made our way down the coast. It was a bit of a rough ride. All of our kids usually do so well in the car but poor Cole did not react well in our rental. Hot sun beating in, windy roads along the coast and high windows resulted in a poor boy who had his first run in with car sickness. As a kid I used to get so sick in the car so I could relate to the poor fellow and the trip took probably took double what we were expecting with all the breaks we needed to take. We were beyond thrilled to make it to Drew's uncle and aunt's and get out of the car! Later that afternoon, we checked-in to our hotel and wasted no time getting to the beach and hitting the pool. The kids had a blast. We stayed at the Navy Lodge right in Coronado for our visit and it's simply just a great place for us - and it's right on a beautiful beach to boot!
Grammy and Eliza getting their toes wet - Eliza was not a fan....yet....
In the evening we headed back to the Luikens for a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner. It was just lovely and they are so hospitable!
The next morning we bummed around the pool again - hit the beach, toured the Hotel del Coronado, ate some delicious Cuatro Milpas mexican food and just relaxed after a busy few days.
The following day we went in search of tide pools and checked out Point Loma. Unfortunately the low tide just wasn't enough to check out the pools but we had a great time exploring around and watching the surfers.
In the evenings we would find our way back to the Luikens and enjoy the the evening with the whole crew. When we arrived this night Uncle George had built the kids the huge fort. They loved it and enjoyed watching ping pong matches and having snacks in their hideout. They also made quite the game out of trying to stay away from Auntie Pat's kisses, but by the end it seemed like they were trying to get caught.
The first day, when we arrived the Luikens had sent up a treasure hunt for our kids with goodie bags at each clue. When I heard there would be a treasure hunt and gave a small gift idea to Sheila for the kids I just expected one prize at the end of the hunt. However, they spoiled our kids much more than expected and their goodie bags kept them busy each night while the adults got a chance to catch up. Our kids were over the moon with their new toys.
Eliza still plays with her princesses daily!
The boys loved building their mixels in the evening and at home you can often find them playing with and rebuilding them.
On our final full day we tried again for the tidal pools and had success! We found really neat beaches in La Jolla and the kids loved poking around at all the sea anemones and watching the pelicans over the water.
We also found Seal Rock and enjoyed watching these fellows for a while. Eliza kept commenting on how smelly they were and would say at them - you stink - go take a bath in the ocean! We met up with the Luikens for a quick Mexican meal and then went back to the hotel for a little break before dinner with them again.
We had such a great time visiting family and enjoying San Diego. The boys were once again quite taken with Danny and Jacob - they think it is pretty cool that these guys would pay attention to them. Thank you Luikens for you generosity and hospitality - it was so nice visiting with you all again!
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