California Vacation 2014, part 1

On April 25th we had to wake up at 3:30 am! We drove our car to Tony's work (Con-Way) which is very close to the airport, then took a taxi from there.

We got to Salt Lake Airport, through security, and to our gate by 5:00 for our 6:30 flight. 

With as many employees and few flights out of Salt Lake that JetBlue has, I was worried that we might not make it on our flight. I had upgraded our status with some super passes (we get four each year and put you on the standby list above employees with regular tickets) and it did the trick! 

We were so excited because we even got assigned seats an hour before the flight.

I had prepared the kids for the possibility that we may not get to sit together, but we all got to sit in the same row (3BC,EF) with just one person in between Tony & I and the kids!

It was the kids' first airplane flight, and Tony's and my first time on JetBlue. We loved our flight and it was one of the highlights of the trip!

Part of my responsibility for flying free is to help clean the airplane after the flight. I had to take a picture of my blue gloves because they reminded me of "Two by two, hands of blue" from Firefly ;)

"Woo hoo, we love mom's job!"

We picked up our rental car--a white Kia, then checked into our hotel. We called that morning because we didn't have hotel reservations since we didn't know if we would get to California Friday or Saturday. They not only gave us an amazing deal for the night, they let is check in super early!

Next we ate breakfast at Denny's.  Tony had the Philly cheesesteak omelet; I had eggs over easy, sausage and tons of bacon which I shared with the kids; and Faith & Christian shared sticky bun pancakes and a blueberry muffin popper sundae. 

Christian asked why California had better everything than Utah, especially the food. Do we deprive our kids of going out to eat so badly that they're in awe of Denny's food? It was really good, though :)

We walked the very short distance from our motel (which is basically right across the street), then waited in a long line and finally got into Disneyland!!

We rode Pirates of the Caribbean, a The Haunted Mansion and our family favorite, Splash Mountain.

We then did Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. We were hungry by then and bought a turkey leg and giant chimichanga to share for lunch.

That afternoon we went to California Adventure and went on Soaring Over California, saw a trailer for Maleficant in the Bug's Life theater (not cool that the 4D movie was on hiatus) and saw the Muppets.

That evening we went shopping at WalMart and picked up sandwich fixings, snacks, and a cooler for lunch the rest of the week. We grabbed nuggets from Chic-fil-A for dinner.

We loved that there were fans and this elephant folded out of washcloths in our room :)

The next morning, April 26th, we loaded up on boiled eggs, fruit and mini muffins from the hotel's continental breakfast and drove to San Diego to visit Sea World.

It was cool weather and sprinkled for a tiny bit, but mostly the day was beautiful.

These cleaner fish eat tiny bits of dead skin off your hands and tickled so bad! We loved them so much that we had to make many visits back to them throughout the day.

We went to the Blue Horizons show which featured dolphins and other animals, high divers and aerialists. We snacked on Easter colored pull & peel licorice which Tony had gotten a few days before on 50% off clearance :)

We then went to the Pets Rule show which was a hoot. We loved watching all the talented dogs and cats, and I felt less guilty enjoying this show since it doesn't have wild animals forced to live as prisoners in captivity. Sorry, my conscience as an animal activist and non-practicing vegetarian sometimes comes out.

We ate lunch in our car, in the parking lot. The kids decided to eat laying in trunk with seats down so it was open to the front. We had sandwiches that I had made and packed that morning, baby carrots and little bags of chips.

We went around and looked at the exhibits,

and saw some orca's at play.

At the Shamu show, the kids wanted to sit just four rows up from the front, well within the "soak zone." And oh boy, did they get soaked! Tony and I managed to shield ourselves from the worst of it and only got a bit wet.

Faith and Buddy fed the sea lions,

petted the sting rays,

got squished penny souvenirs,

and held starfish.

We saw the Madagascar show which had character costumes & singing and dancing with a band, but it wasn't our favorite. 

We also went to the Sea Lions Live show. It was so funny! We also loved the guy who opened for the show who danced to (and like) dirty dancing and flashdance.

We enjoyed the different aquariums,

and bought some stuff at the gift shop. The kids got some money from Tammy and my mom, and were good budgeters this trip.

We thought salad sounded good for dinner, so we drove to Encinadas and went to a Souplantation. It was delicious and Christian managed to plow through 8, yes eight, ice cream cones for dessert! They were mini cones, but still! Here he is making a straw wrapper snake grow.

We stopped for cream sunscreen at CVS because our trial size spray sunscreen "for men" didn't do the job and we were all a bit burnt.

Called mom on the way home & heard that Skittles had been whining and barking. She wouldn't sleep with them because she wanted to watch for us from the front room window :(

We wore my little Buddy out so thoroughly that we had to wake him to get him out of the car. We watched the last part of Little Mermaid on t.v. and turned in for the night.