West Coast tour, and a Surf!

After our two days at Disneyland, we had Saturday night where we were going to stay somewhere along the coast, as we couldn't get into the resort in San Diego, where we were staying for the next few nights.  We had known this for quite some time, and as Phil was the surfer, we decided he could choose, and organise where we would stay that night.  So we woke up Saturday morning, and still had nowhere to stay - surprise, surprise!  We got that organised, and headed up to Huntington Beach.

It is a beautiful spot, and apparently renowned for great surf (?)  It has this amazing pier, below, and is renowned for it's 19 mile long stretch of beach, and conditions which make it surfable all year around.  So of course, this is where we had to go!

I must admit, it was pretty nice to see the ocean after such a long time, and even nicer to stay right by it!  We checked in, and all walked over to the beach, to be greeted by a beach curfew sign, which I thought was pretty novel!  It was a cool day, and we had not brought any beach gear over with us, as we were just going to go for a walk and have a look around, but the boys had other ideas.

Luke and Ryan were happy just to dig in the sand, but by the end of it, everyone had been for a swim except me - it has to be really hot, before I am getting in!

There was a restaurant, called Duke's on the Beach - I think there are only 3 of them, one in Huntington, one in Hawaii and one somewhere else.  Phil and I had been to the one in Hawaii on our honeymoon, and this one was right on the beach, so we decided to have early dinner here, and watch the sun go down.  Obviously with our three little treasures, it was very different to 9 years ago, but was very lovely anyway!

After dinner we checked out a few surf shops, had a little walk along the board walk (the wind had picked up and it was really cold), and then headed home.  But not before we got some shots outside the surf shop, with Phil putting his hands and feet where Kelly Slater's had been - the Surfers Hall of Fame, and the boys being a bit crazy for a photo!

 

It was nice watching the sun go down.

 They love their beach volleyball - all the nets are set up, and obviously left up.  This was totally full of people playing, on Sunday morning.  It didn't seem to be a comp, it was just people coming along and using the facilities!

They also love their palm trees, as you can see in the photo below, they line the beach!

The boys badgered us enough to buy them a boogie board to surf the next day at the beach.  It was the same price as hiring it, but really - what good is a board in Colorado?  We would have had to pay excess luggage on the plane, so we used it here and in San Diego, and left it with the hire car people.  I think we also found the most gruesome one too - hopefully it is just a phase!

The next day everyone was excited to have a go on the boogie board, and Phil was really looking forward to getting out and having his first surf, all year!  Phil has really been missing the ocean, and surfing, but it hasn't been all bad - he has had some pretty good mountains to ski down instead!  First, he took all the boys out, and they had a go on the boogie board.  I can't remember if there wasn't a wetsuit small enough for Quinn, or if he just wasn't interested in surfing.  Anyway, he was tough and braved the elements, just in his boardies!

Finally, they had had enough, and were happy to play in the sand, while Phil got to go out in the water.  I think he enjoyed just being out there!(Just for the record, that is not Phil in the ocean shot below!)

We had to check out of our hotel, and decided to go for a bit of a drive North, before we went down to San Diego.  We headed up the coast, towards LA - although we only got to Malibu.  The drive was not completely via the coast, but we got a bit of an idea!

 It is busy, as you would expect, and lots of palm trees, like the movies!  It was really pretty, the way the mountains just about came down to the coast.  We got to Malibu, and had a little look around.  The beaches are difficult to reach, as a lot of them are private, with no public access.  We found these houses built precariously close to the water.  Beautiful views (and amazing houses), but I think I would be worried they would be washed away on their sand foundations!

We had to turn around, as we had a bit of a drive to our hotel, but stopped to take a few shameless 'selfies' along the way!  The boys were over pictures, though we didn't realise, we weren't really capturing any background anyway, which was the whole point of the exercise.

 



We got to our resort in San Diego late in the afternoon.  They had a boat cruise, which just crossed the bay where we were staying, so we got on that.  The boys were going a bit crazy from being in the car all day, and didn't improve after being put on a boat, so we headed back!

We stayed at Mission Bay, and below, is a photo of the marina, where our boat departed from.

It was really nice to be somewhere warm, and by the water.  We stayed here for 5 days, and it was really well equipped.  It had a beautiful pool and spa area, as well as being on the bay, so the boys often went down and played in the sand, although it didn't look great for swimming.  Phil went  for a drive, a couple of days, hired a board, and went for a surf.  There was a games room that the boys had fun in, and I enjoyed laying by the pool reading my book! So apart from SeaWorld, and the day of my birthday, we didn't really get out a lot.

There is heaps to see and do in San Diego, but we were happy to relax, and the boys found some friends to play with, so we hung by the pool, a lot of the time.  On my birthday we drove up to La Jolla beach, where they have seals which have overtaken the beach, and just congregate, sunning themselves.  They have become a bit of a tourist attraction, but it is very congested with traffic.  We ended coming back to Mission Beach, close to us, and having a late lunch/ early dinner, and watching the sun go down.  

 

There was a boulevard which you could walk along, so we had a walk, took in the sights, dodged the people on skates, had an ice cream, and then headed back!



SeaWorld - San Diego



We had a few days in San Diego to recover fro Disneyland, and decided to go to Sea World.  I was not really expecting too much, as we have seen similar places in Australia, but it was really well worth going to.  As we walked in,  they had a lot of animals which were out with their handlers, such as a porcupine, llama, and the sloth which is just hanging around, below.  The people were more than happy to answer questions that anyone had about the animals.

I really wanted to see the shows at Sea World, I didn't even realise that they had rides.  There were 4 or 5 main shows, and they were shown a few times a day.  So we had mapped out a schedule, so that we could see them all!  We had some time before the first show, and went down to see the penguins. 

Across from the penguins, there was the Wild Arctic ride, which was like a flight simulator, which bumped and jerked all over the place as if you were in a helicopter, flying over the arctic.  When you got off, you walked through what it would have been like at a base camp in the North or South pole, and then through to see the Polar Bears.  It was really cold, but very well done. 

We still had time before the whale show, so we went on the 'Journey to Atlantis'  This was a big roller coaster ride, which went through water.  It went up really high, and spun you around, as well as getting a bit wet, so everybody was happy!

Our first show was the 'One Ocean', whale show.  They warn you everywhere that you can get wet, and although it wasn't too packed on the day we went, by the time we got to the show, the only seats were right up the back, or in the wet zone.  It was a nice sunny day, so we thought we could handle a little bit of a splash.  The whales were amazing, following instruction from their trainers, and they were huge!

They make a major splash with their tails, and we were about 4 rows back, and got pretty wet.  It was funny to watch everyone run when they start to splash, but it wasn't like they didn't warn you!  It is great to see the whales under the water as well, you can see in the photo above, that the side of the pool is clear.



The next stop was another show, called 'Pets Rule.'  Lucky for us, it was outdoors, and gave us a chance to dry off.   It was an arena which surrounded a stage, and had dogs which walked on their hind legs, and did tricks running through an obstacle course, cats which ran across a trapeze, pigs that performed on cue, and even kangaroos came out and were part of the show - I don't know how they trained them!  It was fun, and the boys really enjoyed that show.

 Walking through the park, we passed the seal enclosure.  We just missed feeding (shame!)  You could have purchased some of their smelly food to feed them, but we just got to see them laying around sunning themselves, and finishing off some food that other people were feeding them.

Next we went over to the cable cars, and took a ride across the bay.  It was very scenic, and a bit cool way up in the air.  They would only allow 4 in each cable car, so Phil went with Luke and Quinn, and Ryan and I went in another.

After this one, we needed a bot more of an action ride, so the boys had spotted the "Manta", which is the big roller coaster, and decided they had to go on it.  Quinn was too short to ride it, but was pretty pleased to sit in the test seat for photos, and pretend!

Phil took one of the boys first, then I had a go.  There wasn't much of a queue, so the boys wanted to keep going on it over and over.  They had a few goes, and Quinn was happy to pat the stingrays, until it was time to go and get some lunch.

We had lunch right beside the 'Shipwreck Rapids' which was very similar to the Grizzly River Run ride in California Adventure Park, which everyone loved, so we had to have a go! We queued for only a little while, but when we just made it to the front and were the next group on the ride, it stopped.  They had the mechanical people out checking what was going on.  Phil had been deliberating as to whether to go and get his jacket or not, and of course, Murphy's Law, as soon as he left, the ride started again, and it was our turn to get on.  The boys and I got on, and it was lots of fun, and we got very wet.  Phil made it back while we were half way around, and spoke to the attendant, telling them his family had gone without him, and could we stay on and he take the next ride with us. We were freezing, and squelching, but we did it, for him!





The last show of the day was the Blue Horizons Dolphin show.  They are very, very clever, and you are trying to watch everywhere, all at once, as there were dolphins jumping out of the water all over the place!  The people were doing acrobatics, diving and trapeze work, as well as the dolphins show - it was very entertaining, and a great way to end the day.