California Adventures 2013

We decided that we were going to surprise our kids with a last minute vacation to San Diego. The kids had no clue where we were going until Kai read the destination on the airport screens the day of departure. They were so excited even though they had no idea what we had planned for them. The first full day in California we drove an hour and a half north and surprised Kai and Jakob with Disneyland. We had such a fun time and actually got both kids to ride on Space Mountain. We ended up staying there for over 10 hours because we were just having the best time. Kai's favorite ride was Space Mountain and Jakob loved the Star Wars ride and Buzz Lightyear's laser ride. The next day we visited the San Diego Zoo. This zoo is ginormous at over 99 acres! We really enjoyed the polar bears, panda bears, and the reptile house. That night we went into downtown San Diego to eat at a burger dive called Hodad's. Hodad's was made famous on Diners, Drive-In's, and Dives and they serve the BEST and biggest cheeseburgers I have ever had! If you are ever in San Diego you must try Hodad's. You will NOT be disappointed, I promise! On Wednesday we surprised the kids with a trip to Legoland. This was Jakob's favorite place on the trip because the boy is obsessed with Legos. The rides are definitely geared toward kids age 3-12 but we enjoyed watching the kids have a good time. We spent only about 8 hours at Legoland because they actually close at 8 pm instead of staying open late like Disney. Mine and Mark's favorite part of Legoland was Miniland where there are landmarks like the US Capital, The White House, Las Vegas strip, and even Star Wars planets made entirely of Legos. We even got to see the world's largest Star Wars X-Wing made up of over 5.3 million Legos. That was a sight to see! On Thursday we went back to Legoland for about 4 hours to hang out in the waterpark. It was a very small waterpark with only about 3 or 4 good slides but the kids enjoyed being able to play in the water. After the waterpark we decided since we already had on our bathing suits that we needed to go to the Pacific Ocean and enjoy the beach. The water was freezing! We are used to the warm waters of the Gulf and the Atlantic Ocean (from our cruises) that the Pacific Ocean felt like thousands of little pins sticking our legs at once. Needless to say we didn't stay very long at the beach. We headed home on Friday and got home late very tired from our adventures. I am so thankful that Mark has a job that allows us to take our kids on surprise trips. We all love California and can't wait for our next adventure!