San Diego

When Claire was only a few weeks old, Jason and I booked flights to go visit our dear friends the Brenks in San Diego over Memorial Day weekend. Neither Jason nor I had ever been to San Diego before, and what better reason for Claire to experience her first airplane flight than to go visit some of the most prominent members of our London family.

When we got to the airport, we learned that our flight to Chicago was delayed so much that we would miss our connection to San Diego.  United kindly booked us on a direct flight to San Diego on Continental.  Yeah!  (note: it is a looooong flight to the West Coast - like we could practically fly to London in the same amount of time)

Claire was fortunately in a great mood - ready for her first flight!

She was a superb little traveler.  She played on our laps, ate a few times, and took a couple of short cat naps on the flight.  She was OBSESSED with the clear plastic cups the airline served our drinks in.  Who needs "real" toys?

We arrived at the airport around 3pm, and Megan and Andrew picked us up.  We spent Wednesday afternoon hanging out at Casa Brenk on the back patio in the glorious sunshine and 70 degree weather.  Claire lasted until 5:30 before she headed to bed - following mommy and daddy's lead of staying up as long as possible to get onto local time as soon as possible.

Thursday morning, after an early 5:30am wake up time by both kiddos, we headed off to La Jolla.  Jason and I insisted on pronouncing it "La Hollah" and taught Andrew to say hollah.  He then called me Auntie Hollah for the rest of the trip.

Sea Lions!

After walking through town, we headed over to La Jolla Shores to the playground so Andrew could run off some steam and Claire could sunbathe.  (No, she didn't really.  She just needed a diaper/outfit change)

See?  Fully clothed.

Friday, we spent the morning at Mission Beach and had a yummy lunch along the boardwalk.  SeaWorld is very close to here, but we're saving that for another trip when Claire is a little older.

First dip of the toes in sand

That afternoon, we scoped out Seaport Village along the waterfront in downtown San Diego.  Claire pressured Jason into ordering this VERY large Margarita.

Steve was on a business trip in Boston until Friday night, so until he returned, we all rode in Megan's car.  I, of course, was the lucky one who got to sit in the back crammed between 2 car seats.  It was fun keeping the little ones entertained except when Andrew had a particularly messy snack session with his peanut butter and jelly sandwich and goldfish.

On Saturday, we ventured out to Coronado island (it's not really an island though, it's a Peninsula).  We walked along the beach and explored the town before having yummy Mexican for lunch)

We spent the afternoon at home at the park down the street and in the backyard checking out all sorts of bugs

and playing with new toys

We woke up to rain on Sunday morning and colder than normal temperatures.  While we waited for the skies to clear, we drove to Pacific Beach and had a HUGE buffet brunch at Gringos.  We then tried to walk it off along the boardwalk.  There were lots of kite surfers out in the water taking advantage of the windy conditions.

We spent the rest of Sunday at home just chillaxin' and hanging out.

Of course Monday was warm and sunny, but we had a long day of travel ahead.  Claire was well behaved once again.  And once again, the clear plastic cups kept her well entertained. 

Thanks to the Brenks for a great visit.  It's hard to believe that next time we see them, they'll be a family of 4!