San Diego Favorites

Besides spending time with my parents, here are a bunch of other favorites from our San Diego vacation.

The Mormon Battalion Historic Site

Brian calls it the Visitor Center and it continues to be his favorite place in San Diego.  This trip he particularly enjoyed the cannon, the brick making station, of course the gold panning, and the wagon in front.  The Center is truly a wonderful place to visit and it is so fun to see my parents running the place.

The Beach and Sea World

 We had a warm enough day to spend some time on the beach.  Brian would have stayed all day if it weren't for the cold.

 Mandy and Brian were in San Diego for about half the time we were there.  It was fun to have them there with us!

 

We went back to Sea World three different times.  Christmas break was a very crowded time to visit, but still fun.  Our favorites were feeding the stingrays and the sea lions and Brian loved the kiddie rides.

Christmas

On Christmas Eve Mandy and I played for the Missionary program at the Battalion Center while Mark stayed with the kids.  Christmas morning we opened a few presents that we had brought and Mandy made us all breakfast, then we went to Sea World later that day.

 

Brian was entertained through the morning by the playdough set Santa brought him.

 He was also super excited about his gift from Grandma and Grandpa.  He ended up buying a little San Diego snow globe and a few other souvenirs to remember the trip.

 Timmy and I were somewhat grumpy Christmas morning because of a very rough night.  The little guy got sick the day after we arrived and stayed sick through the trip.

The Maritime Museum

One of my favorite places we visited.

 We toured the Star of India, which is the world's oldest active sailing ship.  It was fascinating and fun despite the seasickness I got from being on the boat.

 We also toured the HMS Surprise (featured in the film Master and Commander) and the B-39 Submarine pictured above. It was very interesting to see what life would have been like on both these vessels.  I just can't believe people spent months in submarines.  The picture below shows the largest open space on that submarine and the whole thing pretty much looked like this.  Metal, metal, and more metal.

From the top of the submarine we got to watch people board a cruise ship.  Brian loved hearing the ship's horn blast to let everyone know it was getting ready leave port.

Wild Animal Park

Our favorites here were the brand new baby elephant, the safari ride, Brian's carousel ride with Grandma and the rhinoceros statue.

USS Midway Aircraft Carrier

Touring the longest-serving Navy aircraft carrier was a real treat.  It was much larger than I was expecting and so fun for the whole family.

We are definitely missing San Diego right now.  Thanks Mom and Dad for an unforgettable experience.