San Diego--Part 1

Andrew had a conference for work in San Diego a few weeks ago and the girls and I decided to join him, and boy am I glad we did!  We had such a fantastic time and stayed very busy while he was busy working.  We decided to drive out a day early so we could take advantage of the Salute to Heros promotion at Sea World.  We didn't tell Abby that we were going to Sea World and she spent the better part of the drive trying to guess where we were going.  She was thrilled when we pulled up and she found out it was Sea World.  It was a fantastic day and the weather was perfect, sunny, warm and a cool breeze.  The girls loved seeing all the sea life especially the flamingos and sharks and they really enjoyed the Shamu show (which had been shortened due to recent events) and the sea lion show, and they burned off a ton of energy in the Elmo playground.    

After spending the day at Sea World we headed over to Coronado Island to our hotel.  One of the perks of Andrew traveling so much while we lived in Florida is that we are often upgraded when we stay at a Marriot and this time was no exception.  Our upgraded room was incredible.  It was a suite right on the water with a separate bedroom, a living room, and kitchen and a patio with a water view.    After resting up a bit we hit up one of the hotel pools for a pre-dinner swim.  That evening we had dinner with Andrew's buddy Dustin (who was also attending the conference) and his wife Melissa and made plans for the next day.  

While the boys were at the conference Melissa agreed to come to The San Diego Zoo with me and the girls.  It was so nice having another adult to help me with the girls and someone to chat with through out the day, we actually have a lot in common!  The zoo was fantastic, it was somewhere I had always wanted to go.  It is absolutely gigantic and you could really use to full days to see the entire thing.   Since we only had one day, we did the best we could and we saw a lot of the zoo and were even able to ride the Skyfari ride.  It was a wonderful day and the girls loved seeing all the animals especially the Koala Bears which were so cute!  

This is our room.  This shot doesn't do it justice, the inside was gorgeous and the view from the back patio was incredible! 

Andrew got a short camera lesson from Dustin and here are a few of the results.  These were shot at about 10 PM.  This is the view of the bridge and the beautiful tree from the patio.

And here is the San Diego skyline from Coranado Island.  The hotel with the green ring lights is where the conference was held.  Andrew and Dustin were able to take a water taxi to get there.

Here is Abby when we first got to Sea World

My girls ready to go see some sea life

This is in the Sesame Street playground.  It was like a huge waterbed for little kids to play on.  Olivia loved bouncing on it and it was nice because it was just for little kids, so you didn't have to worry about the big kids getting to rough.

And here is the big kid version which of course Abby loved.

Abby and I ran over to the Sesame Street playground one last time before we left.  We went on all 3 of the rides they had and by the time we were done I was feeling quite queasy.  Abby had a blast though...and this is what Olivia and Andrew did while they were waiting for us.  It was a little impromtu photo shoot by the flowers.  

Here we are at the San Diego Zoo, the girls were not thrilled I was making them take a picture before we even got to see a single animal!

The girls checking out the camels.  Olivia thought they were hilarious kept laughing at them.  

Abby asked me if this snake was real.  I told her to go touch it and find out.  She looked at me, then back at the snake, then at Olivia and said, "I think Olivia should touch it first and find out!"  Oh, the love!

The girls checking out the fake snake together.

This is on the skyfari ride.  It was nice to be up so high and there were some amazing views, but you can't see much of the zoo because of all the trees.  That is ok though because it was a nice ride and the girls enjoyed it.

And, this is Olivia relaxing on our bed after a long day at the zoo.