Vacation Time

This year, Clayton played in the World Police and Fire games in LA and we decided to make a family vacation out of it. Tess was so excited to go on a family vacation since we didn’t go on a vacation last year. Since we made a vacation out of the trip we stopped in San Diego first and then drove up to LA.

After we landed and dropped off our luggage at the hotel we all headed out to find something to eat and then toward La Jolla. We found a great parking spot and then got out to walk around. One of the biggest tourist attractions of La Jolla is the seals and sea lions. We walked the shore and were able to climb down to get a close up view of them in their natural habitat. This was a pretty cool way to start off the trip, the weather was nice the seals/sea lions were awesome and the cherry to top it off was we all got some gelato before we headed back to the hotel to shower and rest up for the Zoo in the morning.

Our first full day of vacation was spent at the San Diego Zoo. This zoo is set up so nicely and has buses and recommened routes that even though there is a lot to cover and it expands a lot of space we felt like we were able to cover what we wanted. We started our day on the guided bus tour which was included in our ticket and provided a nice way to see the zoo and hear the best ways to visit certain animals. Tess thought the bus tour was the whole zoo and was ready to leave but once we started seeing more animals she was glad we stayed. The weather was great, a lot cooler than Texas. We had a lot of fun walking around and enjoying the animals and spent the majority of our time outside.

We stopped in Legoland on our way from San Diego to Los Angeles. This was Tess’s first amusement park and she had a blast. Legoland is nice because the whole park is geared toward the younger crowd. Throughout the park there is also a section of the park called Miniland which is landmarks completely made out of Legos.

We started out the day with Tess riding her first rollercoaster. I was a little worried that she wouldn’t like it because she sometimes over thinks things and talks herself out of situations before letting herself experience them. She enjoyed the coaster so much she immediately wanted to ride again. I was glad that she enjoyed the coaster because there are more of them in her future.

The rest of the day was spent riding various rides, activities, and playing with Legos. It was crowded so there were some rides that we decided not to stand in line. Tess was not really excited about the lines, she really wanted to go from ride to ride without the lines. Overall Tess had a blast and was exhausted by the end of the day.

There was also this one ride that was called the scorpion that had different difficulty levels and would move around over a body of water. Tess and Clayton did the ride and Tess had a lot of fun. They did the lowest difficulty level and they basically just moved up and down and around. The other difficulty levels turned people upside down and rotated them around.

We all had a lot of fun at Legoland and I am really glad we made the trip to San Diego. Now on to Los Angeles to finish up our Vacation.

We had to work in our tourist activities around Clayton’s soccer games. He was guaranteed three soccer games and depending on how the team did then there could potentially be more games.

On our first morning in LA we headed over to the Police Academy so that Clayton could pick up his credentials and his packet of information. His game was later that day so we headed to lunch and then over to the fields. The guys played a good game but in the end the other team ended up winning. Since Clayton had a later game we decided to head over to the Getty Center. We walked around looking at the paintings but we also had fun in the family room and doing the kid scavenger hunt. We also hunted for fossils in various rocks around the grounds. This museum does a good job of making a very adult area kid friendly. We came back to our Air BNB and relaxed before dinner and then grabbed something quick to eat.

Clayton’s second game was also right around lunch time so we had time to eat breakfast at our house and relax a little before our day started. The boys played all over LA and this time they played on a field in Griffith Park. The boys again played well and this time they were able to outscore their opponent. Since we were already in Griffith Park our thought was to make a day out of it and walk around the observatory and see a program at the Planetarium. By the time we arrived there were no parking spaces left and as we were driving around trying to find one Tess let us know that she needed to go to the bathroom so we decided to skip Griffith Park and head to the Tar Pits. It actually wasn’t crowded and it was like we had the place to ourselves. It was really interesting to see the group of tar pits that have seeped up from the ground in Hancock Park. The Museum is dedicated to researching the tar pits and it’s pretty cool to see everything that has been trapped in the pits over time. We spent time walking around the museum and having fun family time.

The last day of soccer was an early one and it ended up being the prettiest soccer complex. The field was at the base of a mountain and a perfect place for a family picture.

The boys had fun and played their hearts out but in the end this tournament wasn’t theirs to win. They didn’t advance but they had a lot of fun playing and meeting people from other countries along the way. I am glad that Clayton decided to play this year.

After the last soccer game we headed over to the California Science Center which was huge and had 4 major exhibit areas. We made our way first to see the Space Shuttle Endeavour, which was really interesting and cool to see it up close. We then watched an IMAX show and walked through the museum. Tess had a lot of fun looking at everything and doing various activities.

Friday was one of the best days on our vacation and it was also one of the longest days. We headed down to the Aquarium of the South Pacific which is one of the best aquariums I have ever been to. We had a ton of fun walking through and seeing everything. 

This aquarium has a lot of kid friendly activities and 3 different levels along with an outside space. We watched the fish being fed along with keeper talks for Seals and Sea Lions and another talk on Otters.

Tess also overcame her fear of touching sea creatures and she went to several stations and touched several different creatures. I was so proud of Tess because I also have a fear of creatures and I am glad she was able to play with the animals.

We also spent some time at the Queen Mary but didn’t get any pictures. We had a really good tour guide but I think most of us had wished we had been able to get on the ghost tour.

On Saturday we met up with one of my mom’s old coworkers in the morning. We went to the original farmers market for lunch and walked around for a bit. We also had tickets for the TCL Chinese Theatre tour. The theatre is still really nice inside and the most beautiful part is the ceiling.

We also walked around Hollywood boulevard and found some pretty famous hand and footprints. Tess also put her hands in some pretty famous people’s handprints.

After our afternoon of fun we headed out to the Dodgers game. Our intent at the time was to see a game against who we thought might be the Astros' opponent in The World Series. Tess insisted on wearing her Astros' shirt to the game and of course she had to get her pretzel. To be honest since none of us had a vested interest in the game it was pretty boring and we left around the 4^th inning and headed to the Santa Monica Pier.

Tess really wanted to see the water and wanted to get wet but she didn’t realize how cold the water was going to be. We let her change into her swim suit and she played for a little bit and then she was ready to play at the pier. We did a couple of activities and then Tess was ready to call it a night. The pier was a good way to end our vacation.

We decided to head home a day early since we had done everything in LA that we had wanted to do. We were all tired of being away from home and Tess had a camp that started Monday morning. We flew back home Sunday and got back late. We had an awesome vacation and I am glad that we decided to turn Clayton’s soccer tournament into a family vacation.