Celebrating Vacation! Part 1

I needed a vacation in the worst way! It was wonderful! My mind has the ability to pretty much block out my entire normal life when I go on vacation. It really allows me to be on vacation in every way. However, coming home is disorienting and a bit of a shock as I try to work my way back into real life. It's only Monday and I want to go back on vacation! Haven't even been home two full days yet! LOL!

OK, so, the boys and I went on our first vacation in over two and a half years. We flew into San Diego with my plan B in place to rent a car which I had reserved. Got to the car rental place and ran into major issues with the rental car and realized that plan wasn't going to work. I had a moment of panic and then remembered I did have a plan A.... my original plan. We did public transportation the entire trip! We left the car rental place and caught a trolly to the train and then a cab to the condo. We traveled by train, bus, and cab a couple of times during the trip and we walked over 50 miles during the week... those were only the ones we could actually track! The weather could not have been more perfect. High every day was low 70's and overcast a lot which meant no glaring sun when you are out all day!

We stayed really busy the entire trip yet it was still relaxing. I think because we only had certain concrete plans and the rest we made up as we went. We did a lot of walking on the beach too, pretty much daily.

Highlights were:
beach
favorite restaurants
feeding squirrels at the marina (yes, there are squirrels that live in the rocks by the water at the marina! Weird!)
Legoland- two different days... I'll explain later...
San Diego Zoo
Riding in a bike pedal car (Max's favorite!)
Meeting up with Jane LaFazio in Escondido to hang out while she taught!
Watching the boys play on the beach
Thursday night market at the pier
did I already mention beach? ;0

Ok, so actually getting to Legoland was proving to be a feat! I planned to go on Monday. We caught the bus to Carlsbad (a 10 minute ride) only to find that there are limited buses heading to Legoland and the next one wasn't for several hours and you have to catch a 5:25 bus back since it's the last one of the day. That would not have given us enough time. So, we decided to go on Tuesday.

Tuesday comes, we catch the bus to Carlsbad and plan to catch the next bus to Legoland to realize that we'd just missed the early bus and were now in the same situation as Monday. I got a cab to take us to Legoland only to get there and find it CLOSED!!!!!!!!!! In the off season, they are only open Thurs-Sun apparently. However, the new Sea Life Aquarium at Legoland was open so we decided to stay and do that. We spent the day there and really enjoyed it.

Wednesday was already planned for us to go to Escondido to hang out while Jane taught her class of kids at the California Center for the Arts. Thursday we planned to go to the Zoo so, that left Friday to try Legoland for the last time.

We finally did get to Legoland Friday shortly after opening and stayed until closing. The boys had a blast. I have to say that Legoland is really a relaxing park for parents. I did a lot of sitting and watching, taking pictures, etc.... I didn't really do much with the rides, I observed. Max got brave and tried the roller coasters again, after swearing them off... and he had a blast! Sam loves coasters and really loved some things that was like a robotic arm that just flings you all over the place. See, here he is in his little upside down heaven!
Anyway, it was a great day. However, we accidentally got on the 321 bus unknowingly at 5:15 instead of 5:25 and didn't realize that the same bus number leaving at two different times goes to two different routes.... of course we were on the one going AWAY from our destination!!!! But, at every single stop, no matter where we were, God placed people who voluntarily stepped in and helped us find where we needed to go, what bus or train to get on, etc... some even walking us to certain places to make sure we understood where we needed to be. It was amazing! Max even commented "We sure met a lot of nice people!" And that, we did. So, a nice guy behind us on the bus helped us figure out where to get off the bus and catch a transit train back to Oceanside. It all worked out. And we chose to laugh about it and go with the flow. Not one single moment of the entire trip did I feel afraid. Not once!

So, here are some pictures from our trip. By the way, I'm LOVIN' my new camera!!!!!!!!!!! I'll do separate post for other pictures.

Air view of zoo

This was Max's favorite thing. They pedaled 6 miles and loved taking turns to drive. I helped pedal 2 of the miles.

And lord have mercy, Max's hair is driving me crazy!!!!!!!! It's not bad really until he puts on a hat or helmet... and unfortunately, he likes wearing a hat all the time. BLEH! He did tell me he was going to let me cut it a little bit. Crossing fingers.....