Once we got to San Diego and got our rental car, we headed down to the Gaslamp Quarter downtown. We had lunch at a trendy little pizza bar, and then Matt and I enjoyed walking around & exploring while Reese took a nice nap in the stroller.
The Gaslamp Quarter is lined with--you guessed it--GASLAMPS!
We got to see Petco Park--it was really cool because there was a part of the park that was accessible, so we could see the inside.
For my fellow Sox fans, Carlos Quentin's banner:
Late afternoon, we headed over and checked into our hotel. Once we were settled in, we headed down to the beach to eat dinner & view the sunset. It was beautiful, and a great start to our vacation.
We were looking forward to going to Sea World the next day, but our plans were about to change.
The next 24 hours were miserable. I woke up that night around midnight with the worst, most painful heartburn I have ever felt. It was so bad that I couldn't sleep, and within a couple of hours, it turned into vomiting. I kept getting more and more sick through the night, and since we had put Reese's pack n play in the cove right outside the bathroom, I ended up waking her up with my frequent trips. So, at 3:00 in the morning, she was awake as well. She wanted to be in bed with us, but since Reese doesn't sleep well in random places, she wouldn't sleep. She just kept tossing & turning & climbing around. Eventually, she demanded Elmo, and we put in her DVD to try to get her to rest. She finally fell asleep around 5:00, and slept until 7. Once she was awake, Matt decided that he would take her to the grocery store to get milk, Sierra Mist, and saltines while I stayed back & tried to get more rest. By the time they got back, Matt was starting to feel miserable as well. We both had horrible body aches & chills, and we were so exhausted, we could hardly keep our eyes open. We spent the day taking turns watching Reese (which really involved sitting next to her while she watched tv because we didn't have the energy to do anything else) and sleeping. I felt so bad for our poor girl being trapped in the hotel room with us. That afternoon, Reese laid in bed with us and slept for 2 hours (which again, is a rare miracle). She woke up crying, "ache, ache," and tooting, and I was terrified of what was to come. Luckily, after I took her outside to run around a bit, she seemed to be fine and she never ended up getting sick. We all went to bed at 7:00 that night, and after 12 hours of sleep, Matt and I both felt recovered enough to leave the room again.
On Saturday morning, I took a quick walk around the hotel because Matt said that he could hear seals barking when we went out to get coffee. Our hotel was right on the marina, and as I was walking along, I thought I saw a dog swimming in the water I was walking along. As it got closer, I realized that there were two of them, and they were actually sea lions.
All of the landscaping at our hotel was beautiful, and there were tons of sidewalks with lots of trees and plants to walk around and enjoy. Reese loved it, and she had fun picking up loose flower petals as we walked along. There were a lot of them that were falling off of these flowered trees, and they were really pretty.
I also saw this beautiful wall of flowers & rocks, and I thought that the reflection in the water looked really cool.
Once we were confident that we were feeling good enough to head out, we headed up to La Jolla, which is a little community in the northern part of San Diego. The views were absolutely beautiful. We visited a cove where there were tons and tons of seals and sea lions hanging out. They were barking like crazy, and it was so fun to watch them swimming & playing on the rocks. It was really amazing to see.
After just a short time, Reese got very impatient in the stroller, so we let her run around on the grass. Of course, she wasn't nearly as interested in looking at the ocean, or even the seals and sea lions as she was in picking tiny pieces of garbage out of the grass.
After we left La Jolla, we went to Balboa Park, where we met up with my friends Nicole & Nathan, who had flown in from Vegas the night before. I hadn't seen her in about 9 months, and it was so nice to spend the day with them. We spent some time walking around Balboa Park and enjoying the gardens. The Japanese Friendship Garden had beautiful cherry blossom trees, and this cool little pond with huge fish that Reese loved looking at.
The Desert Garden was really cool too.
Reese rode the carousel with Matt (my stomach was not ready for that!). I did go on a little train ride with her, but we didn't get any pictures of that. About halfway through the train ride, Reese started clapping & yelling, "Yay! I ride the train!!!!" It cracked me up.
Once we left Balboa Park, we headed over to Seaport Village, which is a really cute collection of shops along the harbor. It was fun to walk around. Reese found a guy playing an instrument that I have never seen, and we couldn't tear her away from standing there & dancing along. It was pretty funny to watch, and we were happy to see her having such a good time.
After that, we headed over to Coronado Island. We hung out at the Hotel del Coronado, which is an old historic hotel resort just across the bay from downtown San Diego. We finally got to put Reese's toes in the sand, and it was awesome. At first, she didn't know what to think, and then she got this big smile on her face & kept saying, "Wow! Wow!" It was so cute. She loved kicking her feet around, and picking up handfuls of sand & watching the grains fall from her fingers. It was so cool to see her experience that for the first time. Unfortunately, she also loved eating it, and we couldn't keep her from putting several handfuls of sand in her mouth (GROSS!).
While we were letting her play around on the beach, we started to notice some dolphins swimming around in the water, so we moved closer to the shore to watch. Reese was fascinated by the tide coming in, so Matt took her to put her feet in. The water was FREEZING, and we were afraid she might freak out, but she thought it was absolutely hilarious each time the water came up and splashed her feet, and she threw a fit when we eventually took her away from it.
We ended our day with dinner with Nicole and Nathan, and Reese was exhausted from the events of the day.
On Sunday morning, we packed up our room and headed back downtown. Matt and I took another nice long walk through downtown & along the harbor while Reese napped in her stroller.
My growing belly at 26 weeks:
We had a farewell lunch once she woke up, and then it was time to head to the airport.
Luckily, the winds were in our favor, and the flight home was only about 4 hours, and Reese was amazingly good. The poor girl didn't get home to her own bed until 10:30 that night, but luckily, she has gotten right back on schedule (and Illinois time) this week. Now we shall see how we fare with the time change this weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment