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Visiting San Diego: Part 1

Last week my family went on a trip to San Diego.  I'd never been there before, so it was really fun for me.  My kids love to go visit the ocean so we had a great time.

Since I hadn't been there before I did some searching online of things to do in San Diego and talked to friends that had been there.  I thought I'd share with you our favorite things that we did there just in case you haven't been.

Beaches:
  • Mission Beach:  has a boardwark and an amusement park, the beach itself had a lot of seaweed on the sand, lots of free parking 
  • La Jolla Beach:  we went there in the evening and walked along the beach.  Nice and clean.  Big parking lot.
  • Powerhouse Beach:  father north in Del Mar, very clean, we went there a few times, park for free in the neighborhoods or pay for lots or streets, saw three dolphins swimming in the water

Legoland

Legoland was the most anticipated place we went by my kids, especially my almost five year old.  I'd go again, but maybe when my baby is 42" tall. 

I haven't been to many amusement parks in my life, so this was a new experience for me.  No, I still haven't been to Disneyland and I'm 30-something.  Someday we'll go.

Here's what my kids thought of Lego Land.
  • Daughter (10 years old) - liked all the rides, but thought they were kind of tame.  I think she's kind of growing out of it.
  • Son #1 (8 years old) - gets motion sick and preferred building lego cars and racing them than going on rides. 
  • Son #2 (almost 5) - is 42" tall so he could go on all the rides if he had an adult with him.  He loved building lego race cars and the driving school where you get to drive a car.
  • Son #3 (18 months) - was too short (need to be 36") to go on most rides.  He loved the duplo village.  He did a lot of sitting in the stroller waiting for the other kids.
  • Lego Mindstorm:  if your child is 9 or in 3rd grade they can sign up to play with Lego Mindstorm sometime during your visit.  Signup when you get there and they'll give you a time to come back and play.  My older kids thought it they were awesome!
  • Mini figure trading:  my kids loved this.  They each brought a mini figure from home and traded them with any employee that had a mini figure on their badge.  My daughter got some cute girl lego people.
  • Food:  Legoland technically doesn't allow you to bring your own food, but they didn't check our stroller.  We brought stuff for sandwiches and snacks.
  • Hours:  Their summer hours started the day after we visited.  The gates open at 9:00 and some of the attractions start at 9:30 and everything is open at 10:00.  They closed at 6:00, but their summer hours start mid June and they stay open later.
  • We didn't pay extra for the water park or aquarium.  We barely had time to ride everything in Legoland as it was.  One day visit was plenty for us.  I think the kids would have been worn out if we did a two day pass.

San Diego Zoo
I was really excited to take my kids to the zoo.  My daughter loves pandas and couldn't wait to see their giant pandas.  My kids were dragging most of the day and asking to go swimming at the hotel.  In the end they had fun. 

The kids especially loved riding the tram across the park, except my baby who was trying to climb out and yelled the whole time.

We packed a lunch and left it in the car.  At lunchtime we had a picnic on on the grass next to the zoo in Balboa Park.


All right...this post is getting long.  Look for part two of our trip coming soon...

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