Dear Babes,

It’s already been a few weeks since our return and yet you two are still going on and on about this year’s family vacation. You’ve been very much into animals lately, so for our trip this year we figured why not headline it with one of the most famous zoos in the country, the San Diego Zoo. So we made plans to hit up sunny California for it’s amazing animals, thrilling theme parks and beautiful beaches. This was especially exciting as in our neck of the woods we were still experiencing some rather terrible drab and dreary winter weather.

But so much for making plans. As our vacation grew closer, weather reports revealed that the minute we would leave, our hometown would finally be having a breakthrough of wonderful Spring-like weather while, conversely, it would be cool and rainy for our entire California stay. We were pretty bummed with this forecast but at this point we also didn’t have much flexibility to change any aspect of our plans. So we decided to go anyway and just hope for the best.

The first morning there it rained sheets and buckets for several hours straight but by the time we finished breakfast it finally somewhat subsided. So we grabbed our rain coats and headed to the world-famous San Diego Zoo. We had a great time walking the entire length of the park and visiting every single exhibit. This was not your first zoo trip but it was our first time seeing both pandas and koalas, the latter of which was your favorite, Lila (mine, too). And Matthew, you remain in the midst of your inexplicable elephant obsession, so while you’ve already seen them many times before, the pachyderms proved still to be the highlight of your day. Although it was a bit chilly by California standards, we were grateful that the rain held off for the remainder of the day, allowing for a wonderful tour of an exquisitely beautiful zoo.

Afterwards it was still too cold and windy to go to the beach as we had originally planned, so we resigned ourselves to just go out and eat before heading back to the hotel. We decided to give In-and-Out Burger a try as we don’t have this franchise anywhere on the East coast. And to our surprise, you, Matthew, a staunch pizza-and- nuggets-only eater, happily ate a cheeseburger and gave it a thumbs-up.

 

For our second day we had planned for LEGOLAND but on the morning of, the weather proved more dismal yet. I was the one probably the most disappointed as I adore amusement parks and had been looking forward to riding with you two. But even I likely wouldn’t have enjoyed it much walking around soaking wet, especially with an infant. It did indeed storm all day, and at a loss for what to do, we found ourselves at Old Town San Diego. We spent several hours touring the area and actually ended up having a lot of fun doing so. You weren’t disappointed at all as you ran from one building to another and generally just enjoyed being out and about. During a particularly hard segment of rain, we retreated to a nearby mall for lunch and spent some time perusing the sights and stores there. And then, even though lounging on the beach was clearly out of the question, we still decided to drive to La Jolla to view the sea lions. It was raining so hard and was so windy that we were able to get out just long enough to see them, snap a pic, and get right back in the car. But it was a visit nonetheless making it something we can now mark off of our list and say that we did.

We ended up returning to Old Town after that and finished up our evening enjoying one another’s company at a local Mexican restaurant. It was there that we decided to end our trip a day early as we clearly weren’t going to be able to visit LEGOLAND nor spend the day at the local beaches, which were the only other two things we had planned on our itinerary. Even one of the employees at Old Town remarked on how surprised she was at this rain and that the area never has weather like this, especially over multiple days. It figures it would happen the one time we just so happened to be there, but what can you do?? We may have missed out on two big activities, but we still had an excellent zoo experience and were pleasantly surprised at how much we ended up enjoying simply driving around and seeing a different city together. Every vacation is an experience, and this one was no different. It was still exciting to have our first vacation as a new family of five with your beloved baby brother and you loved having your adored cousin Brynn join us, too. We still made many memories that I know will last a lifetime. It may have rained on our parade the entire time, but our trip was far from a wash!

Already looking forward to next year!

Love you forever,

Mommy

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