Day Five: Museum of Natural History (USC)
Since things were so chaotic at Disneyland we decided to have the next day be a little more low-key. We decided to take the kids to the Museum of Natural History at the University of South California campus. It was a very cool museum in a VERY scary area. Like, wow! The actual campus wasn't bad but you get off the campus and it is like gang-banger area. I was glad we didn't linger around afterwards. I was surprised that such a nice school was in such a bad area. We parked the car and right by the parking lot was a park/play ground for kids. Well I didn't see a single kid there and it was completely overrun with homeless people/transients. Its unfortunate that a nice little park for kids had gotten ruined. I know I wouldn't dare let my kids play at a park like that. I think I even saw a guy pee behind the building where the restrooms were (ironic, I know). And I'm sure some drug dealing was going on as well. Sure made me miss Utah!
The kids enjoyed the museum. It was HUGE! It just kept on going and going. There was a whole building just of dinosaur bones, which Isaac loved. We had lunch there in the cute little cafe. They also had an exhibit going on with a little tent outside that had tons of spiders. Yeah, pretty much my worst nightmare, haha. I didn't really want to go in but I did just for a minute. Most of the spiders were nocturnal so they were asleep anyway. It just creeped me out knowing they were all over inside the tent *shudder*.
When we went to leave we stopped at a Chevron that was by the freeway to get gas but for some reason it wouldn't take our card so we had to drive a couple of blocks down to find another gas station. Once again, very scary neighborhood! I think that is the fastest Keith has ever pumped gas, haha!
The kids in front of an exhibit with some really cool dinosaur bones, it can of felt like we were in the movie "Night at the Museum"
Isaac looking at a spider in a glass case....this is about all I could handle, haha
Malea standing by a spider web in the bushes at the Spider exhibit.....she was braver than me!
Day Six: San Diego
The next day we packed up
our stuff and headed down to spend a couple of days in San Diego.
Before that we stopped to visit my Aunt who lives in the Laguna Hills
area. Sadly I didn't know before this that she had taken a bad fall a
few weeks before and broke her hip. I called seeing if we could come
visit her not even knowing that had happened. Instead of going to her
house we had to go to the Rehabilitation Center she was staying at while
she got better. I'm so glad we stopped and had a nice visit. She
is such a strong woman and has been through so much adversity in the
last year (losing her husband to cancer just months before that) and had
such a strong testimony of God's love for her. She is such a great
example to me.
On the drive down we stopped at one of
the beaches to let the kids run around. It was much cooler there and
once again Isaac wanted nothing to do with the water. Back in 2007,
Keith and I took a trip to San Diego just the two of us after I
graduated with my Bachelor's, and we had eaten at this cute little beach
side restaurant called the Daily News Cafe. We decided to eat there
again with the kids, which was fun. We also made a quick stop by the
San Diego LDS temple (my favorite) and got some pictures there. It was
kind of surreal thinking we had been there 5 years before that just the
two of us, and here we were again 5 years later with two kids. Pretty
cool!
Nice face, Keith, haha!
We got in to San Diego and checked in to our
hotel, which was in downtown San Diego. We had done a Priceline name
your own price thing and ended up with a good deal at this hotel called
"The W". Well little did we know that it was a very swanky hotel that a
lot of celebrities stay at. It only had valet parking so we waited
until after 5pm and parked on the street for free.:) We walked in
pulling our Disney princess suitcases and BOY did we feel out of place!
The lobby was practically a club/bar. I think there was even a fashion
show going on next door. We got a good laugh out of it! The room was
pretty small and didn't have a fridge, microwave, etc., so we went
looking for food that night for dinner. We came across this literal
hole-in the-wall Mexican food place a couple of blocks away. It was
like a little shack and they didn't even take debit cards. It was super
tasty though and very authentic!
Day Seven: Sea World
We
woke up that morning and headed out to Sea World, which the kids
LOVED. They had a deal going on in October where kids were free with a
paying adult, so that was great. The weather wasn't nearly as hot and
there weren't tons of lines to see things. It was also a lot more
hands-on. Plus it had animals, which my kids love. Sea World was
definitely a hit! I find it frustrating that they always have the Shamu
show at like noon when its the hottest part of the day. I know they do
that on purpose to get more money in concessions! It was hard keeping
Isaac in one place during the show but we survived and enjoyed it. They
also had a bunch of cute little Halloween themed exhibits so that was
fun.
We watched some people swim with the dolphins, lucky ducks.....it costs a lot of mula to do though!
Feeding the manta rays
This was so cool, the whales came right up to the glass!
Looking at the sea turtles
Watching the Shamu show, still as cool as ever!
Very cool dolphin show, and Malea got to meet the stars of the show!
Looking at the flamingos
Buzz was there too :)
This was the shark exhibit, very cool (you go underground and see them from below)
Don't worry, that's not a real turtle, haha
Keith and Malea feeding the sea lions, you should have heard how loud it was barking at Keith to feed him! It was hilarious!
Poor buddy was tuckered out
One of the most eventful parts of Sea World was when Isaac got LOST. Um, yeah, talk about scary! There is a big kid play area that is Sesame Street themed. Thankfully whoever designed it was smart and made it so there was only one entrance to that huge area. The kid area had rides, a splash pad, different activities to do and a huge play ground with ropes you can climb, etc. There was a big slide you could go down but Isaac was too short to go on it so Keith brought him back down. Well I was watching Malea and then Keith took Isaac over to this little kid area that was for ages 3 and under. Once Malea was done I walked over to meet up with Keith. He literally looked away for 2 seconds and Isaac was GONE. There is nothing more sickening than not being able to find your child in a huge park like that! We started looking around and thankfully they are equipped for this kind of thing and have a Lost Children office. I walked up to the worker and said that I couldn't find my son. I gave her a description and she read it over the walkie-talkie to all the other staff. He was probably only lost for like 5-10 minutes but it felt like an ETERNITY!!! A couple of minutes later we heard a girl over the radio say that she had a little boy by her without any shoes on that fit his description, and thank goodness it was him! It was no surprise that they found him over at that huge slide that he wasn't allowed to go on earlier. He had actually climbed up the slide from the bottom and came through at the top where the worker was sitting. What a stinker! I am just so grateful that he was found safe and sound.
After Sea World we went back to the hotel and spent one last night in California. We had SO much fun but were ready to go home. You could tell the kids were starting to burn out and Malea even said she was home sick. We did the whole drive in one day home, which was hard but we were just ready to get home. What an adventure we had! I'm so glad we went and so happy for all the wonderful memories we made. :)
