Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Kicking Off Spring Break: San Diego (In the Time of Corona)

We (I) really struggled with a spring break destination this year. Our girls love a good beach, but we've had such cold weather at our favorite Florida gulf coast in years past. So maybe California? Isn't it always warm in Cali? But that's a long day of travel for just a long weekend of a trip, and we weren't sure how Cressey would do. So I looked along the east coast but couldn't find a place that a) wasn't freezing/ snowing and b) Cressey would be able to be as involved in all of our activities (ropes course, historical sightseeing, etc.). So we (I) finally decided to give San Diego a go! They had so much entertainment for families- the San Diego Zoo, safari park, Sea World, marina, etc. I finally booked the rooms and the flights, and then about a week before we were set to leave, the Corona virus made its way from China to the west coast, LA, San Fran, and Seattle. UGHHHH.

Immediately before our spring break trip, John had to be in LA and San Fran anyway and San Diego only had one case at the time, so we figured we would go on with our spring break plans. I found as much hand sanitizer as I could (a BIG shortage had already started happening) and brought along a roll of Clorox wipes in my purse. A plus to this- I believe the girls will grow up to have a good germ awareness, and they enjoyed wiping down their plane seats and even started asking for hand sanitizer before I could even get 'give me your hands' out of my mouth!

We flew out of Memphis early on a Wednesday morning (March 11th), connected through Minneapolis (thank you for planes with tvs!), and then landed in San Diego early afternoon. Our seats were such that the girls sat together on both legs, and John and I sat together, usually across the aisle from the girls. They were complete angels, being thoroughly self sufficient and entertaining themselves. Cressey refused a pull up on the flight and had no issues. In fact, she refused them when we got to the hotel the first night and didn't have a single accident during our whole trip. Stunned!

When we landed in San Diego, we were pleased to be greeted by blue skies and sunshine (we had a very rainy forecast in our future) and easily made it to our hotel, La Valencia, in La Jolla. We threw our bags in our room (we went with a suite and a connecting king room which was the perfect amount of space) and headed to the beach to soak it all up!

La Valencia is a Mediterranean style hotel perched on the top of a hill in the heart of La Jolla's shopping district with restaurants, beaches, and parks just a stone's throw away. Within the walls of the property, you can walk all the way down the hill and come out right at the park at the top of the cliffs and the water's edge. Another set of stairs will take you to Shell Beach which is a beautiful little respite full of shells, sand, and all the crustaceans your southern kiddos could dream of, and then just a short walk down the tops of the cliffs is Children's Pool Beach, the famous home of the La Jolla seals! We weren't able to step down onto the Children's Pool Beach as it is restricted during pupping season, but just on the other side of the jetty, there were several seals laying on a different beach. You know our girls were running like the wind to GET DOWN THERE NOW!!

After the girls were adequately covered in wet clothes and wet sand (and not happy about it once they left the beach), we walked (piggy backed) back to the hotel and had dinner on the restaurant balcony with a very determined sea gull (or 'eagle' as Cress said). And no Toohig vacation would be complete without an after dinner swim...except the pool heater wasn't turned on. BRRR! The frigid water didn't stop our hardheaded girls, and they got in a few laps around the pool at sunset. It was a delight for them after not being in a pool/ their second home for months! It might have been colder than we'd have liked, but it sure was a beautiful and fun twilight night with our people.


Cressey was exhausted from the early morning wake up call, so HG convinced her to lay her head down and take a cat nap.





We had trouble finding all of our luggage when we got to San Diego, and these sisters were troopers.


"Here, have a seat on my lap, sissy"


We were a little slap happy by the time we made it to the rental car shuttle, so we jamming out to the T.O.T.S. theme song. Daddy thought we had lost our minds.


We have arrived!!







First time in the Pacific Ocean for Cressey!




The waves caught her by surprise- she was not impressed!




And then this one too...


Living her best life


Poor daddy working but with a fantastic view






Look at all those seals!! @ Children's Pool Beach









Our pesky (and desperately hungry) friend


Hands off mama's dessert!


He still after their fries!



Cressey was chasing the bird who had just landed on top of that umbrella


Polar bear plunge- BRRR!





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