Our Water is Cold

I love my state and I love my city. It's beautiful.  Every year people come from all over to vacation here and I consider myself lucky to be able to call it home.  There are so many things to see and do here.  Sometimes I forget that when I'm hoarding time off from work to use for getting myself out of town.  We had family here, so I released my death grip on two vacation days and we had ourselves a staycation. 

View of the San Diego Skyline from Coronado

Our first outing was the San Diego Zoo and then we spent two nights on Coronado Island.  MJ caught this amazing pic on night #1.   The moon was brighter then I've ever seen it.

We could not have asked for better beach weather.  It warmed up every single day until it got into the 100's by the coast just in time for our beach day.  I like my beach days hot because no matter how warm it gets Southern California water stays cold.  I usually barely dip my feet in but since it was so hot I wanted to do more then that.  The first 5 minutes or so is kind of painful as your feet gets used to the ice cold water.  The first time it hits your girly parts is a shock too but after that it feels really good to be out there.  I had a lot of fun splashing in the waves until my feet went numb.  It started to feel like I was walking on stumps so I had to get out for a while and then went back in.

MJ, his mom and cousin Rai had a lot of fun body boarding.  This is totally out of the question for me since I can't swim but they had a good old time disappearing under the waves.

You can't spend all day at the beach without some sort of shade.  At least I can't.  Baking in the sun like a rotisserie chicken for hours on end is not my style.  Shade AND sun screen is a must.  We were able to stay out there way longer then we would have without it.  

MJ's cousin Rai and her little boy

MJ and his nephew

We spent most of the day at the beach then transitioned to the pool for a few hours which is really the best way to do it.  Sand is a beast.  It gets EVERYWHERE and there is no escaping it!!  After dealing with sand all day the pool feels so fresh and clean.  We rinsed off and enjoyed more water fun before heading back to the beach house. 

Me getting dumped on

This water feature was so much fun.  You can't see it in the picture but there are about 6 buckets at the top that swing back and forth as they fill up with water that squirts into each one.  Once they fill up they randomly tip over dumping a bucket load of water on your head.  I have a hard time easing myself into pool water.  It's always too cold for me so I forced myself to get dumped on there and then getting in was really easy.  I loved it at least as much as the kids did.  The little one couldn't get enough of splashing in the mini fountains that circled the edge.   

MJ and his mom

Santa Monica Pier

On Saturday we went to LA.  The main purpose was to go to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles but since we couldn't spend almost two hours driving there only to eat and turn around we stopped at the Santa Monica Pier first.  We walked around and MJ's nephew rode a few of the rides.  We had to lead him out of there crying because four rides is never enough.  Something tells me that 10 rides would not have been enough either.  
 
1.  Coronado Beach is my favorite beach.  The part we go to is only accessible via Naval Air Station North Island so there is very little traffic and way less people then you find at public access beaches. 
2.  The Beach Cottage was so cute with 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom and a full kitchen.  There is the hotel and there are beach cottages.  You have to reserve a cottage at least 6 months in advance in order to get one because there aren't that many.  They are staggered so that everyone has a beach view.  This was another one of MJ's great ideas and I think we should make it a yearly thing.  
3.  Can I just stay here forever and never go back to work?  Pretty please. 
4.  We ordered pizza the first night and MJ grilled Carne Asada Tacos for dinner the 2nd night.  Perfectly paired with a pale ale beer he brought back from Germany.  Usually "his" beers are way too heavy for me but I liked this one.
5.  We stopped at In & Out for breakfast on the way home from Coronado.  When you are on vacation you can do things like that.  I haven't had In & Out since I was a kid.  It was on my not allowed to eat list (along with too many other things) for a long time.  I've been missing out.
6.  The iconic meal from Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles.  This is not my plate.  Trust me to go there and not order chicken and waffles but everyone else did.  People love the combo but I'm not sure it's my thing.  I ordered a chicken sandwich-which was one of the best I've ever had, with fries.    

I will say that the kids were a little bit much to handle for 10 days.  Sunday morning I came downstairs and the 3 year old was buzzing.  Literally buzzing.  Like bzzzzz, bzzzzzz, bzzzzzzz and he would not stop.  All I could think was make it stop!!  There was an obnoxious sounding cartoon on TV and I'm a little Tea Cup on repeat coming from a toy tablet.   It was an is this really my house twilight zone moment.  The upside is that I HAD to get out of the house so I went to the gym for the first time since January and burned 650 calories.  I can pretend that I would have gone anyways but I'm not so sure!  They want to come back again without the kids and I'm totally okay with that. 

I'm an introvert.  The prospect of having that much company all day every day was really overwhelming for me.  I like my routines and I have a general fear of having them interrupted.  I like to watch House Hunters while I eat breakfast.  I enjoy silence and need alone time to recharge.  Throw kids in the mix and I was more then a little freaked out.  I like my house clean and tidy.  Kids are anything but.  Of course I worried for nothing.  I mean, that's what I do; even when I know it's going to be okay.  Once they got here I was glad to see them.  It was a perfect excuse for a staycation which felt less like a staycation and more like a vacation.  We had such a nice time that drool on the couch from a teething baby is really just water under the bridge.  

Having house guests is kind of like the So Cal ocean.  Our water is cold but once I dip my toes in and go for it, I find that it's a lot more fun then I thought it would be when I was staring at it from a distance.

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