Last Thursday, the family took a trip to Sunny San Diego. Christine packed up the family, and I loaded the car, and we drove to Dallas. There, we stopped over for the night with Frank and Mary before heading to the airport at 6 a.m. on Friday. All four of us adults, and the two kids went to the airport, hopped on a direct American flight to San Diego, and were on the ground by 10:00 a.m. AA lost our stroller though, so we waited around the airport until about noon, looking for it, and getting our rental car.

From the airport, we headed north. We’d rented a house on Mission Beach for the week, from Sunny San Diego Vacation Rentals. Had a great view, but we couldn’t check in until 3 p.m. So, we drove to La Jolla, and back to Mission Beach to eat lunch, then up on Mount Soledad, then back to La Jolla to visit the beach for the first time… We all had a lot of fun getting wet and sandy in the 50 degree water 😉 Even Grayson got to enjoy it!

Once we checked into our house, we got situated, and then visited the beach again, after the kids took naps, and the adults got things packed away. We cooked steaks out on the patio, and enjoyed watching the sun go down, before we all hit the sack around 8:30 p.m. that first night.

On the second day, Jack and I got up and took a stroll on the beach while everyone else got breakfast going. Then while Grayson napped, Christine and I took Jack down to the Belmont Park, which is like a little Midway park right there on the beach. We walked in a bunch of shops, and even watched a platoon of US Marines run by on the beach and doing pushups in the surf. Then we rode the rides.

Oh. My. Gosh. Jack had a blast! The Tilt-O-Whirl, the boats, the Crazy Submarine, the Carousel, the Arcade. All of it. He had a blast (and we enjoyed ourselves too).

After Belmont Park, we all ate lunch, took naps, and then headed out to the beach to build a sand castle. First, we set up our little beach tent, and then Christine and Jack built a sand castle. Then they promptly destroyed it before the surf could (they taught us to destroy vital equipment before you let the enemy have it if you had to abandon it when I was in the Army – proud to pass the lesson on to my son). And we all retired to the tent where Jack and Grayson enjoyed playing with each other and with the beach ball Christine blew up for them.

On the 12th, we all got up early and headed to the San Diego Zoo. We saw flamingos, and parrots, and billy goats, and pigs, and turtles, and bugs, and bears, and pandas, and tigers, and a big fat hippopotamus. We ate lunch there, and the headed back to the house for naps.

That afternoon we took another stroll on the beach (actually Christine and Jack took a jog), and then Betty and Bruce (Mary’s sister) came down to visit from Anaheim. While they all took care of the kids, Christine and I went out for a date in the gaslamp district of San Diego proper.

We had a wonderful dinner together at Croce’s. Great food. Fantastic service, and wonderful conversation. It was prom-night in San Diego that night too, so we did some fun people watching from our window-seats. After an after-dinner drink, and a quick walk around town, we headed home for some much needed rest.

On Sunday morning, after breakfast, we took a two or three mile walk on the beach. All of us. We walked north to the pier we’d been looking at for days… It took us all morning to get there and back with the kids. But we got some great photos from the pier, and Jack and Christine and I had fun running together on the beach on the way back.

That afternoon, I took a nap with Jack, while Christine and Grayson went out to the beach, and Frank and Mary rotated between the beach and the house. And then we had steak dinner again at the house that night.

On Monday morning, we all got up, and loaded the car. Then Jack and I went out to the beach one more time to play and take pictures.

And after a rather uneventful flight home, Michael and Steven picked us up at the airport at 6:00 p.m. Then lighting storms hit DFW, and we waiting over an hour for our bags before heading back to Frank and Mary’s house for a good night’s sleep.

And on Tuesday, we drove back to Austin.

What I wouldn’t give to be sitting on the beach again!

All of the photos are here.

Oh, and here’s the movie… It’s rather large (140MBs) so be ready for a long download time… Sorry, didn’t want the quality to suck. It’s also about 15 minutes long, so make sure you have time to watch it before you download it: