California Summer (Part I)

Mazen and I went to San Diego to visit his grandmother, Karen aka “KK”. Here’s a recap of our California Summer!

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Mazen and I are home from our San Diego trip!

Some of you might remember KK, Mazen’s dad’s mom, from the blog. She moved to San Diego, then to New Orleans to be close to her other son, and then back to San Diego last fall. She just LOVES San Diego and is so happy to be back!

We met Mazen’s Uncle Andrew and his daughter there for 5 days to spend some time in the California sun. (We decided not to share pics of Mazen’s cousin, but they had SUCH a great time together!)

What’s ironic is that Virginia had a heat wave while we were gone but we came home with more sunburn than we were used to! We spent a lot of time at the beach and took the kids to both the San Diego Zoo and SeaWorld.

California Summer

Travel Day

Mazen and I flew out last Saturday first thing in the morning. He got to check out the Capital One Lounge and was a big fan! Tried his first latte in an attempt to be fancy, but he did not care for it. (Here’s my post on how to get into these fancy lounges! Saves us SO much money on airport food!)

We maximized our days by arriving at 10am Pacific Time, so we had the whole day ahead of us.

California Casual

I changed out of my grimy travel clothes into a nice casual outfit!

We settled in at KK’s house. She and I shared a room with twin beds while Mazen, his cousin and Andrew shared KK’s bedroom.

We had a little lunch (which felt like dinner to us!) and then checked out the Mission Bay beach a few blocks away. How nice would it be to have this beach and walking path as your backyard!

Later that afternoon we headed over to an epic playground in Mission Beach where we enjoyed being outside without the East Coast humidity.

That night, KK prepared a chicken pasta dish with caesar salad and fresh corn on the cob.

For dessert we made ice cream sundaes! That Butterfinger topping was so good.

Kayaking Adventure

On Sunday morning, KK rented us two tandem kayaks to take out onto Mission Bay. She dropped us off at the rental place while she went to get her own kayak from the yacht club. We set out with lots of sunscreen!

Our paddling took us under a bridge and over to an island swarming with birds.

We were getting pretty tired, but we ended up taking the long way around a large island in search of sea lions. We never did find those sea lions but we did come back with very, very tired arms after 2.5 hours out on the water!

Burgers on the Beach

Once we returned our kayaks, we walked over to the yacht club where KK is a member. We grilled burgers for lunch there and relaxed on the beach for a few hours while the kids played.

French Beef

Back at the house, we showered and cooked French beef (a KK classic recipe) with broccoli for dinner.

In Search Of Acai

We started every day with some French press coffee

The other times I’ve come to San Diego (the last time I was pregnant with Birch!) I have loved walking along the Mission Bay beach boardwalk and getting acai bowls. KK lives a bit further away from the ocean (she’s in Pacific Beach for the locals) and so I took a longer walk to find The Mad Beet where I got a great bowl!

Zoo Day

After breakfast we “greased up” with sunscreen (as KK says!) and headed to the San Diego Zoo!

Some of the highlights….

An elephant pedicure

These cuties!

A lion napping just feet from the window

This orangutang making eye contact

These crazy alligator-like gharials

Lunch

We packed sandwiches and chips to have as a picnic lunch. Not only did this save us money, but it was great to be able to eat right when we felt like it.