California Dreamin'

Pacific Beach

San Diego was lovely. It is one of my favorite places and I would live there in a heartbeat. We took Bug there when he was 9 months old, and stayed on La Jolla beach. The most blazing memory of THAT trip was that he got badly sunburned in his cheeks, resulting in a trip to the local ER. I am actually ashamed to mention it.

Yes, we know about sunscreen. The problem was that I had two kinds - the regular lotion for his body, and a separate stick for his face. We slathered his little body, and then must have been distracted before doing doing his face separately, and it just never happened. Boy, did we get a few lectures whilst seeking medical advice for his burned and blistered little cheeks. Well deserved, I admit. I have such guilt, because I know what kind of risk this has now exposed him to. Anyway, I digress. Back to the recent trip.

This time we went back to a place I've been a number of times before growing up, and again right after graduating from high school - Pacific Beach. How to describe Pacific Beach to somebody who has never been there. Hmmmm. Colorful. Ecclectic. Great people watching. Good surf. Nice beach. Excellent boardwalk. Did I mention the people watching? Yes? Well, that is the true pulse of Pacific Beach. So it is worth mentioning again.

Pacific Beach is a wonderful family beach, but it is so much more as well. It holds a romantic place in my heart because I have memories there dating back to childhood. And now, my own family and I have created many more happy memories there. We stayed right on the beach, which was perfect for a family with young children - no packing up a car to go to the beach... we just walked right out. Easy naps for Bean, who still very much needs them.

And my parents, sister, her 3 kids, and her boyfriend all drove 3 hours from the California "desert" to stay with us, so it was a bit of a family affair.

The whole group went to Seaworld, which was a bit challenging, considering there were 11 of us in total, trying to stick together. By the end of the day, we more or less gave up and just went our separate ways. But what a fun and perfect day - we sat in the "splash zone" for the Shamu show. When we got soaked at the end, Bean started crying, until he looked around and saw everyone else was laughing, so he decided to join in and laugh with the rest of us.


Bug really liked Shamu, and also the Dolphin show. But his favorite? C'mon - if you've been around 4 year olds, surely you can guess. It was the stuffed hot pink dolphin he got, of course.

Honestly, if we had just walked in to Seaworld, purchased the pink dolphin, and left... Bug would have been happy as a clam. And to think that the original mission was a large stuffed Shamu whale. You know. The original black and white stuffed whale? Well, a few weeks ago at a garage sale, Bug found a really ratty one in a box. He pleaded for it, but it was so ratty that I refused. I told him we would get him a new one when we went to Seaworld. He never forgot that promise, and constantly reminded me, at at home, on the plane, in the car, all the way up to the entrance.

So, when we (rationally) insisted on waiting to get the whale until later on in the day (so we wouldn't have to lug the damned thing around), well you can imagine the pure trauma of it. By midday, he had worn me down. But by then, he had spotted the hot pink dolphin. And, by God, that was what he had to have. Shamu had lost all appeal. So, he got it, and pretty much never let it go the entire rest of the trip. Not just that day, the whole rest of the trip. You can imagine the smiles and sweet comments we got.

Bean enjoyed Seaworld, and was pretty content with the two small rubber sharks that Daddy got him. The other highlight of the day at Seaworld was the Seagull that kept stealing food off people's plates, in the outdoor lunch area. They would walk away for a mere second, to wave somebody down, get a fork, whatever - and that bird would dive bomb their plate. All the kids thought that was just hiliarious. And it really was.

The rest of the time, we spent on the beach, building sand castles and wading into the surf. Our final (half) day was spent at the Star of India (the ship). Bug met a real pirate who gave him a tootsie roll and a gold coin, which was another high point for him.

We also had a nice group dinner, courtesy of my parents, in Old Town San Diego. It was a nice Mexican restaurant seated outdoors. The chips and salsa, beer, and margaritas were delicious. So, I ask you, what better way to prepare for the eating of the main course than to vomit all the chips and salsa just ingested? That was Bean's thinking anyway. He ended up eating the main course naked from the waist up.

All in all, it was a grand family getaway. My only regret? Not springing for a ticket on the plane for Bean. You know, his own seat. As opposed to sitting on our laps. Need I say more?