Stop #1: Camping in Albion Basin (Alta ski resort) in Salt Lake City with our friends Dave & Elle and their three girls. Despite the perfectly blue sky during the day, our over-night was filled with rain. Thankfully, our new tent kept us warm and dry, but the campfire was a bit hard to get started in the morning. As we drove down from the mountain, starting our roadtrip family vacation, we both commented on how lucky we feel to live in such a beautiful place. Seriously, these pictures do not capture how beautiful the mountains are in the summer, how many wildflowers dot the mountainside, how cool and crips the air is, how delicious the water tastes up there.
Stop #2: Las Vegas. For an unknown reason, it took us over 8 hours of driving time to get to Vegas. There were some traffice slow-downs and an accident, but we have no idea why it took so long. It should have been 5-6 hours. Fortunately, Carolyn was an awesome car traveler. When we finally arrived, we stayed at the Treasure Island (only $69 on a Sunday night!). We arrived in time to see the pirate show in front of the hotel and eat a light snack, but we mostly just went to bed. Steve woke up early the next day, found a lucky slot machine that filled his wallet with some extra spending money for vacation. We all enjoyed our morning floating in the pool. Carolyn was disappointed that we did NOT get to see the dancing fountains in front of Bellagio, despite walking in 100 degree temperatures. The heat wore her out, which made for a very quiet drive between Vegas and San Diego.
Stop #3: San Diego. Upon arriving, we stayed a few nights at the Crowne Plaza in the Hotel Circle area. The property was a little bit old, but the pool and grounds were nice and the location was perfect. Carolyn had fun running around the courtyards and gardens and of course spent a lot of time in the pool. She also loved riding an elevator (she still calls them ele-gators, which I just love to hear) to our "hotel house." Another favorite activity on this vacation was playing hide and seek in the hotel room. She almost always chose to hide in the armoires/closets, after asking us to close the door behind her.
For the rest of our stay in San Diego, we stayed at the Hilton Resort on Mission Bay. We switched hotels because we used "reward points" for this entire trip; a perk that makes steve's business travel worthwhile. The Hilton was in a great location, beautiful resort. They had lots of planned activities like movie night at the pool, smores on the beach, family-friendly arts and games during the day, great happy hour specials, live music every afternoon, free breakfasts in the restaurant, fireworks in the evening, and a gorgeous pool. I went on a kayak tour one morning; Steve took out a sailboat one afternoon. There was even a great playground a short walk from the hotel. We would go back to this place, for sure - even without free reqard points. A great family friendly resort that was still very nice for adults.
While in San Diego, we went to
Sea World. We saw several of the shows -- the "Pet Rules" show which had cats, dogs, birds, and ducks may have been my favorite. The dolphin show was pretty spectacular too, with all of the ariel artists suspended above the pool. The Shamu show was my least favorite, but still pretty interesting. Sea World also has several rides that Carolyn was tall enough to ride. And, of course, Steve tried to win Carolyn some sort of souvenier. He had fun trying, but probably could have just bought the pink stuffed dolphin from the shop for cheaper.
Another must-see attraction in San Diego is the
zoo. Can you guess what animals were Carolyn's favorites? The elephants, of course! She was also fascinated by all of the different types of bamboo growing throughout the park. The grounds and landscaping are pretty phenomenal here. We were also blown away by Carolyn's random animal facts. When we were in front of the flamingos, she told us that they are pink because they eat shrimp. When we were in front of the zebras, she told us that no two zebras have the same stripes. Both facts are completely true. We have no idea where she learned these facts from. Smart cookie, she is. Her little brain is a sponge and she knows exactly the right context in which to pull out these random facts.
Our days and nights were filled while in San Diego, but I am not sure what else we did.... We spent lots of time in the pool and lounging around the resort, I guess. We also visited Mark and Meli in Carlsbad one evening, where they hosted us on their deck overlooking the Pacific Ocean and filled our bellies with grilled artichokes. One night, we enjoyed a nice dinner in La Jolla -- where much to Carolyn's surprise, they had corn-on-the-cob on the menu. Another night, we found a great fish market for some seafood.
Carolyn also spent quite a bit of time, just running around with her light-up shoes and cape. Pretty amusing.
On the way home, we broke up the driving into two days, stopping again in Vegas. Carolyn was a well-behaved, patient little girl on both days of the drive back home (from San Diego to Vegas; then Vegas to Salt Lake). I would not hesitate doing a roadtrip again; however, I might invest in another i-pod. Carolyn liked playing games and watching videos on it, while Steve wanted to use it to play music.
Overall, we all loved our family vacation, especially Carolyn. However, as we pulled into our driveway and I was unbuckling her carseat, she whispered to me, "There's no place like home." She then ran inside, put on her Dorothy dress, and immediately walked over to RJ's to fetch her dog, "Toto"
