San Diego 2017

We had a really great time on our big trip to San Diego with our family of five!

This particular trip, we spent 5 days there and stayed at a VRBO home not too far from the airport on Kalmia Street, which proved to be a great option! We packed in Silver Strand Beach on Coronado Island, Seaport Village, The San Diego Zoo, Balboa Park and SeaWorld on this fun trip, and would do it all again!

I did individual recaps for each of the main sections, which you can check out below:

• Accommodations
• Activities
• Dining

San Diego 2017 Accommocations Review

With this being a travel blog, I'm going to stick to the basic categories of reviews on this side. If you want to check out a recap on a more personal level, you'll have to check out our family blog for that :)

We returned for our fourth trip to sunny San Diego, this time with our family of five (and a half), and it was a really great trip overall. We did the majority of things on our list, and truly were pleased with having just five days instead of a whole week there. We figured this out kinda late in the game as far as vacations go, but we end up getting a little homesick by day 6 (us and the kiddos), so we are going to begin planning our vacations for only five days.

Accommodations

As I mentioned in my preview post, we rented a home on vrbo.com, and it did not disappoint! I didn't link to the exact place before for safety concerns, in case anyone reading this is a crazy stalker or something ;) However, I will now, since you can't find us there anymore:

https://www.vrbo.com/816497

Overall, this place was exactly what we had hoped for. It was almost exactly as described, aside from updated bedding, and the addition of a washer/drier just off the kitchen in the little nook they pictured. I really want to put it out there that this place was extremely nice. I know my list of caveats is kinda longish, but I really don't mean to be negative about it. It was wonderful! We had no issues with it at all, and it was very nicely updated and we were 100% happy with our stay here.

Pros

• Location - The location was PERFECT for us, within a 10 minute drive to pretty much anywhere we wanted to go.
• Beds - The beds were very, very comfortable! We all slept great!
• Extras - We were very pleasantly surprised to find a pack 'n play AND high chair in the master bedroom closet. We hadn't counted on that, and were planning to just have Ryan sleep between us at night, as he does most nights at home. But it was SO NICE to have those luxuries. The high chair was AWESOME!
• Neighborhood - considering the situation with parking (see the cons section), we were grateful that the streets themselves weren't super busy as far as traffic was concerned.
• Keyless entry - It was nice to not have to worry about lost keys, so I did love that.
• View - the view from this place is gorgeous! You can see the ocean both from the master bedroom window and also from the deck. It is also fairly close to the airport, and the planes descend over the neighborhood. That worked well for us, as our boys LOVED to sit and watch the planes come in.
• Sound proofing - This was a HUGE plus, considering my last point. We hardly heard anything in the night (unless I happened to be awake and was listening for it), and slept great.
• Proximity to Airport - We actually flew into LAX as we got a significantly better deal on tickets there, but if you were flying into SAN, it's literally about a 5 minute drive - at most.

However, as this is a travel blog, I feel like I DO need to include the following disclaimers:

Cons

• Parking - The pictures they posted in there show all sorts of open parking spots, and that wasn't the case when we were there: We were lucky to snag a single spot, and we had to circle the block a time or two to find one most of the time. We did, however, find a spot every time at some spot around the block we were staying on, although sometimes it was across the street.
• Pin code for entry - There was a 9 digit pin to enter the place (which I finally memorized by the end of our 5 day stay, but had to look up every single time the rest of the time). It sucked having to bring it up on my phone in the text messages every time we wanted to get in. I should have written it down and just kept in my pocket, but I didn't.
• Suggestion/Request Notes - There were (very friendly, mind you) notes all over the place on the walls about this being a historic neighborhood, and a list of "suggestions" that felt a little more like warnings for staying there. These included:
  
  • No noise after 9pm, please. (I'm sure the neighbors below weren't overly thrilled with our 2 or 3am wake ups to make our baby a bottle - especially the one night where I accidentally tripped over something in the hallway)
  • No flushing anything beyond TP down the toilets.
  • Try not to do laundry unless you absolutely have to.
  • Try not to use the garbage disposal much.
  • Try to limit your use of water.
• Water pressure - I'm getting picky here, but after two REALLY long days of walking all over the Zoo and then SeaWorld, I was just dying for a nice, hot, strong shower. And the water DOES get hot, but it's just not very powerful. It was fine, but the shower just wasn't super powerful.
• No wash cloths for the kitchen - The kitchen was fairly well stocked for what we needed it for. However, it was a big strange that they had so few dish towels (only 2), yet requested that you didn't do laundry unless necessary, and had no dish cloths for the sink. An extra dish towel and a couple dish cloths would have gone a long way. It's minor, but it was actually inconvenient.

I'll say this: This would NOT be an ideal location for anyone who wanted to go out for a fun night out on the town and getting back late with friends or anything. It's also not an ideal location if you have a little boy who would rather cut off his left foot than take a shower (he's bath boy, we discovered). But overall, it's a pretty great place! I would consider staying there again if we planned to go back to San Diego in the future if not for the fact that we'd have four kids in tow the next time, and well...it has just the two bedrooms. We'd probably find a place with more bedrooms if we returned.

San Diego 2017 Restaurant Recommendations

We really had a slew of fantastic pics this time around for restaurants, although we ate breakfast and most lunches at the place we were staying, as it had a full kitchen. We ate at the Zoo and Sea World those two days, though, for lunch.

Shakey's Pizza Parlor

We stopped here to meet up with some friends at their recommendation after we got into LAX the first night, before we drove down to San Diego that night. It was a GREAT option for the kids! I wasn't super impressed with the pizza, although it was good, but it was nice to actually get to visit with our company, as they have a little arcade for the kids. The mojos were good, though! I'd recommend this as a great place for people with kids for sure!

The only pictures I got from here were of groups of people, so you'll have to check out their website for pictures of the place.

Website

Corvette Diner

Another really great option for kids! I found it while looking for recommendations for places that are kid-friendly, and it sure was! The only downfall I found was that it was almost TOO exciting for the kids, as they wanted to do anything but actually eat when their food came, and our 3 year old was pretty squirmy. They had a lot of special, fun touches for the kids, though, including their milk having sprinkles on the lid, throwing straws into the air, high-energy servers, and a balloon artist. Not to mention that for older kids (ours were a little young to go by themselves) there is an attached arcade as well, so while we didn't opt to check it out while we were waiting for our food, it'd be a great option for kids who are a little older to go off by themselves and let the adults visit at the table. I'd highly recommend this as well! I don't recall being completely wowed by the food, but I also don't recall NOT being wowed. It has just been a couple months since we were there.

Website

Phil's BBQ

This was one place we had on our "must eat at" list from our previous trip to San Diego back in 2010. It may have been the fact that in 2010 we had no kids and this time we had 3 with us, tending to make dining experiences in general a little hairy, and my taste buds may have been a little skewed due to being 16 weeks pregnant at the time, but while this was "good" bbq, it wasn't "OMG I'M GOING TO DIE IF I DON'T EAT IT" bbq like I remembered it being. Don't get me wrong: It was good. It was excellent, even. It just wasn't jaw-dropping, tell-the-world-about-it bbq.

We went a little off prime hours and were pleased that the wait was only to the back door at that time, as it tends to be a bit of a line around the lunch rush. The food came quickly, and the place easily accommodates larger groups. We had no trouble at all finding seating for our group of 10. You see a lot of business people here during the week. It's usually fairly packed most of the time.

Website

Paesano

Paesano's was one of those hole-in-the-wall places that don't get nearly as much notoriety as other spots in cities like this. We stumbled across it after failed attempts to eat (too late in the evening with kids, and we didn't want to wait) at Waypoint Public and some mexican restaurant nearby as well, and the place was pretty dead, but we decided to give it a try. It was a home-run! The food was delivered quickly, the wait staff was very friendly to our wiggly little family of over-tired kiddos, and the food was DELICIOUS! We ordered spaghetti and meatballs for our boys to share, my hubby got the baked meat lasagna and I went with the baked meat canneloni. Everything was good, but after taking just a few small bites of my kids' spaghetti, I about melted. Italian restaurants are typically the LAST place you want to order simple spaghetti, so I tend to stay away from it, but this stuff was so good I ended up eating the leftovers the next morning for breakfast. It was out of this world! If we are ever back in the area, we will be adding this place to our "must return" list. A+++++, Paesano's!

Website

Noodles & Company

I'm not going to go into great detail, but we had a great experience here with our little kids. We don't have one close by, although there is one in Mankato that is just on the opposite side of town we usually visit. The kids loved the curly noodles, and even Ryan ate it right up.
Website


For the rest of our meals, we either had fast food or ate at the condo, so there isn't much to write home about as far as that is concerned. We did In and Out burger one meal and it was just kind of okay, but nothing to write home about. We also ordered Papa John's after our Zoo day.

San Diego, Here We Come!

We're gearing up for a fun 5 day trip to San Diego this week, and we cannot wait!

This is our third time going to San Diego (see our recap post listing here, so it feels pretty comfortable for us. We'll be re-visiting some of our favorite places while there, since this is the first time we're going as parents...and we're bringing all 3 of our boys with us.

The last time we went was in 2010, before any of them were even a twinkling in our eyes, so to say this is going to likely be a DRASTICALLY different trip is a major understatement. Still, we're very excited!

The big boys are excited to fly in an airplane again, as it has been two years since they've flown. Cashel remembers our trip to Key Largo, but Kendrick does not, so this will be the first flight he actually remembers, as well as Ryan's FIRST flight!

Accommodations

While we've been pleased with our previous accommodations while in San Diego, this time around, we want to actually enjoy the trip even with kids in tow, so we booked a rental condo off vrbo.com, and we can't wait! Here are some pics of this gorgeous condo:

Planned Activities

If there's one thing we've learned from years of planning vacations with kids in tow, it's to be extremely flexible. On our 5 day trip (4 full days), we have only 2 major activities planned: The San Diego Zoo and Sea World. We'd also like to take the kids out to
Coronado for a picnic on Silver Strand Beach, check out Seaport Village, and visit Point Loma as those were favorites from previous trips, but we can squeeze those times into the other days as we get around to them, and if we don't make it there, then so be it. I've also heard great things about La Jolla, so we may check that out as well, keeping in mind that we only have 4 days, and we'll be traveling with 3 kids ages 5 and under, so we'll probably have to save some of that for another trip.

Planned Eating

Staying in the condo with little kids, the vast majority of our meals will be eating in or picnics. We learned that pizza or sandwiches at the park are GREAT with kiddos, but, of course, we want to eat out while on vacation too, and we've also learned some tricks to go along with that. We'll probably eat out one meal a day, and we've definitely got Phil's BBQ on the list, as it is just to DIE for bbq. Beyond that, we don't really have anything specific planned. Being pregnant this time around, I've also learned that I'm not always going to be hungry for what I have planned, so we have to sorta play it by ear.

Another GREAT trick for eating out while on vacation with kids is to just get takeout and eat it either at the park or at the condo. It's just not worth the hassle most of the time, especially when you're in a big city and end up having to wait to be seated. Another great option is a buffet, where they can try different things but don't have to wait for their food. Trying to eat out all the time with our kids in tow was the only downside to our trip to Key Largo back in 2015, but to say it was a "downside" underplays the part where it practically RUINED our vacation. It was awful, and it's just not something I want to repeat all the time. So...we get condos or rental homes and find places to eat that aren't inside busy restaurants with lots of noise and lots of other patrons to distract the kids (and places for them to run off and get lost or, you know, knock peoples' food off their tables. Don't ask.)


Stay tuned! I hope I'll be able to get a trip recap out within the year haha

San Diego Recap (Friday)

Friday

Hot Tub, Seaport Village, Colima's, Home

Friday was our last day in San Diego, and we spent much of the morning packing and getting ready to head home. We breakfasted on cookies from this yummy cookie store in Seaport Village that my friend Cole suggested. (Thanks, Cole!) We also decided to take advantage of the hot tub one last time, and enjoyed the beautiful view of San Diego Bay from there.

Daniel, Iryna and Sofie picked us up and we all enjoyed some lunch and dominoes at Colima's Mexican Restaurant, which Dave's wife, Vicky owns! It was wonderful, and I had my very first Ceviche there - YUM! (I've been craving it every day since!)

THANK YOU for a wonderful lunch, Vicky!! My only disappointment in this visit to Colima's is that I won't be able to return anytime soon :( I'm going to be looking up Ceviche recipes, though - mark my word! If you live near San Diego, check this place out!

Dominoes!

Heading Home

Unfortunately, we needed to be to the airport by 2:30 for our 4:20pm flight (or so we thought), so we had to cut the fun short. We said our goodbyes, then Daniel, Iryna and Sofie dropped us at the airport.

It was tough to say goodbye to this:

In order to welcome this upon our arrival back home: