San Diego 2017 Activities Review

For our five day trip, two big activities, and a few small ones made for the PERFECT short vacation with kids in tow. We planned to do our big activities every other day to give us a break from all that walking, and that was very wise!

Coronado / Silver Strand Beach

We were so enthralled with this beach when we went in 2009 with Mark's sister that we wanted to take the boys there when we went. We were VERY disappointed to find that there were signs up pointing out to stay out of the ocean as it was contaminated (from the recent storms, we found out later). We ignored them and dipped our toes in the ocean a bit, but then our oldest son ended up touching something on the beach that actually burned the crap out of his hand. It was really gradual, and he didn't complain about it for a day or two afterwards, but it was really freaky. It ended up causing blisters ALL over his hand, prompting him to say he "never wants to go to the beach again." We had a wonderful time when we were actually AT the beach, though! It's beautiful there, and fairly quiet. There is a campsite right there on the ocean as well. It was really a great time!

It does cost to get in - something like $4 for 2 hours, which was off-putting to Mark, but I didn't mind. As a result, we left after 2 hours, though, when we probably would've stayed all day otherwise.

Seaport Village / Embarcadero

Since we left the beach early, we decided to venture to Seaport Village to get some cookies with the boys. I love all the little shops there, and I did get some souvenir t-shirts, but there was no way in heck I was going to take my 5 and 3 year old boys in those shops with all that breakable stuff. Thankfully, Mark took the boys over to run around in the big park nearby (Embarcadero) while I shopped, and that worked out well. This is a really perfect, romantic little spot to stop if it's just a couple, or people with older kids who like to shop, though. We just didn't enjoy it as much as we had when we went there in 2010.

You do have to pay to park, although it's cheaper if you get your parking validated.

San Diego Zoo

If you're going to the Zoo, bring your walking shoes! This is a really awesome zoo! We enjoyed the bus ride at the beginning, and the Skyfari ride when our feet were really tired. However, in between those two, man was it a lot of walking.

Balboa Park

Balboa Park is a really fun, walkable park. There are the traditional "park" type areas, with a playground and picnic tables and such, but there is also a huge area filled with all sorts of neat museums, incredible gardens, fountains and restaurants. We went back in 2009 and then again this trip, and would recommend it for sure! Keep in mind most all of the museums close by 4pm, so you'll want to plan for that earlier in the day, especially as many of them charge for admission, so you'll want to get your money's worth.

Seaworld

We really had a great time each day of our entire trip, but this one may have been our favorite day. SeaWorld is seriously the perfect place to take kids. All of the shows are highly entertaining for the kids - especially the dolphin one and seal one. They have a huge kiddie play area with bouncy house and rides appropriate for kids around ages 3 (maybe even 2?). They have one big roller coaster (Manta) in the middle, which my oldest son was actually tall enough to ride (at age 5!), so that was a big highlight. They just really did the place up right, and even though we didn't end up doing even probably a quarter of what they had to offer, and we were bummed that we were too early in the season for the Cirque show, we had one heck of a wonderful day with the kids. It was really nice to have our sister-in-law and niece with us to help out with the kids a bit, so I'm sure if they hadn't been there, it would have been a little more stressful for us. The biggest downside was cost, but it was worth every penny! For even a small child, it's about $75 a ticket (if you purchase in advance online, that is - at the gate, it's more like $90), and the food inside is really expensive, so you'd have to plan for that as well. However, everything beyond the food once you're inside is included...except some of the carnival games in the kiddie area. It's a fantastic, fun family activity for a day.

La Jolla Cove

This was a new spot for us this vacation. We didn't stay for long, and we were really glad we didn't plan an entire day or even few hours here. We stopped on our way back up to LA for our flights later that afternoon. It was really neat, and the scenery was beautiful! Downfalls were that it wasn't really easy to find parking, and there wasn't really a whole lot to do when you were there. There were restaurants across the street in some of the area (but not very kid-friendly ones, so we opted for Jack in the Box further into town). They did have a few vendor booths, but they weren't really selling anything we were interested in. We spent maybe about 30 minutes there before we were bored and ready to go get some lunch. It was a nice place to stop and just check out for a half hour, but not a place to hang out and stay the whole day by any means. But then again, I guess we're not really the types to sit and just watch seals sleep on the beach.

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 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.
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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.