Days 4 & 5

Well, I've officially bored myself. Sorry, everyone. I'll try to finish this trip within the next century.

I'll mention the Hotel del Coronado briefly. (ha!) I really wanted to see it, so that's why I planned for us to go to Coronado Beach. In my planning I found a place to eat inside the hotel. The menu online had reasonable prices and delicious sushi. So after the beach we walked to the outdoor showers and tried to clean up as best as possible, then drove over to the hotel. It really is beautiful. We walked around trying to find the restaurant - walking through what looked like a fancy wedding, then through another outdoor eating place. I noticed that there were very few families around. Like none? There were swanky singles and older rich-looking couples, and I'm not kidding when I say we were getting looks. What-in-the-world-are-you-doing-here?? kind of looks. I have my bouts with paranoia, but this was real. I thought I'd found the right restaurant, so we walked over to a girl who was seating people. She led us out to this fantastic table overlooking the beach. The sun was setting - it was beautiful. She brought an extra seat and place-setting to get us all accommodated. The looks intensified. A couple who appeared to be on their honeymoon next to us were whispering and watching us. Alex burped loudly. The kids were unfolding their napkins and dropping their silverware. I was becoming very self-conscious. I opened the menu and was startled to find that this was a completely different restaurant. The menu said fancy things with large prices after them, like 50 and 70. When there are no cents in the prices, you know you're in trouble. "Uhhh....waitress? You know how we just made you rearrange this whole table to seat us? Well, we won't be staying." Honeymoon couple smiled smugly. We were embarrassed. We decided to just hightail it out of the place altogether and go to Chick-Fil-A.

The next day was Sea World. Sea World is awesome. The shows are as good as I remember, and they've added tons of new stuff and fun rides and a Sesame Street area that Oliver loved. They also handed out trick-or-treat bags and had trick-or-treat stations all over the park. During the little Sesame Street show, each one of our kids got called up on stage to do things. I think Paul's extra excited waving and pointing at them might have had something to do with it. Anyway, Sea World was definitely a highlight.

Elmo the flying pig


My favorite exhibit - the Wild Arctic
It looked like a research station in the Arctic - with Beluga
whales and a huge walrus. It was so cute! Sah. Kyut.

Oliver fell deeply in love with this penguin
and they are still going strong.

Funny story: After the dolphin show, we were walking to a restaurant when this couple stopped us and the woman asked me angrily, "Is that your stroller?" It surprised me and I sort of stuttered, "Y-yes?" "Well we were just at the dolphin show and somebody took our stroller and it looks just like that," she said. "Oh...um..well, it is ours," I said. I looked at their little daughter standing there and I said, "Oh....yeah, well it was the only one at Walmart, so I had to buy it.....that's why it's pink and he's a boy......" I laughed a little to convey the humor....? But I realized how it looked. Their faces just remained angry and unconvinced. Awkward silence. I had no idea what else to say. In summary: the stroller is ours. Sorry for your loss. They finally walked away unsatisfied and ended up being right in front of us in line at the restaurant. AWKWARD.....

Did you know that google map directions SUCK bigtime?? Head toward Cauby Street. That's not where you turn, just head that way. Oh. BECAUSE I KNOW WHERE CAUBY STREET IS. One time our directions led us in a circle around the entire block of our hotel, before getting us on our way. Helpful. On the way home from Sea World we had a direction meltdown. We ended up back in the Sea World parking lot, and had to wait in the huge line of cars leaving for the day - AGAIN. I thought Paul's head was going to explode. That night I had planned in my perfect trip itinerary to go to Denny's, since it was kids eat free Saturday, so after the parking lot fiasco, we finally found the right freeway, and I made Paul get off to find this certain Denny's that was "on the way" to Anaheim. After driving around for 1/2 hour, following my awesome google directions, we concluded that it did not exist. This made Paul insanely angry at me. I don't blame him. We saw at least 5 Denny's right off the freeway after that, but Paul wasn't having it. He was going to Anaheim and that was the end of it. Use yahoo maps. Seriously.

I support peeing on your bushes.
That night our drive from San Diego to Anaheim had some more excitement. One time Maddie asked to go the bathroom, so Paul got off the freeway. We noticed something about the California freeway system - they don't have handy signs like Utah does, telling you what businesses are at the next exit. So we had to guess. And we were 100% wrong every time. The exit we took did not have a gas station or restaurant anywhere. Paul drove through several neighborhoods, getting more and more exasperated. He finally just stopped at the "Neighborhood Church," where he and Maddie relieved themselves in the bushes - directly in front of a busy road. Thanks for the use of your facilities, Neighborhood Church! You've been great.

Another time I alerted Paul that the gas tank was very empty. We crossed our fingers and Paul got off at the next exit. Wrong. We kept driving, driving, driving.....street after street......no gas station. Gas tank now extremely empty. Hey! A gas station! Oh, it's closed. On that same block there was a Taco Bell. Paul went through the drive-thru to ask someone where the #@*! an open gas station was. Paul was literally pulling his hair out at how long it was taking the person in front of us to order. Meanwhile we were running on pure fumes. Finally it was our turn. "Can I take your order?"Paul launched into a long rant about how we're on empty and it's like a ghost town around here, there are so many long streets, we've been driving forever, all we need to find is an open gas station, etc, etc." There was a long pause and the guy said, "Uhh........what was that?" I think some steam escaped from Paul's ears and he just drove up to the window. I was trying really hard to control my laughter at this point. His hair was all crazy and he was sooooo mad. After conversing in Spanish with other co-workers for 5 minutes, the guy told us where to go. I thought Paul was going to have a heart attack, but we made it.

The next day we went to Disneyland:

It was tons o' fun. I'm in love with the fast pass system. It really makes things so much better when you don't have to stand in a long line. The fireworks that night were INCREDIBLE - the best fireworks show I've ever seen! Here's the Star Wars section of them:



Then Paul, Isabel and Oliver went back to the hotel and Maddie, Alex and I stayed until midnight. We got to ride a whole bunch of rides that had been too busy during the day. I was so tired, but I'm so glad I decided to do that. It's a great memory.

Yeah. There's more. Three days more. Let it burn.