Thursday we left for California, I had set my alarm for 3:10 and thought kyle did too. I must have woke up and turned mine off but somehow Kyle woke up at 3:30 and we quickly got ready and out the door. I texted Mitch to see if he had headed off to work yet and he hadn’t so he picked us up so we wouldn’t have to park the car. Quick made it through TSA and it was time for our first plane. We had a quick flight to Minneapolis and then had a 3 hour layover until our 3.5 hour flight to San Diego. We flew in and Kyle was carsick so that wasn’t good, We got our rental car and then went to find some food. We found an In-n-out and got burgers and shakes. We also went to Crumbl cookies which i had heard of on social media and they were massive delicious cookies.
Anna had sent us a list of sights she had heard were must sees so we started checking those off while we waited for them. We went to Coronado Island which had you go over a massive bridge and the island was SO nice with gorgeous houses and we saw the famous hotel. The beach had the most gorgeous sand i’d ever seen and it had like glitter in it. The water was cold but we walked the beach and enjoyed the ocean. We then took off to see Balboa park, it had gorgeous sculptures, buildings, and bridges and was beautiful. A lot of the museums were closed so we will have to go back sometime and see those.
We then picked up Brady from the mansion and picked up Anna and Brett from the airport. We snuck back over to Coronado with them so they could see it. We then headed to our places we were staying in Oceanside which was about 45 minutes away. When we got there we drove along the beach and it was SO gorgeous with condos right next to the beach. We got to our place which was right off the water and in a great location. We then started walking around looking for a place to eat and it took us forever to find a place that was open and didn’t have a long wait. We ended up going to the Miss Betty’s which looked a little sketchy but ended up having the BEST food! I got shrimp which was awesome, brett got an amazing looking brisket sandwich, Kyle and Anna got dirty fries which was fries with tons of stuff on top of them. We then went back to our place and checked out the market right down the street. We relaxed together and went to bed after a LONG day of traveling.
With the time change we were all up early so we just got moving and went to check out the ocean. It was so amazing and there were tons of surfers. We walked up and down the pier and by the ocean. We then went to look for breakfast, we had seen this place Swami’s Cafe and had heard good things about it and so we checked it out…. It was AMAZING. So amazing we went back the next day. We all got smoothies, kyle and I shared berry pancakes, eggs & bacon, THe other boys got California & Farmers scrambles, & Anna got Lobster benedict. Emily messaged me about getting together so she met us at
After we ate all that we headed back and got ready for the beach. The water was really cold but Brett was out there with the boogie board, we dug a big hole, and just enjoyed sitting by the beach and people watching. We rented a 6 person bike for an hour and had so much fun and so many laughs riding up and back the road on it. When we were done doing that we went to find a quick lunch so that we could get back to the condo and get ready for the wedding. We walked up to the downtown and they all got Mexican and me and Kyle got a good Hawaiian Pizza at a place called Knockout Pizza. We stopped in a souvenir place and We found a mug like we do at every vacation and me and anna got the comfiest long sleeve shirts ever.
We got all dolled up for the wedding and headed to San Marcos where it was taking place. It was super hot but only a 13 minute ceremony made it easy. We then had appetizers and took pictures and talked to lots of people. It was also a really short wedding reception, we had some interesting sides for the meal, we then talked to lots of Dordt people that we don’t see very often. We headed to the Party Mansion for an hour and then headed home because we were wiped! I went to bed right away but i think the rest stayed up til 1 AM
The next morning we all slept in a little better and were pretty slow, we decided to eat at Swami’s Cafe again and we all tried different things and got smoothies again. After we were done we went back to the condo and packed up to go to a different beach down the road called Harbor Beach. It was a bigger beach and not quite as pretty, it had some rock walls that people were fishing off of, we dug in the sand and just talked, relaxed and went for walks. When it was lunch time we headed to Harbor Fish & Chips which we had heard was really good and it did NOT disappoint. It tasted so good and man the fresh shrimp was so much better than we have ever had. We got ice cream at a little local shop before heading in the car and going back to the condo.
We then went for the beach round two and got the boogie boards out and all three boys boogie boarded. I then decided I wanted to try it too, the water was super cold but I took it on and kyle helped me get out to the waves so I could ride them. He’d hold on to me then push me when the wave started. It worked SO well and i road a few almost all the way to shore. Worked better because I was light enough unlike the boys. We then went home and got showered up and went to Ty’s Burgers which Emily and Drake the Air BnB owner had recommended. They were phenomenal and we all devoured them. After that we went to the pier to see what it was like all lit up. It was gorgeous and we soaked up our last time at the pier and ocean. We walked back uptown and got frozen yogurt. We went back and picked up the condo because we had such an early morning of leaving at 4:30 AM
We got to the airport early and of course our flight got delayed because 1 flight attendant got Covid so they had to scrap the whole group. It made a shorter layover in Minneapolis then mitch picked us up from the airport and we got frosty udder on the way home to seeing our babies.
meredithderonde.com 