San Diego

We have a tradition in our family where when each child is 9 years old, they get to go on a special trip by themselves with mom and dad.  A couple of weeks ago it was Ellie's turn, and we chose to go to San Diego.  It was so great.  I loved spending some special time with Ellie and we did lots of fun things.

The first day, it was raining so we went to the USS Midway.  It is so cool.  We got to go all around the ship and see so many cool things.  They have a self guided audio tour that you can listen to so it was informational as well. 

 Ellie got to try out sitting in a cock pit of a plane.  It was really cool.

 They had a ton of planes on the flight deck.  Some of them we could even go inside.

 This is a a pilot's seat.  It's amazing how small they are.

 They had these maniquin's all  over the place.  they were a little creepy.

 Ellie earned her wings by answering a questionnaire.  A lot of the volunteers at the museum actually served on the ship.  There were these two older gentlemen that presented the wings and it was really cute.  It was really neat to be able to talk to people who were actually on the ship at one time.  They even had some WWII vets with displays set up. 

 This is the famous statue that is just outside the ship.

 By the time we were done with the ship, the rain had stopped and the sun was out so we went to Old Town for some Mexican food.  We had a delicious lunch and then went to the Mormon Battalion site.  I've been to a lot of church sites, and this was one of the better ones I've seen.  It was engaging and informational.  They take you from room to room and have a video of the story.  Such a great place.  Kyle and I both found ancestors that were in the Battalion.

The next day the sun was out and we headed to Sea World.  It was super crowded, so that was really nice.  We rode a lot of rides, saw 3 shows, and had fun checking out all the animals.  This walrus was right up against the glass and was being very playful.

 The penguins being fed.

 Huge turtle.

 The sharks were amazing.  Those teeth look sharp!

 I have a picture of me standing in from of thick shark jaw when I was a kid, so he had to get one of Ellie.

 Behind the flamingo's, is the roller coaster we rode 5 times.  There wasn't much of a like so we just kept riding it.

 Ellie At one of the shows.  We saw the seal show, orca show, and dolphin show.  They were all really fun to watch.

 The following day we headed to the zoo.  It is so big, but we managed to see almost everything.  Somehow we missed the sloths, but that was OK.

 When we first got there, We took a bus tour to get a lay of the land, then we hopped on the ariel tram to go to the top of the zoo.  Ellie really liked the tram.

 We saw this hippo with her baby.

 San Diego is one of only 4 zoos in the country so we had to see them.  They are really cool animals. You have to wait in  a line to see them, but we went early enough in the day so the line wasn't too long.

 Ellie's favorite animal she saw were the Koala's. She was really excited because they were awake when we saw them.  They sleep 20 hours a day so we were lucky to catch them active.

 Sunday we went and saw the temple and stopped off at the beach.  It was a little cold, but still fun to be on the beach.

 We went to old town again and Ellie was to go back to the Mormon Battalion site.  This time she got to put on some of the gear that they used.

We had such a great trip.  I am so glad we got to spend some time with Ellie doing some pretty fun things.