Hotel Del Coronado

We kicked off the summer with an awesome vacation to California!  We flew to San Diego the day after Abby's last day of school. Little Bubba and Pops picked us up.  They spent the week before on a road trip out there with fun stops on the way.

 Abby and Caroline love to fly!

 We started our trip at Hotel Del Coronado.  The girls wanted to hit the pool immediately.

 Abby was a little chilly when she got out to eat this popsicle.  The hotel put them out by the pool every afternoon.

 The first afternoon, Little Bubba rented a seven man bicycle for us.  We had fun and got quite a work out while exploring a little bit of the island.

That evening, we had a nice pizza dinner right next to a pier.  We enjoyed walking around on it while Nonnie and Little Bubba stayed at the table to wait for our food.

Saturday morning, Ryan, Brent and I took the ferry and toured The Midway.  We took a twenty minute guided tour of the upper decks and a self guided audio tour of the lower part.  It was really interesting and afterward, Ryan took us to a fun restaurant in the lamplight district for lunch. He had been to it on a previous business trip.

 Abby and Caroline were having their own big adventure with Nonnie and Pops while we were on the Midway.  Hotel Del Coronado gives each child a backpack with clues for a treasure hunt all around the grounds.

They were very busy with their hunt, breakfast out, some shopping and a trip to the fudge shop.  In the pic below, Caroline is examining Abby's very loose tooth.

 They also swam and hit the beach.

 I joined them on the beach when I returned.

 Abby lost her first tooth that night!  She planned ahead and packed her tooth pillow for the trip.

Our last night on the island, we took a gondola ride.  It was definitely one of the highlights of our trip.  We had two very personable gondoliers and one sang to us in Italian.

 Caroline enjoyed some rest, relaxation and snacks on the gondola.

After the gondola ride, we ate dinner at the hotel and took pictures on the beach at sunset.

 Sunday morning, we rode the old elevator in the hotel to the top floor and enjoyed the view one last time before loading up and heading to Disneyland.

We stopped briefly in La Jolla on the way and saw the seals.  They were way too stinky for us!  We were also anxious to get to our final destination!  Stay tuned for Disneyland pics!