San Diego

The reason we went to San Diego was because I was running in my first Spartan race. 

After looking at pictures though, it would seem we went there to go to Sea World and the beach. 

So I guess I will tell you about those "other" things first.

Sea World:

I know, I know. We supported the very organization that captures innocent whales and forces them in tiny aquariums. Then their fins start to curve; which, we all learned from the documentary "Blackfish," is a sign of depression.  The depressed whales are then forced to perform every day for hours on end. Oh and they are also forced to breed, creating more and more captured, depressed whales. Yeah, we went there.  

I'm sort of a sell out and just had to take my kids once. Never again! Well for a little while at least. We had a good time.

That is, till we went to the Shamu show. 

Brilliant Travis decided to sit on the 4th row, which is the splash zone.

Brooklyn is not a fan of getting splashed.

When it was time for Shamu to start splashing, Brooklyn dropped to the ground and started army crawling in attempt to get away from the splash. Well, the very spot she was shooting to escape to was the only spot that Shamu splashed. 

She wasn't very happy.

Shamu then came back and splashed the whole crowd again, so Brooklyn, you can imagine, was just thrilled!

Again, I was a sell out, because as soon as I saw the whale coming, I grabbed the baby and booked it to the dry zone leaving my three year old to the wolves... or whales I guess.

It was fun, but I think the kids favorite part was the jungle gym. So next time we decide we want to go on an awesome adventure, we are going to McDonald's play place.

The beach:

I wasn't there, but I heard it was fun. We went on this trip with our neighbors, the Bruce's. Half of us went to the race that day, and half of us went to the beach. Travis went to the beach with the girls.

Don't let Brooklyn's smile fool you. She was again traumatized, no not by a whale in the ocean, but by the showers at the beach.
 This girl REALLY does not like getting splashed!

The race

Have you heard of the Spartan race? Well it is a mud run with various obstacles. We were supposed to run 12 miles plus the obstacles. It didn't happen. The temp was 105 degrees so the smart race directors decided to cut it down to 5 miles. I was sort of happy because 1) I didn't really train for the race and 2) Our start time wasn't till 2 pm. I know I would have puked! 

The 5 miles we did was pretty fun. I got to jump in a huge mud pool, army crawl under barbed wire in the mud, climb ropes, etc. I think I will want to finish the race for real though in the future.

Brian, Jerika and me

The next day, we decided to head on home, but before that, we stopped in Coronado Island. This is where Trav's dad grew up.

 This is where he went to church many many years ago

Its a neat little place and I'm thinking that maybe we should do a Charles reunion there one day. Hint hint, wink wink?

I love that California is so close to us and that the beach is only 7 hours away. I'm sure there will be many more trips to come!