Friday, August 1, 2008

Sea World

We had a lot of fun at Sea World. We purchased a one day pass and received the rest of 2008 FREE. Anyone want to go again? I think the favorite part for the two younger boys was petting the Rays. We had to go back a couple of times. The night shows were pretty darn good. The Cirque Del Mar was actually quite entertaining. We liked the dolphins and the whales the best, and we also had breakfast with Shamu. We got really, really wet while sitting in the soak zone during the Shamu Show.

Grunion in San Diego


The Grunion -- at 11:00pm on the beach in San Diego. These amazing little fishies just come up out of the water to lay their eggs in the sand. Ages 14 and under are allowed to pick them up by hand. We stayed until about 1:00am. Check out the pics and video. Make sure you check the web for days and times you and your family could do this, too!

Great Vacation


Since we just recently returned from a fabulous vacation in San Diego, California, we'd better show you how much we loved it. By-the-way, we are planning on returning as soon as we can to stay much, much longer! Our first day was spent at the beach to watch the sun set. It was, of course, spectacular. We then stayed at the beach (Mission Beach) until about 1:00 am walking up and down the beach in the dark searching for grunion. Yup, grunion. They are little fish that come up on shore the 4th day or so after the full moon to lay their eggs. It was kind of a cool experience. I recommend it to anyone who takes their children to San Diego. Then, we hit Sea World for the next two days. The shows were great. The boys were especially impressed with the whales and their intellect. The saddest part of our vacation (besides the coming home part) was that both Braden and Kort spent their hard-earned money on new "cool" California sunglasses, and they both broke within a day. Not "cool". We spent the rest of the week (the next 4 days) at the beaches... surfing and body boarding. Wow, what fun. The temperature of the air and water couldn't have been more perfect. It was about 79 degrees and the water was also in the 70's. I, personally, think I'll be retiring from cold Cache Valley to San Diego. We met some friends who brought us some boards, and we surfed until all the boys had surfer rashes and we had to take some time off and hit the drug store for ointment to cool the rash. Jon and Braden also complained that their chest "noogies" had been rubbed off and they had to wear bandaides. How about that? Kort turned out to be a natural on the short board, and Braden and Jon had the best luck on the long boards (9 foot). Trae and I (Becky) were non-stop at the body boards. It was seriously fun, fun, fun. We tried all the beaches from Oceanside down to Mission Beach. They were all our favorites... we are not picky. The sand was soft, the sun was shining, and the surf was up thanks to Hurricane Dolly down in Mexico. We have taken other vacations this summer, but this one was for just "our" family. We have to reserve time for this kind of together time each year, or it seems to get run-over by too many other schedules and events. We love spending 24/7 with each-other. I cry each time our family vacation ends. This time, Jon agreed; next year, we are staying longer.