It was amazing. I would gladly pay twice the amount of money this trip cost in order to watch her do that again. Very glad we brought the camcorder. It was awesome.
She also really liked the Mexican dancers in Old Town. She stood for about 30 minutes with her mouth wide open just staring at them and then as soon as they left the stage to take a break, guess which little Drama Queen decided it was her turn to dance? Yup...she ran right up on stage and twirled, skipped and danced to her heart's content. It was adorable. She looked so proud of herself as she swirled her skirt and kept saying to me, "Mae Mae dancing?" (Note to self: look into dance class when she's 3.)
We also made it to the world-famous San Diego zoo. It was great fun to watch Maelin admire a new zoo and animals she had never seen before (Koala bears and Panda bears were our favorites too). It was a bit hot that day and I am so not a fan of the heat-and-humidity weather, but it was worth it for the moment when we got her into the Sky Tram that takes you from one part of the zoo to the other (it's huge). She kept saying, "Mae up high!" and looking all around and laughing and beaming and just loving life.
She also really liked the swimming pools. (shocker, right?) The hotel we stayed at kept the water really warm (too warm for my taste but the little flags you raised to have someone immediately bring you a drink made up for that), so she loved it. She loved being thrown and spinned and one night on our way to dinner, she ran up to the pool glass wall and just pressed her nose against it, like a puppy begging for someone to adopt her. She would NOT leave this perch until I promised her we would come back after dinner ("Mama promises???")
However, CA is not a cheap place to be. Our one night out with the lovely babysitter cost us $350 all together. Really. Between the $100 we paid Karen, the $50 for different taxis and things, $150 for an awesome fish dinner that we can't get here in CO, barhopping in places that charge $9 for a gin and tonic, (oh, and the room service dinner the babysitter ordered which I had totally told her she could do), the final total for us to go out from 6pm to 11pm was $350. Oops. Good thing the tequila bar we had stopped at made that bill a bit easier to swallow.
We tried to skip the expensive hotel drink option by walking to a nearby 7-11 type place for some food and liquor to keep in our room. A six-pack of Coors in a can was about $8.50. I got a six-pack of the good local micro-brew and that was about $12. Horrendous, but better than the $5.75 the hotel charged when the lovely waiter brought you your drink by the pool. Or the $5.50 for the Bud Light. We also tried to skip paying restaurant prices for breakfast one day by walking to the local Einstein's. We got 2 breakfast bagels, a milk for Maelin, a coffee and a diet Coke. This cost us $22. Really.
So bottom line is this: San Diego is a fabulous mix of great Mexican food, Southern CA lifestyle, beach, ocean breezes, flowers, pools, fresh fish, fun night-life but be sure you bring your moo-la: you're gonna need it.
Would I change anything? Not on your life. The memories I have of Maelin's first visit to the ocean is not something you can put a price tag on. I'll forever remember the joy in her face as she scampered around by the water's edge with sand all over her, her toes dug in, laughing and screaming at the waves as she tried to avoid them. Then looking up at us with pure happiness in her eyes. Who cares about money during a moment like that?
Not me. Not ever.
(I didn't label each of these pics cause frankly, I think they're self-explanatory and I want to get back to reading Eclipse...)
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