San Diego

For Tyson's birthday, Grandma Allaire (Anne Marie) took us to San Diego. Our first stop, appropriately, was Stone Brewing Company.

I love visiting breweries, but it never occurred to me how beautiful a brewery could be. The garden was amazing, and perfect for Tyler to explore while waiting for our lunch and later, for the tour.

On Friday, we visited Sea World. Neither Tyler nor I had ever been. We had so much fun! First we checked out the porpoises. I've seen them in the wild, but never this close!

We thought we should probably check out the kid friendly area. As luck would have it, the moment we arrived, a musical show began.

But it turned out, Tyler wasn't a fan.

Next was a Sea Lion comedy show. Tyler cried at first, but eventually got into it. It was so fun, and a good reminder that animals, even trained ones, have minds of their own.

Next we went to the shark tank. So cool! I'm trying to post a video here, maybe Tyson can get it to work.


After the sharks, we went on Tyler's first ride. Hopefully we can get that video up, too.

We watched the orca show, which included Shamoo. Tyler cried at the beginning, but just like the Sea Lion show, he soon got into it. Must be that he doesn't like loud music blasting...

On Saturday, our family indulged my intense craving for ocean. Tyler had a blast! He loved destroying sand castles by driving his new car through them.

A big group of young people worked together to build this dragon. They had all kinds of cool tools, and definitely had a good system going. As the day went on, other people joined in, forming a large crowd. The quality of the work began to deteriorate. Then the original group of people left, encouraging the newcomers  to finish it. The crowd dispersed within a few minutes. Tyson caught a couple of snapshots before a kid jumped on the head (no, not Tyler. Tyler appreciates fine art.)

When the boys started getting hungry, I worried my day at the beach would end early. I went foraging for food, and came back an hour later with delicious burgers, dogs, and ice cold fountain sodas. Tyler loved the hot dog.

After lunch, Tyler approached some little girls who had a wider variety of sand toys. He was quickly befriended by the whole group, and played with their toys for a while. Then I took him out to the breakpoint. I was caught off guard by how rough the water was, but even when a wave broke right over us, Tyler was focused, but interested. And so began my spiel, one Tyson will likely grow tired off far before Tyler does..."and when YOU turn 12, we'll go diving together so YOU can see the cities under the sea..." "In 11 years, WE can be dive buddies..." I can't wait!

The bottom line is, we loved San Diego!