Sunny San Diego for Christmas

Our favorite moments are always together as a family.
Being able to spend those moments in Sunny San Diego was such a treat for everyone.

We flew out on the afternoon of Christmas.  Ethan and Ellie have become quite the little travelers and know just what to bring to keep themselves entertained during the flight.

We got to San Diego early in the evening and so after checking into our hotel the first thing was to find a place to eat dinner.  Being Christmas day, there were not a lot of restaurants open so we ended up eating at a nearby place named Valley Kitchen.  They served some down home cookin' and we enjoyed the retro (so to say) atmosphere.

The next day was at SeaWorld! 

Getting our skin cleaned by the "_____" fish right inside the entrance.

Feeding the Sea Lions before heading to the Sea Lion Show

Waiting for Sea Lions Live Show

This was one of everyone's favorite shows.  The Sea Lions, Seymour and Clyde, the otter, OP, along with their trainers sure knew how to entertain a crowd.  They made spoofs off of CSI, Survivor, Dancing with the Stars, and other media

One of the best parts of all the shows is watching Ellie's face and her reactions to everything.

Clyde & Seymour get down with Gang-hem Style

Checking out the sharks in the Shark Aquarium

Next up was the dolphin Christmas Show.  Love the dolphins and so amazed at how smart these animals are.  Everything they do is so intriguing.  

Of course, the main event is the Killer Whale show.  We first watched the One Ocean show with Shamu.

Another group of amazing animals that are mesmerizing to watch.

Again, I can't help but miss the show because I love watching this girl enjoy the amazing whales.  She loved everything about these animals.

The park was so beautiful with all of the Christmas lights everywhere.

Christmas Full Moon rising before the Shamu Christmas Miracles show.

 (actually, I believe the full moon was Christmas night)

The next day we headed to the San Diego Zoo.  First stop was a ride across the park on the sky tram.  Ellie was so scared to get on, but quickly calmed down once we started moving.

Great View of Balboa Park

The star of this Park is definitely the giant panda.  

We always enjoy watching the great Apes.

It was lunch time for these Orangutans so it was fun to be able to see them active.  The mom had a little baby attached to her as she swung across the ropes.

One of the males eating his lunch

Another animal we haven't seen in the other zoos we have visited is the Koala.  

These little animals are so cute.  

Checking out all the other animals.  Luckily Ethan has not gotten to the age where he's "too cool" for these types of adventures.  He still enjoys the animals and the time together.

Elisabeth was dressed for the occasion.

There was a baby Giraffe at the zoo that was only 12 days old.  

Riding the open top bus around the zoo

beautiful sunset

After the zoo, we headed downtown trying to find a pizza restaurant that we had found after a google search of the best local restaurants.  Ethan got a kick out of hearing a few swear words from dad as we drove in circles trying to find a parking place as Ellie was sound asleep, exhausted from the day.  

Eventually we found a place to park and enjoyed some delicious pizza and pasta.

Our tickets for SeaWorld were actually good for 7 days even though we only planned for a day.  However, Elisabeth loved SeaWorld so much we ended up going back for the morning. 

Elisabeth, who is usually leery about touching strange animals was no longer fearful and in fact loved interacting with Manta Rays.  She got to enjoy them as Ethan took a few spins on the Manta thrill ride with mom & dad. 

flock of flamingos

We caught another episode of Sea Lions Live.  

The kids both enjoyed this show even the second time around.  

Priceless!

Just love seeing this joy in Elisabeth's face

Checking out the Killer Whales in the Shamu tank viewing area

A second viewing of One Ocean was just as exciting as the first.

When it was time to leave, this little girl was so sad to say goodbye to all of the animals at SeaWorld.  While here, she decided that she wants to be an animal trainer at SeaWorld when she grows up.  At one point we were able to catch some lucky girls who were having a dolphin encounter experience and Ellie informed us that she wants to do the dolphin encounter some day too.

After SeaWorld we headed over to Mission Beach.  Before leaving it had started raining and by the time we got to the beach there was a steady rain.  It was still warmer than back home (which was experiencing below zero temps) so we didn't complain too bad, enjoyed the ocean and beach as well as a warm dinner at one of the seaside restaurants, World Famous.

After eating we started heading back toward the hotel.  There was still a lot of time before we'd head to bed or anything so we decided to stop at SeaWorld  one last time.  The kids both loved that idea, even despite the rain.

Since it was raining the crowds were extremely light and so we were able to do some of the things we didn't do before.  We rode the bayside sky tram and enjoyed the views of the park.

We took another thrilling ride on the Manta

and we caught a show that we didn't see before,

the Clyde and Seymour's Christmas Show.

We enjoyed our time in Sunny San Diego for Christmas and can't wait until our next visit to the fun place.  (Especially SeaWorld -for Ellie).  Since being home, Elisabeth has adopted a Shamu whale that Ethan got the first time we visited SeaWorld about 6 years ago and she is obsessed with watching youtube videos of the whale, dolphin and sea lion shows.