Well we’re back from our big holiday two week trip to San Diego. We are back to our every day routine of work and school and all the other activities of every day life.

Kids at the San Diego Wild Animal Park

The trip was a whirlwind of activity. We had multi-day trips to the San Diego Wild Animal Park, Sea World, the San Diego Zoo and LegoLand. Looking at the photos and video from the trip it is great to remember all the fun we had. We kept the kids busy everyday, all day and they loved every minute of it.

The one thing we learned most about this trip, and car traveling with the children, is that they can handle only about four hours of car travel time. Basically the length of two movies and that is it. After that they’ve got to get out and run around and not get back in the car for the rest of the day. For a five year old and an eight year old I think that is pretty good. In the future I think we will be sticking with the four hour travel rule.

That meant that we broke our trip up going down and coming home. Staying both times in Bakersfield along the way. It made the drive less of a grind and we visited friends both stays in B-town.

Kids breakfast on day after christmas

As for making this trip as economical as possible, I give us a C+ grade. Of our two week trip, we stayed one week at a San Diego county regional park called Sweetwater Regional Park. That saved us about $30 per day. Other than that we probably spent too much on everything from treats to food to souvenirs , but man it was hard not to. We are not sure if we are coming back next Christmas, so we indulged.

It was really great that there were other families staying at the park too. We hosted an impromptu breakfast the day after Christmas. The kids loved it.

Elephants at the San Diego Wild Animal Park

The San Diego Wild Animal Park and San Diego Zoo were spectacular and I think Claire and I enjoyed them the most. The amount and variety of animals at both places is amazing.

The below video is of me feeding Lorikeet birds at the zoo. That was a lot of fun and really cool.

Sea World was ok. About like last year, except they had an ice skating rink the kids really loved. Watch the below video of Ben falling on his butt and then skating over to his mom and sister as she throws a snow ball at him.

We spent new year’s eve at LegoLand. They had a fun new year’s eve party complete with fireworks. We counted down to the new year at 6pm. We were back at our trailer and in bed by 9pm.

Kids with Lego Santa

My little, or should I say big, Doh (and this is a Homer Simpson, Doh) is that I left my laptop in the car at Sea World and it got stolen. Luckily that is all they got (and it was a five year old laptop, so there thief who ever you are). Lesson learned: don’t leave valuables in a parked car.