Vacation heaven for little girls

So technically we were on vacation all week. The hubby made plans to take the week off months ago and we started planning our surf trip to Costa Rica.

Then the strike happened, along with some wackiness at hubby's work, and the week in Costa Rica became 3 days in San Diego.

Thanks AMPTP!

I can't complain too much though because we had a great time. We took a chance on a hotel we found on the internet that was right on Mission Bay. Lucky us - it turned out to be toddler heaven.

Seriously. The place not only was surrounded by beach and calm water, it had a heated pool, playground, duck pond and, I kid you not, a seal pond. Yep, with an actual seal in it that you could watch get fed twice a day.

Baby Girl thought she'd hit the jackpot. So did hubs and I when we realized that $100 for a Sea World admission for the three of us was ridiculous when we had a real live seal we could see up close every day.

The only bummer was that it was a bit colder than Costa Rica would have been. We went surfing at Mission Beach, which was a lot of fun for me in my nice warm wetsuit. Not so much fun for hubs and Baby Girl, as she insisted on hanging out in the water until her lips turned purple, then screamed bloody murder that her father could be so cruel as to insist that she warm up.

We decided to skip surfing for the next day and hang at the Zoo. Of course, no vacation for us can be obstacle-free and we had forgotten to take a stroller with us. We spent part of the night trying to find a place to buy a cheap umbrella stroller. I swear that I've seen those things everywhere yet not one place we went to sold them.

I always wondered why I see people renting those strollers at the zoo for $10, but I just couldn't see spending that much to rent something that Baby Girl would sit in for 15 minutes between jumping out to see animals, so we went without. It actually turned out fine as Baby Girl got nice and tired running between exhibits.

She fell asleep at 8 p.m. every night with no fuss. I guess we just need to spend our lives on vacation for her to sleep well. Oh wait...I forgot the nightmare that was Italy. Never mind.

Still, it was nice to spend a full week with the two coolest people I know.