California

We went to southern California this year to knock out three more baseball stadiums.  We packed in lots of fun along the way.  

We got to California around lunch time on Thursday and we hit the ground running.  We stopped for lunch and then headed to the La Brea tarpits.  This was a must do for Jason and everyone else enjoyed it too. 

Next, we rode up into the Hollywood Hills for some photos of the iconic sign.  

Jason's next thing on the list was the Griffith Observatory.  This proved very difficult to get to (but we somehow got lucky with prime-time parking) and wasn't exactly what we thought, but the views of the city were nice, and we caught the sunset. 

Day 2 was our anniversary.  We started the day on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and got our first ever acai bowls for breakfast.  

We left LA and headed down the Pacific Coast Highway.  We stopped along the way for a beachside lunch for our anniversary.  Everyone loved the restuarant Jason chose. 

After lunch we finished our drive to San Diego.  We knocked out stadium number 20 at the Padres game.  This was probably one of our favorite ballparks.  

Day 3 we went to the San Diego Zoo.  I personally feel as though it you've seen one zoo: you've seen them all.  I was willing to do another zoo because I had always heard this was the best. This zoo was very nice, but very large and hard to navigate.  We saw a lot, but we regret not starting the day with the double decker bus tour around the zoo.  

After the zoo, we headed to the desert to Joshua Tree.  We thought we had overbooked ourselves and weren't going to get to drive through, but it wall worked out.  

These three are more outgoing than me.  They explored the edge a little more than I was comfortable with. 

It was over 110 degrees in the desert. 

A Joshua Tree

Day 4 we left the desert and headed to Anaheim for an Angels game.  This was stadium 21.  This was a day game, so we enjoyed going back to hotel for some much-needed downtime for the rest of the night. 

Day 5 we stayed in Anaheim and went to Disneyland.  I honestly don't think the kids were looking forward to it, but I think it was one of our favorite days.

We enjoyed all of the Mickey shaped treats. 

From ice cream sandwiches to beignets.  

And a pretzel is always a must. 

We ended the night at California Adventure Park because Bryce wanted to see Carsland (Radiator Springs) lit up at night.  It was stunning.  

Day 6 we headed back to LA for the last leg of our trip.  

We were touristy and walked down Rodeo Drive and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

We had lunch and the kids swam before we headed to Dodger stadium for our last game of the summer.  This was stadium number 22.  We have 8 more to go. 

The scenic views from the stadium were nice.  Fun fact:  we felt an earthquake during the 7th inning stretch.  

Day 7 was a bonus day because our airline only flew on Thursday.  We slept in, went to UCLA, then spent the afternoon on the beach in Santa Monica.  

It was cooler at the coast, but comfortable.  The water was cool, but not as cold as we remembered and honestly not much colder than we experienced on the east coast this summer. 

After the beach, the kids picked up Chipotle for dinner and ate by the pool and Jason and I went out for our second date night of the trip.  Vacationing with older kids is so different, but so fun.  This was a long trip with lots of stops, but hopefully lots of memories were made!