The Leary's: San Diego vacation [Mega Post]...

We traveled to San DIEGO…[Is anyone else singing Nickelodeon's Diego theme song “Go, Diego, GO!!”…No…well, consider yourself lucky.]…this past week. It marked the first family trip, just the four of us, and we had a blast. A few minor hiccups…one being Charlie up-chucking her entire yogurt/waffle breakfast the second we parked at the airport. Luckily, I packed extra clothing for emergencies.

We started off roaming around Old Town, the historic district of San Diego. Then ate some dinner and called it a night. The girls had fun looking at all the fun shops along the way and at dinner they even got animal balloons. Score!

DAY TWO was the ever-anticipated SEA WORLD. Sophie had waited weeks to see Shamu’s "brothers and sisters"…they did NOT disappoint. By far, her favorite show of the day.

We watched the dolphins…these were Kelly the Dolphins “cousins” [Kelly, a dolphin we interacted with in the Bahamas]. Charlie enjoyed watching them even though she was exhausted. Pretty impressive show, I might add.

The girls got to pet a Beaver, of all animals. They saw turtles, penguins, polar bears, flamingos and other animals while we waited to watch the shows.

Cotton Candy lip...

And the Sea Lion and Otter show was too cute! Really…its freaking AMAZING how these animals are trained. An Otter…come on…he took a bow at the end of the show!! Seriously!! We couldn’t get over it…Sophie and I want an Otter needless to say. Please Daddy?

To wrap up the day Daddy let the girls loose in the gift shop. They picked out their stuffed toys, Sophie getting a whale [of course] and a small dolphin…and Charlie got a dolphin too.

Seconds after Sea World...

DAY THREE we drove to Coronado Bay and played at the beach, beautiful place. The girls played in the sand and chased seagulls. We even saw dolphins swimming out in the ocean. We ate lunch over looking the bay watching all the sailboats and found out Charlie is NOT a fan of large begging pigeons.

Then drove up to La Jolla to see La Jolla Cove. Here we really just ventured to Seal Rock, where California Grey Seals congregate when the tide is low and the surf is down. We were lucky enough to arrive at just the perfect time to see them. You could literally get inches away but touching is prohibited. Such sweet looking animals.

Sophie started running fever that evening so we called it an early night. She actually [claiming she was car sick] threw-up on herself earlier that afternoon. And she had a bad deep cough with congestion so with that and being over tired we had Daddy go grab dinner and we ate back at the hotel.

DAY FOUR we explored the USS Midway. This US Navy aircraft carrier was commissioned only a week after World War II and was the largest ship in the WORLD…until 1955. It was also the first warship too big to fit in the Panama Canal. And…it was built and launched in only 18 months!! Unbelievable!

It was decommissioned in 1992 and became this museum. On deck its said to have 29 restored aircraft…although I didn’t actually count them. My hubby got to do most of the looking here as it was my turn to endure…SICKNESS. Ugh! Yup…it was my turn to up-chuck on the trip. [WTH?!?!]

Anywho…we also saw [from afar] the USS Carl Vinson…the aircraft carrier who disposed of Osama bin Laden’s body from its deck in 2011 and the USS Ronald Reagan. Both Enormous!

USS Carl Vinson...

DAY FIVE and final day, we took the girls to the infamous San Diego Zoo. Absolutely, beautiful place. We felt like we were in the jungle walking through all the lush trees and plants. We watched the Polar Bears eat up carrots.

Saw monkeys, [my favorite] Red Pandas, Steller's Sea Eagle, and a black leopard arms length away from us. We also watched a Panda practically pose for pictures.

The Bald Eagles closest cousin...

Ate Ice Cream.

Sophie did anyways...Charlie was passed out...

Exited the Japanese..something or another…to see a blooming Cherry Blossom tree. So pretty.

And again, the girls got to look in the gift shop. This time they found much smaller items [shocking]…Sophie getting a Panda stuffy and Charlie, she picked out a tiny plastic white tiger. Interesting. We totally got off easy here.