California Dreamin': Day 1 - San Diego

Way back in December, Jim and I agreed that our Christmas present to one another would be a summer vacation; our destination:  CALIFORNIA!!!  My wonderful hubby planned the trip so that when the time came, we could all just sit back and relax.


We left the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend and returned the following Wednesday.  Our flight to California was Clay's seventh flight so in one aspect, he was an old pro but it was a whole new ball game for us because it was our first time to fly with him when he was in his sit up car seat (read, this cannot be strapped to a stroller and easily broken down at the gate of the plane).  In prepping for the trip I remembered our NYC trip where I met a family traveling from the Big Apple to some exotic locale in Mexico who were pulling their 4-year-old daughter through her airport all while she was strapped in her big girl car seat.  You can leave the travelmate attached to your car seat as you pull the baby down the airplane aisle and can leave it attached when it's in the car as well.  The company also advocates using it in lieu of a stroller but the through of Clay being tied down in his car seat (and not at a normal "eye" level for a toddler) had us opt to bring our umbrella stroller for our outings.  The great invention that made this possible:  Go Go Babyz Travelmate:

It's a little pricey but I'd hoarded earned all kinds of reward dollars from BabiesRUs over the last year AND had a 20% off coupon so we paid less than $20 out of pocket for this little beauty.

Okay, so the point of this little contraption is so that you don't have to hand carry a kid and a car seat through the airport.  (Yes, some people would say but your kid isn't 3 yet so they can fly in your lap.  A totally accurate point but that's assuming your child would actually stay put in your lap and for a trip half way across the US, I couldn't guarantee that).  Any who, the ironic thing is that we couldn't figure out how to make the contraption work so the morning of our flight I hauled a baby through the airport and poor Jimbo hauled both the travelmate and the car seat through airport (and we each had carry-ons for "ourselves" - read: Clay).  That being said - I still HIGHLY recommend this little gem if you are in a family where you are going to fly a lot - seriously, once we thought to YouTube how to attach it to the car seat to it (before our flight home), the travelmate was was on the car seat within one minute and we've loved it ever since.


Okay so on to the fun stuff!  Thursday morning we flew to San Diego, Clay was awesome on the flight and the flight itself was smooth.  After we got our rental car we drove our to Coronado island and checked into the Loew's Resort.  Then we promptly headed to the resort restaurant and had lunch (while we introduced Clay to limes!)

I promise we fed Clay actual food (chicken, crackers, oranges, and other goodies) but all of the entertainment we'd brought for Clay wasn't cutting it so we were a bit desperate.  Turns out, he LOVED the limes as such, he ended up providing US with the entertainment (in the form of lots of funny faces)!

Post Lime face which was immediately following with a request for "Moe" (More)!  Love this little nugget!

They made traveling with a baby so nice, his crib was set up with a travel set of baby toiletries and his own set of linens (let me tell you, this is quite the luxury).  It must be one of the first times we've traveled with Little Man we haven't had to call for extra towels and stuff.  That's why it was momentous enough that it required a picture, obviously. 

While at the hotel, we discovered loads of things that Clay loved.  One of them (and I wish I'd grabbed a picture of it) was this gorgeous birdcage filled with finches.  He thought that they were amazing so we made multiple trips to the birdcage for Little Man's enjoyment.

Another thing that Clay loved (go figure) was crawling in the closet to play with the luggage rack and any bags that may have been in there at the time!

More fun!

Little Man and Daddy before a brief dip in the pool (yikes, when you're used to swimming in pools in the unrelenting Texas heat, then swimming in a pool in a state where the highs are barely capping out in the low 70s is like swimming as part of the polar bear club)!

After swimming, playing in the hotel room with Clay, we ordered dinner from the cabana, fed Clay, did our bed time routine,  the adults retired to he patio.  We ate dinner and just enjoyed being outside and... ON VACATION!!!!  What a great start to our week together!