Day 5. April 17th (Sunday)
So many plans, but so few things accomplished! In San Diego, at least. This OCD Planner met with some disappointment on Sunday in terms of items checked off my list for the day. We did still enjoy ourselves, though! Here’s what happened…
Originally, we had planned on staying at the Legoland Hotel (in Carlsbad) for two nights so we could explore San Diego, but we ended up canceling our reservation because it would mean changing hotels four times over the course of our vacation. This caused San Diego to be reduced to just a day trip. We chose Sunday for our outing, because we wanted to avoid the extra hassle of weekday rush hour traffic and we wanted to avoid the weekend crowds at Disneyland. It was tough to muster the self-restraint to avoid sprinting to the Disneyland gates because we had not been there since Thursday and were aching to see more of it, but we managed to pull it off. (Oh, how I wish Disneyland passes were not limited to a puny five days in length! It’s tough for a family that likes to stay at Walt Disney World for the full ten days that tickets there allow. I know, I know… “First World” problems…)
Anyway, onto our plans for Sunday. We ate breakfast in the room and went to Downtown Disney to pick up our rental car at Alamo. The boys had been told we were headed to Del Mar Beach, but they had no idea what was coming as we set out on our drive.
Early on in my research for our trip, I was exploring things to do in San Diego and happened upon a sand castle class with “
San Diego Sand Castles.” Here’s how they describe their classes on their website:
“If you're looking for something that a couple, the whole family, or a small group of friends can do together and you're ready to learn some real sand castle techniques then this is the session you'll want to book. A full session goes for a flat rate of $140 and includes two people, but can also be taken solo if you'd like. Your instructor is scheduled for the full three hours but with younger kids they often finish closer to two, so two to three hours is a good planning guideline. If your family is a bit bigger we give parents a break and ask only $20 per extra participant for up to five more. All the equipment for everyone is included so you won't need to bring anything and we'll show how to build castles like a professional as well as how to build with just a couple of buckets. We'll go over stacking (and we'll use multiple forms for lots of sand), hand stacking, towers, windows, doors, walls, stairs, textures, arches, bridges, and a whole bunch of cool little sand tricks. If you have anything else in mind we can also try to make it happen. No artistic experience is necessary!”
Our class was scheduled for 10am on Del Mar Beach. I wanted to surprise the kids, so we did not say a word about it in advance. They adore surprises, so I was eager to see how they would react.
We found a parking space near the beach and walked down to the meeting point that our instructor, JT Estrela, had described. We passed this bench on our way. I like the sentiment.
Saying hello to the ocean:
As we got there I let the boys in on the secret. They were very happy! They had wanted to build sand castles at Huntington Beach a couple days before, and probably thought we would never get to do that kind of thing on this trip.
Over the next several hours on Del Mar Beach we had a blast working and learning together as we built our sand castle. JT was great with the kids. He previously had been employed as a school teacher, which I’m sure helped prepare him for his current job, which he clearly loves. A couple of pieces of wisdom he passed along to us: 1) if you make a mistake when building a sand castle (and you certainly will!), just say “That’s what I meant to do” and move on; and 2) when you are done building your castle and have to leave the beach, don’t turn back, because people enjoy knocking them over.
Our instructor generously offered to take extra time with us, because he did not have an appointment scheduled for the afternoon. He decided because there were six of us total that we should build a big castle, and we proceeded to do so, with a lot of help from him.
JT formed a large base and we helped fill it with sand and pound it down.
Many scoops of sand with big shovels.
We needed many buckets of water!
You can see how firm the sand is, and how well packed.
While the sand was setting, we had some waiting time in which our instructor taught us some new techniques for making sand castles by hand. Lots of water was one of the keys with small castles as well, more water than you'd think.
Like opening a present on Christmas.
Onto the detailed work.
When we finished our castle, we of course took a ton of pictures of it.
We also decided to buy a sandcastle building kit that included the same type of tools we used for the detailed work that we did that day. We could not wait to use it at the beach at home. Then, as instructed, we walked away, refraining from looking back over our shoulders.
We ended up using about five hours of our day on the castle, so needed to modify our plans for the rest of the day. Our first order of business was lunch. It was 3pm and we hadn’t eaten since breakfast. Well, except for these little beauties that I surprised my family with:
We drove to Pacific Beach to try In-n-Out Burger for lunch. Our first time there, I was excited to try it after all the hype.
Jeff and I got burgers, but the boys just wanted fries and <gasp!> not burgers at all. Reluctantly, we decided to get chicken nuggets for the boys at McDonald’s afterward. I loved my burger, but have to say Jeff didn’t really love his. He likes his burgers plain and was startled by the spread that was slathered on it. Oh, well. The chocolate shakes were a refreshing treat for us all, after our many hours of working on the beach. I’m glad we tried it. Next time we know how to order (no sauce), so it’ll go better.
We had planned on seeing the USS Midway aircraft carrier after lunch, but had to admit that we would not have enough time to spend there before it would close for the day. We also considered the Carlsbad Flower Fields, but again realized that the time we’d have there was too short to justify the drive and expense. We thought one thing we would easily have time to do was to go see the seals in La Jolla in an area called Children’s Pool (so named because it was originally intended for children, but has since been taken over by the seals).
Well, in the end I have to admit that all we managed to accomplish in La Jolla was a visit to Starbucks for an overdue coffee for me. The problem we had was finding a parking space near Children’s Pool. It appeared there was a wedding going on. (Or that couple was bizarrely overdressed!) Oh, well. It was a pretty place to drive around for a while.
We had also planned on dinner in San Diego that evening, but due to our late lunch, we knew we would not be hungry anytime soon. In the end, we decided to just head back to Anaheim, stopping on the way at Target. One person in our party needed medicine for a headache, and another one had sore feet that required shoe inserts.
Target stores don't look like this at home.
The drive back to the hotel took much longer than our drive in the morning, due to some thick traffic, but I enjoyed the views along the way.
By 9pm, we were back home and a few minutes later we found ourselves at Earl of Sandwich. Yes, again. Second time in two days. And oh, so, good. Yum.
We spotted some Hidden Mickeys in our tower that evening.
I still think it’s kind of funny that after all my research about San Diego that we did not really see much there at all… We still had a fantastic day and everyone agreed that all the time on the beach was well-spent and a highlight of the trip. We will just have to look forward to seeing more of San Diego another time.
Next time: Back to Disneyland fun, starting with Early Entry at Disney California Adventure!
)
More's on its way! Tonight.
I definitely felt enveloped in the bubble in Anaheim, thanks to the Disneyland Hotel, which I wasn't sure would happen in advance, because Disneyland is in a city (versus how it is in Walt Disney World, away from everything else pretty much). It was perfect for our first stay.
Sorry. I can report that Jeff ordered the Kalua-style Pork Flatbread; Sam got the Angus 1/3 lb Bacon Cheeseburger with fries; Benji got a plain Cheese Flatbread (not on the menu); Kevin went with the Kids' Chicken Breast Nuggets; and I chose the Angus 1/3 lb Hawaiian Cheeseburger with fruit. I LOVED my meal. Made me feel just like I was on the North Shore of Oahu again. Ahhhh.... 
We watched the show from our room, as we listened to the official soundtrack piped in on a special TV channel.
We'd be renting our 2nd of 3 (sheesh 
) rental cars and getting out of town! More on that next time...
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