Y'ALL-- life has been so, so busy. Our house is going on the market next week, and we have been catching up on years of projects I said "we'll get to one day..." The upstairs floors were all refinished (and we lived like we were camping out downstairs for two weeks!) and now there are a half-dozen painters running around and everything is covered in plastic, they are reglazing a tub and doing the loooong overdue leaf removal from the fall. Between that and work also being busy (yay, growing vacation fund! I own a design/antiques business, and work primarily with a major online retailer doing flash-sale type things, so my income depends on how much people are buying. Thankfully they seem to be in a shopping mood lately, so I'm really busy, which is wonderful!). We are also launching a huge new partnership with the community garden I organize, and it's grant-application season....So, no Dis for me! I really want to get started on our WDW trip, though, so let's plow through this last day in California and then I will get going!
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BYE-BYE CALIFORNIA!
We woke up Friday morning to another gorgeous, gorgeous day. It was a little chilly, but so sunny and beautiful. I packed up our room while Adam attended a final session. The boys helped me load the rental car, and we went for a last walk on the beach.
We discovered that right outside our room, a sand artist had been at work during the night, and this fabulous sculpture greeted us.
He told me it took about 6 hours to create this one. I really wish we had all stopped back by before we checked out, because this would have made a great Christmas card!
I really, really do wish I was there!
They were installing an ice skating rink on the hotel lawn!! Can you imagine ice skating with a view of the beach?!
We took a short walk down the beach, then headed back to meet Adam. We were checking out of the Coronado, with plans to head over to Balboa Park for the afternoon.
We tried to stop at Snooze again, but by 11-ish on a Friday morning there was a 1.5 hour wait....so we started just kind of wandering around the downtown area looking for something. We happened on an AMAZING bakery--I so, so, wish I had written the name down, but going from memory, it was City Bakery on University. We all got sandwiches and some treats, and some biscotti to take back to my mom, who was house-sitting for us. If you find yourself in the area, stop in for the grilled cheese and tomato soup. It was, hands down, THE best I have ever had. YUM.
We took our box of goodies (cupcakes and some macarons, also the best I've ever had) and headed to nearby Balboa Park. I was not doing well with pictures today, but it was a gorgeous day and people were out in droves enjoying the park complex. There were street performers, musicians, and tons of beautiful buildings to look at.
I had researched the different museum options looking for one that might appeal,to all of us, and we settled on the Museum of Man. This was super cool-- they had such a wide variety of exhibits, and it was pretty kid-friendly. The interactive exhibit on monsters (like mythological ones throughout the world, as well as the under-the-bed variety) was the kids' favorite.
There was a room on ancient humans, another large area about Egypt (with mummies-- some were not a in sarcophagus-- my kids were a little freaked!) and another room on Mayan civilization. There was a big exhibit on education, civil rights and the immigrant experience, which I really enjoyed because it related to the community volunteer work I do. The kids pretended to be interested.
There was an exhibit on craft beer (
@TheMaxRebo I thought of you!) that my husband thought was awesome. We decided to pay the additional fee to visit the exhibit on cannibals. This was....ok, I guess. We try to expose the kids to all kinds of stuff--well-rounded people and all. Most of the exhibit was ok, not super child-friendly, but they were engaged, but parts were WAY too "real," for lack of a better word, for kids that age. It is still what they talk about most, but I can't tell if that's because it was fun or really scary.
At this point, it was getting to be late afternoon, and we were ready to head to our new hotel in LaJolla. (The rate for our Coronado room rose to $600 a night after the conference...uh, no?)
We had booked at the Grande Colonial in La Jolla via Expedia, and got a really great rate. The hotel itself was so neat-- in a really old building, with all sorts of cool architectural details, none of which I photographed. Here are my kids playing chess in the lobby, though
We checked out the room (the beds were SO comfortable!!) and then headed put in search of dinner!
We were about a block from the ocean, and I was SO smitten with this town. When I'm I. The position to spend $2 M on a 2 br house it's where I'm headed
!
Continued next post!
around 6 pm!!! We are currently Disney-homeless, though, as the resorts are TOTALLY full (unless we want to pay $400 for a cabin at Ft. Wilderness, which we do not!) I've put a request out to our magical travel agent, as the agency sometimes books blocks of rooms, and might have availability, but that wS at 11 pm and I haven't heard back yet. Worst case we get a room at a Downtown Disney hotel and take an uber from MCO, but with six suitcases that doesn't seem like fun, especially because we would transfer to the Poly via uber early Sat am. BUT-- we get a FULL day Saturday now! I've decided we are going to play it Disney cool-- we plan to drop our luggage at the Poly early enough to hit any rope drop we want to, and then Adam gets to pick a park. 
This was SO yummy! We got a Materhorn macaroon-- I should have gotten another to take home. This was THE BEST macaroon I've ever had. We also shared a piece of quiche, which was legit, homemade-caliber, with a hint of nutmeg and everything. SO good. JH got some sort of power pack thing with yougert, fruit, etc. He was happy.
time, and I think it showed. We hit LOTS of early morning magic hours, and although they were in bed by 9:00 pm most nights, I think it caught up with them. We also walked just over 84 miles in 8 days
, so that probably had something to do with everyone's fatigue
and then hit the road...
Haha. 
We were up muuuuuch earlier than we needed to be on a morning we had planned to sleep in.
Quirky and wonderful!
We were scheduled to fly out Saturday, January 8, on an early-morning flight. When the weather folks started saying we might be getting some snow, I sort of brushed it off. As they increased the forecast from flurries to several inches, I realized we needed a plan B for our travel day. Initially, I thought we'd just drive to Raleigh (about an hour away) and get a hotel near the airport. As it began to look more and more likely that we might get significant snowfall (which here TOTALLY means no flying) I thought we maybe should drive. We planned to leave Friday as soon as Adam could get away, and drive far enough south to avoid snow, probably near Savannah, which is about 5 hours from us. There were not any flights that left late enough that Adam felt like we could make it (he was SLAMMED at work the week before we left) but I had major reservations about hitting the road at 5 pm with the weather so uncertain, but I went ahead and started preparing for the drive (got an oil change, stocked up on water and snacks, etc.). We decided to do what we always do the night before a trip: hit up our favorite Mexican place and celebrate our vacation with a margarita and too much cheese dip. While we sat there, I pulled up the Southwest page again, and lo and behold, there was a 4 pm flight out of Raleigh that suddenly had seats available! In about 5 seconds we made the decision to try and get on that flight, and I was on the phone with Southwest. We had three tickets booked with points and one paid for with cash, which meant each reservation had to be handled separately. There was a tense minute where it looked like one of the seats (there were only four left on that plane!) had disappeared, but we ultimately were able to book all four. We learned later we were on the phone at the exact same time as a work friend of Adam's, and we got the seats he was trying to get! They ended up flying down the next morning at 5:30 before the snow started, so all was well.
