The Magic of San Diego

San Diego has always been a favorite place of mine as a child. My grandparents lived there and we would visit them almost every winter. It’s been years since I have gone back and now I am sorry the time between has been so long!

Here are some fun places we visited while staying at the beautiful Coronado Island in San Diego.

Sea World – It’s really close to downtown San Diego and easy to get to while staying on the island.  Of course, we rented a car but it only took about 20 minutes or so to get there.  There are so many fun things to do in the park for all ages. We checked out the new Manta ride and it was a complete blast…fast, fun and a thrill seeker’s dream! (On a side note, we were so excited our daughter made the height requirements this year and can now join us on our love of roller coasters!) Sea World was the perfect combination of half zoo/half theme park in my opinion. The dolphin shows were completely worth it …bring a poncho if you are in the first ten rows of the shows or go on water rides! The park sells them for $8 bucks but you can pick it up at the dollar store, too. I did not take this advice personally as that would have required better planning on my end, but, next time I will!

San Diego Zoo – This zoo is the zoo of all zoos! ( whoa that’s a lot of zoos in one sentence!) We have really good zoos in Chicago but this was the mecca. Insider tip: bring gym shoes and plan on walking and hiking up hills! You can take a tram throughout the park as well, which I would recommend. We didn’t do it but I wish we did! It would have been worth the extra price! Instead, our daughter complained and we had to keep stopping for breaks and buy her snacks in the shape of animals! Overall, it was a great experience and a must stop while in San Diego. They have this really cool app you can download for the San Diego Zoo and you can see a 24/7 live cam on their most popular animals. There was a baby panda we wanted to see but the line was really long. So, we downloaded the app and watched the baby panda from our phone! Our daughter was just as happy and she is still checking it now in Chicago and sharing with her friends

Bike Rentals – It was a fun activity to ride throughout the island and it was about $30 dollars for two people / 4 hours. We went to the beach, watched dolphins and sea lions on the island and it was good exercise! We stopped at the legendary Del Coronado Hotel for a beach break. It was just as magnificent as I remembered when I was a little girl. We stayed at the Marriott Coronado but non-guests can go to the shops and restaurants and take in the sites. I liked the Marriott where we stayed and it was a good price, but next time I may save up for a night at the Del Coronado!

The New Children’s Museum was a great interactive place to go with our daughter as well. It’s a good price and they do crafts, paint, educate about the environment and even have a bubble station! It’s the perfect place if your kids are between the ages of 2-7. They have a cool jungle gym that I couldn’t get my daughter off of that day….so much so, that we missed two ferries back to Coronado Island because of it!

Speaking of the Ferry, that’s a fun way to get back and forth to the island from San Diego. We saw dolphins and sea lions from the boat and she was thrilled to go on a boat ride!

When we arrived in San Diego my daughter asked me, “ is this what paradise looks like,”?  “I think so,” I said.  After 4 nights there, I had an answer for her. “Yes, this is what paradise looks like honey, and it only took me 30 years to figure that out!”.

~ Catie Keogh, Host of 24/7 City Secrets