San Diego Sunburns

April 8 & 9, 2019

I guess I’ve been a super star at getting sunscreen on the kiddos up until yesterday. We have been quite literally wandering around the desert for the past 4 months trying to figure out our next move. (I think we needed a lesson on waiting and patience and faith.) Don’t tell my mother or my dermatologist but the kids and I all turned a shade of pink-ish after a full day at the San Diego Zoo yesterday. This was my first big outing of this type by myself with the kids. Eric’s conference started Sunday night and ends this evening. It’s also the first time the kids and I have accompanied Eric on a work conference trip.

We’re not nearly as pink as these beautiful flamingos (thank goodness)!

Speaking of Flamingos, for my daughter’s first birthday party we had a flamingo theme and got her the most adorable book, “Sylvie” by Jennifer Sattler. I will have to add this to our amazon wishlist of stuff to replace. I love picture books.

It was so cloudy this morning that I didn’t bother with sunscreen at Cabrillo National Monument. Of course, once we were in the middle of a short hike to the lighthouse it was suddenly full sun! Oops, sorry kiddos no hats and no sunscreen. Yikes! The wildflowers were gorgeous today.

The tide pools were not accessible. Unfortunately, there were no low tides today. Never mind, we saw some amazing brown Pelicans on a short coastal trail. They flew so close we could see their eyes! Amazing.

The face K is making is because she imagines that the tide will suddenly rise extremely quickly and cover us on top of the cliffs. Poor girl has a great imagination.

A big, “Thank you!” to the awesome park rangers. The kids worked hard to earn Junior Ranger badges and we were delighted to receive badges made from wood instead of plastic. They got to put a special stamp on the back too. Very cool.

Another very cool experience was being able to try on armor and chain mail like the Spanish explorers wore. It was super heavy. B couldn’t hold up the helmet by himself.

We took a quick look at Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcalá before heading back to the hotel early this afternoon. This was the first Franciscan mission in California, it was founded on July 16, 1769. History class ✅

To close this post, as a tribute to our dear hometown of Paradise, CA, here’s a Bird of Paradise from the zoo and in flower form from the mission.

We ❤️ Paradise!