San Diego Parts 2-5

My goal when I titled the last post "San Diego Part 1" was that I would blog a little every day of our trip so I would get all of my memories down.  Well obviously that failed as we have been back from our trip for over 2 weeks now!  So here's how the rest of the trip went.  Beware!  It's quite lengthy!

Wed - Groceries & San Diego Zoo.  We piled in the vans Wednesday morning and took the kids to the grocery store down the road.  It is quite the experience to take 21 high school kids grocery shopping.  We went to the zoo in the afternoon.  It was amazing!  Of course I love zoos anyway, so this was right up my alley.   I spent the afternoon wandering around with 5 of my girls.  We had a pretty fun time.  We got back to the hotel with enough time to get ready for dinner at the hotel restaurant.  Dinner was very good and was quite comical.  Afterwards we watched some tv in the girls room on my floor.  Everyone on my floor was exhausted, so we went to bed early.  I slept much better the 2nd night and even got to sleep in a little the next morning until one of the boys knocks on my door before the alarm goes off asking for sugar which I did not have.  I had just gotten back to the bed and turned off the alarm when there's another knock at the door - a different boy asking for creamer, which I also did not have.  Not 5 minutes later as I'm getting ready to close the bathroom door to take a shower there's another knock at the door.  The first boy is back asking for the coffee that came with the room.  I had just gotten out of the shower and dressed when there's yet another knock at the door.  The second boy is back asking for salt and pepper, which I also did not have! 

Thurs - Beach Day.  I finally managed to get ready and we left for Coronado Island to go to the beach there.  The scenery on the island was beautiful.  They had some really cool little shops down town, and we saw the Hotel Del Coronado. 

Hotel Del Coronado

The beach on Coronado Island. 

The Pacific Ocean is freezing, and it didn't help that the entire time we were in San Diego the temperatures didn't get out of the 60s.  So while it was too cold for my liking to go swimming I did walk in the waves a bit. 
Thursday afternoon the kids were on their own.  I walked down to the boardwalk with a couple of the girls and we did some shopping.  We then went to get manicures and pedicures.  So relaxing!!  Thursday night we separated for dinner.  The other 2 chaperones took some of the kids to a seafood restaurant while I took the non-seafood eaters to Luigi's at the Beach.  The food was ok, but check out the size of this pizza slice! 

The Giant Slice at Luigi's.  That's a normal size Chinet paper plate!

Thursday night found the kids on my floor in my room playing truth or dare.  We stayed up way too late, but it was lots of fun. 

Fri - San Diego Zoo Safari Park.  The park was nice.  It rained most of the time we were there that morning.  There were lots of complaints, but the group I was with had fun and enjoyed wandering around and seeing the animals.  Friday afternoon we got to experience a thunderstorm.  I spend the time curled up on my couch under a blanket reading.  At least until the kids started visiting again.  Two of them put on a song and dance show for us.  Friday night we drove to Old Town and ate at Cafe Coyote - a Mexican restaurant that was highly recommended.  The food was excellent!  And we had a very attractive waiter!  Two of my boys ordered fried ice cream and surprised me with it for my birthday.  And the entire group sang to me.  Friday night found the kids on my floor back in my room.  This time we played charades until the wee hours of the morning. 

Sat - Sea World.  Our last day in San Diego was very nice.  The weather finally cooperated with us all day.  The park was amazing!  I loved Sea World!  We spent most of the day at the park.  We were on our own for dinner that night and I took a small group to Dave & Buster's.  Unfortunately the wait was too long for us to eat there, but the kids got to play some games anyway.  We then found a gas station that took me and one of my boys to figure out how to pump the gas.  Once back at the hotel, some of us at pizza rolls in my room.  We then went out to the beach for a bonfire and smores.  A few of the kids came back to my room.  We had to leave for the airport at 4:00 am Sunday morning, so the plan was to just stay up all night.  I started out with about 7 kids and ended up with 3.  One by one they couldn't make it so they went back to their rooms.  Of the 3 that stayed with me only 1 didn't fall asleep at some point during the night.  I managed to make it the entire night.   That was my first all-nighter too.  Somehow I managed to make it through college without going an entire night without sleep.  There is a very good reason why that happened!  I do not do well without sleep!

Sunday - Departure & My Birthday!  I got birthday wishes at midnight Illinois time and San Diego time.  At the bonfire the night before a couple of the kids went to the hotel and got me a strawberry drink.  Sunday was rough to say the least.  Over the last 3 days I had approximately 11 hours of sleep.  Our flight to Dallas left without issue.  We had a little turbulence as we got close to Dallas as there were storms in the area.  I got some really cool cloud pictures though!  Our 40 minute layover in Dallas ended up being about 3 hours with other delays due to the storms!  The flight to St. Louis was terrible!  And the landing was even worse!  Everyone made it home safe and sound though. 

The clouds on our flight to Dallas from San Diego Sunday morning. 

We had a great time on the trip!  I won't say it was without a few issues, but overall the kids were great!  I would definitely go again!  Oh and I had an unwelcome souvenir that stowed away in my suitcase.  I brought a mouse home from San Diego!  Luckily he was caught pretty quickly!