Stop 11: San DieGO Put on a Sweatshirt

We left our Las Vegas hotel later than planned and headed to the Fabulous Las Vegas sign to make sure we got a photo of this kids there before hitting the open road for California. The line wasn't as long as when we'd come into town but it was still a decent wait...in 105-degree heat. The photo was taken by a gentleman who said he was a photographer and was working solely for tips, so we could choose to donate or not, but that his family would appreciate it. Andy had $5 in his pocket so that's what he gave.

Our ride to San Diego was set to be a longer one, about 5 hours so we settled in and were thankful for the a/c. The mountains were beautiful and looked so "textbook" that they almost looked fake.

Two "dust devils' in this photo. We saw about 20 of them along the way. So cool!

This helps the alphabet game.

Thank you, Wally's. This would have been AGONY. Murphys-1, Honda-0

As we crossed the border into CA, there was no sign and Andy felt cheated by California. There never was a "Welcome to California" sign so we settled for one at a rest stop. It's not the same but it'll suffice for the sake of making the memory. 

We immediately noticed the temperature difference between Las Vegas and southern California. It had been 105 when we left Las Vegas. It was now in the upper 60's and we all needed to don our sweatshirts because we were COLD! It's Murphy's Law that our a/c would break just as we get into the blazing, hot weather, only to be fixed just as we're entering a stretch of cold weather when we wouldn't need it. Dang, it's good to be a Murphy. 😄

Andy remembered that the first McDonald's was in southern California so we looked it up and realized it was on our direct route so we stopped to check it out. Having watched the movie The Founder, we were intrigued by the story of the McDonald brothers so this was a quick visit and a bit of nostalgia for us. The building was the site of the brother's first restaurant but the neighborhood is in a pretty poor state these days so I stayed in the van while the others checked out the entirely-gated property that was juuuuust closing when we approached. The curator/docent/manager allowed the family into the gates and even took some photos for them. He said they served as a wealth of knowledge for the team making the movie. I was happy to see the Playland Burger Jail. It was my favorite as a kid. We only stayed about 15 minutes then headed toward San Diego.

After farting around at McD's and various other stops for charger checking, gas, bathroom breaks, and more, we were woefully behind schedule. We realized that without serious hustle, we'd miss sunset at the beach so we hunkered down for a long, straight shot at the beach. Fortunately for us, we made it just in time for sunset. Unfortunately for us, the clouds roll in about 15 minutes prior so we sorta rushed for nuthin'. But the kids had a blast playing in the very, very cold water. Sarah and I were happy to hang out at the shore. Sarah collected for a nice project and Andy..filmed. He has been filming every stop (and we're all over it by now but we'll be thankful for his annoying behavior later). Alex and Char were supposed to just "get their feet wet" but they ended up into the water to their waists so that meant that it was laundry night for us. Andy offered to run it and I didn't turn him down. We were all exhausted so we conked out pretty quickly.

Andy's face indicates the water temperature here.

Sarah and I stayed away from the water wading. The water is bonkers cold.

The morning brought a breakfast rush like usual and we packed up our inordinate amount of stuff for check out. (We packed lighter for tonight in a new city). Our GPS was set to La Jolla Cove to check out the seal. turns out that we think they're actually sea lions but few know--or pay attention-- to the difference. The kids really liked this. So did our budget. It was free. There were some in the water "playing" with nearby snorkelers-this looked really irresponsible to us, on the part of the human. There were some just sunning themselves on a couple of boulders sticking out of the water. And then there was a sort of welping area where there were mamas and babies. oh, those mamas and their freshly-minted babies! One baby still had a placenta attached so he/she had just been morn today!

This is the newborn pup with its placenta still intact. Wierd? Yes. Pretty cool to see? Also yes.

We stayed here for longer than anticipated because...CUTE! But we headed to a couple of nearby shops to fulfill our souvenir obligation before grabbing lunch on the go because we're a'travelin' family. We have a new city to see and it's a big one: Los Angeles!