San Diego on a dime!

My sweet family at Tamarak Beach in Carlsbad, California.

Ahh... the salty sea mist, wind blowing through my hair, sand between my toes; This is what I call absolute bliss.  We just returned from our 2nd annual (Yes, I need sand between my toes at least once a year) trip to Southern California.  We drove again this year, Ryan is ALWAYS thrilled to drive (said using heavy sarcasm).  After I did the math, it was simply less expensive then flying, by more then half, AND if I wanted to hit a yard sale (or 12) that I would have room to bring home my treasures.  So we took his truck, my Kia is not dependable according to him.  HA, I say!

I usually refer to this vacation our "San Diego" trip, although I don't think I will anymore. 

 We never even make it there.  

So we drove to Vegas the first night, stayed at the Silverton Casino, first because it's actually pretty affordable ($65 total per night) but because we love seeing the Mermaids!  The trouble with this is that we show up late and leave early, missing the mermaid performance at 1:30, all together.  We had some good friends over for a pool party that night however, and that made up for it.  On the way back home we decided to get a regular Comfort Inn off of the strip so we could skip the smoky casino, we all liked that much better, and we have friends close by so that's a bonus too!


 Next day we were California bound.  We made a stop in Barstow, CA, for a quick bathroom break and refreshments- found this really cool McDonalds that had been made out of old passenger train cars.  Pretty cool and budget friendly- 4 cones and a drink for under $6!  A friend mentioned the town was sketchy so we just kept on after that stop.

Once in California we stayed at our usual Lawerence Welk Resort in Escondido; a 2 bedroom condo, with a kitchen of course.  Believe me, it's worth spending a little more for these condos simply because you don't feel like you are staying in a hotel, and you can actually cook and keep your own meals.

This particular resort has 4 different pool areas and 2 that are specifically aimed at kids.  They each have a water slide and either has a splash pad or a zero entrance pool.  This makes the vacation so much more enjoyable because if we are tired or just feeling lazy, we never have to leave the resort.  The pools are plenty of entertainment for our family but they also have a long list of things going on that you would never need to leave, including a farmers market that we always love to explore, right on the property.  The resort is 30 minutes from the beach however, so you will have to drive if you want to explore.

We try and visit a few different beaches each time we come, however I think we have established which beaches we enjoy the most and we will probably just stick with those.  Here is my take on some of the local beaches... and WE are beach seekers!

Oceanside- has a fun pier with lots of neat birds and fishermen to see.  We were able to get pretty close to a bunch of pelicans and seagulls for a closer look.  You can also watch the surfers and beach goers.

 We stopped for some onion rings and shakes at Ruby's Diner at the end of the pier- excellent service and good old fashioned food- completely worth it.  The beaches have fire pits that you can use for FREE and the surf seems calm and safe enough that you could chill for the day- we decided to hit Carlsbad beach instead.

Carlsbad Beach- Specifically Tamarak Beach. I honestly think we pick this beach again and again simply because we take a super-full size truck on vacation (good luck parking that!) and this beach has a nice and roomy parking lot ($5 daily parking fee) that always has plenty of parking and a bathroom.  The beaches seem to be less packed and cleaner then others.  The surf here, however, is strong and you would not want little ones playing too close as the rip tide would quickly pull them out.

Our kids are super happy playing safely in the sand, without getting in the water. We have this fun family tradition where we "chase waves" together.  Run toward the ocean when the tide goes out and run back to the beach as it chases you in- try not to get wet- it's good fun! :) Ryan claims to have seen a bunch of dolphins swimming just off of the rocks, really I think he just likes to torture me about my inconvenient bathroom breaks. We found a few shells here, although I think the best shell beaches are your local, non-tourist beaches like Imperial Beach, further south.


LaJolla Beach- This area is beautiful but not really my style.  It's hoity-toity and has absolutely NO parking. We did make it to "La Jolla Childrens Beach" during our last trip- it was beautiful and fun.  We were able to see the sea lions and enjoy the views of the rocky cliffs.  This trip I was hoping to see the caves or taverns we heard about, but again, no parking (no parking- as in NO PARKING for super-full sized pick ups or itty-bitty scooters) so we just went on to Imperial Beach.


Note: We just completely skipped San Diego altogether.  No Lego Land, No Zoos, definitely NO Sea World (Orca abusers anyway).  This area has so many fun things to do that I couldn't imagine wasting my time or money on these commercialized, over priced attractions.  In most cases, they exploit wild animals in captivity- again, just not my style.  Don't feel pressured into doing them either- I'm telling you we had the most amazing, easy-going, stress-relieving vacation, without all of the exhausting hype and expense.

Coronado Beach- This was a really nice beach, although on the day we went the wind was blowing like hell so we just moved on to Imperial Beach.

My Aunt Carol told me about how the Coronado Hotel was the largest wooden structure on the west coast and that there was only one other like it (same builder or architect I believe) on the east coast.
It was surely a beautiful area, reminded me of Monterey Bay, California- a beautiful area, rich with unique
and historic architect.

Imperial Beach- YAY!  I would have preferred to find out about this beach FIRST, but hey, better late then never!  This is a local surfers beach, about 9 miles from the Tijuana, Mexico border, but don't let that deter you from visiting.  This was a quiet and quaint beach.  According to a few of the locals I was able to chat with, IB used to be a ghetto and full of bums.  They started really cleaning it up about 10 years ago and now it's a gem of a town with beautiful groomed streets, local pubs and sandwich shops.  But hey, I bet they are just fine with that bad rap, it keeps it quaint :)

 We ate at a local joint called "Katy's Cafe", the food was great and the environment was relaxing and inviting, and not no mention the coolest bathroom ever! :)  And then naturally we would go to the place with a mermaid on the sign :)

The beach is open to sun seekers and dogs- which I think is great.  The ocean spits a bunch of seaweed out in this area but other then that the beaches are clean and littered with sea shell treasures.  I found my very first sand dollar here- I flipped out! Here is a neat YouTube video I found for the girls to show how Sand Dollars live. We ended up coming home with nearly a dozen, fully intact, sand dollars.  There is a sand bar just west from this bronze surfer statue (west end of Seacoast Drive), and at low tide you can reach down and pick them up.  Check tide times here to see the best times to go.

 Parking is free and plentiful. We actually went back to this particular spot twice.  Lana wasn't so keen on the water but Ella was a fun little explorer and we spend many hours looking for treasures and chasing waves.  Ryan was taking it all in, chilling in his chair under the umbrella, watching Lana dig through the endless sand- she was in heaven :)  I think we will come back and stay in IB the next trip- it's a really easy going place, just our style!  Also, I hear they have the best thrift shops- I'll save that for the next visit.

 Posing with some cool anchor chains in IB

Imperial Beach 

Being able to bring our own beach stuff was nice and saved us a bunch of money not having to buy anything.

 We were also able to shop at the local grocery stores (I prefer Trader Joes and Von's) and pack a lunch to go, using the coolers we brought from home.  Of course I have no self control when I see TJMaxx or Marshalls- I usually come home with a few bags of treasures from these places.  New running shoes for Ryan-1, new running shoes for me-0. And the hunt continues...

Making sand castle forts with my girl.

I love this picture of me and my Shoopie! 

As usual Ryan wants to fly to our destination.  I insist on driving and I usually win, here's why: At the end of the day, we drove our super- full sized truck from Vernal, Utah, to Escondido, California, and everywhere in between.

BBQ at our condo at Welks Resort in Escondido, CA.

We even splurged quite a few times and ate out, but mostly hit the grocery store and ate in.  We stayed 9 nights away from home (2 nights- hotel, 7 nights- condo) 10 days all together- 4 of which we drove most of the day.

(Chili's Corona-rita $15, not a bargain!) 

I can't resist shopping for a few fun things but otherwise we mostly had FREE fun! For our family of 4 we spent approximately $2500 for this entire trip- gas, lodging, fun, food- everything.  Our plane tickets alone would have run us $1800 minimum, lodging- $800-$1000, a rental car- another $400-$600.  We are at $3200 and we haven't even left the hotel.  You see how I might win? :)


One last bit of advise I wanted to share- If you happen to be in Vista and you see a Raspberry stand, don't be sucked in by it's mirage of beauty and promises of sweet luscious berries- WATCH THE ROAD!  Um yeah, that little bump surely put us over our budget. Yikes!

Happy adventures!
Love,
The Henlines