Deloitte Family Day at the Farm

We had a wonderful day at Tiskilwa Farms Alpacas for the 2nd annual Deloitte Family Fun Day!  Our host, Bob, was celebrating his birthday, so we surprised him with this fun cake.   This year's big draw was the fishing hole!  All of the kids and adults were having a great time.  In fact, we never even got around to having an alpaca show because we were so busy fishing and playing with everything else and enjoying the amazing weather.  Mike did let William take one of the "teenager" alpacas for a walk on a halter and lead.  They made it about two steps before the alpaca bolted and did a big lap through the field and into the next set of gates where it was promptly caught and returned to the small holding pen for an older, stronger guest to walk him. 

 

 

 

San Diego

The final portion of our vacation was downtown San Diego.  By then we had been away from home for 6 nights (and it my case, 8 of the past 9 nights thanks to a trip to NYC in the days preceding our trip), so we were ready to take it easy.  Most things we did were within the convention center or Gaslamp area and walkable.   And the sun finally came out our last few days!   When we checked in, we were asked if we wanted to upgrade to a bay view for a fee.   No way!  The port view was exactly what William wanted!  The bridge in the picture is over to Coronado.

 

On our first full day, we walked about 25 minutes along the water to get to the USS Midway aircraft carrier museum.   If Pizza Hut and LEGOLAND weren't highlights, this one was!  Had we planned snacks a little better and not worn ourselves out walking on such a hot day, I think we could have stayed for 4 or 5 hours.  As it was, we were there for nearly 3. 

We met up with our friends Lauren and Jesse for dinner and dessert and had a great time catching up.  They were kind enough to drive to Anaheim last summer to meet us at Disneyland for dinner.  Luckily this year, they only had to drive across town!  On our other full day, we slept in, had brunch, and checked out the New Children's Museum before ending the day with a trip to Coronado Island to swim on the beautiful beach behind the Hotel Del.   

Oh, and Starbucks.  We had lots of Starbucks on our vacation.  Because that's what we Shields like to drink.  Even the little one.. . . .He may have had a few days of withdrawal once we got home and cut him off from his twice daily milk box!   Ironically of all the things we didn't do it was use the hotel pool, though I had scoped out the pool closely before booking this hotel.  It was so cold in Carlsbad when we went swimming, but it was warmer in San Diego.  We just never had time with all of our relaxing to make it there! 

Legoland

For an amusement park loving Lego fanatic, LEGOLAND Resort (California and/or Florida) must be on the bucket list!  We found some awesome buy-one-get-four days free tickets online and enjoyed a leisurely pace.   It's a good thing we didn't have to see everything in one or two days though because they have nothing on Disney when it comes to ride efficiency.   But, hey, everything is made of Legos so Everything is Awesome!

 

 

This place is really my little boy's dream destination.  He especially loved the Junior Driving School.  John and I were amazed that the kids didn't bumper car each other more.  They were all serious, if not good, drivers.   Best non-driving school attraction was spraying the people on the pirate ships.  It was overcast and gloomy weather while we were there so it was infinitely better to be spraying people on the ride than riding the ride.    We did a lot of shopping at the Big Shop, and we each made our own Lego minifigure.  I turned mine into an insert for a clear Christmas ornament ball.  William has likely dismantled and reassembled his and John's two dozen times.