{"id":770939,"date":"2010-03-10T16:08:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-11T00:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/2010\/03\/10\/san-diego-family-trip-day-one\/"},"modified":"2010-03-10T16:08:00","modified_gmt":"2010-03-11T00:08:00","slug":"san-diego-family-trip-day-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/2010\/03\/10\/san-diego-family-trip-day-one\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego Family Trip: Day One"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have a dear friend named Dakari.&nbsp; We worked as graveyard waitresses back in 1986-87, and have been friends ever since.&nbsp; We were in each others weddings, and have remained close even after she moved to Siberia&#8230;<em>I mean<\/em>, Alaska!<\/p>\n<p>Dakari and her husband, David, decided to go on a once in a lifetime family trip, taking their family on a Mexican cruise and a few extra days in San Diego.&nbsp; They were so kind to invite us along on their trip.&nbsp; We decided not to do the cruise part, but spend a few days in San Diego with them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DAY ONE<\/p>\n<p><\/strong>We flew down in the morning and checked into our hotel.&nbsp;&nbsp;Our friends were in a timeshare a couple properties from us, within walking distance.&nbsp;As they were getting themselves settled, we decided to get some lunch, and head to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sdbgarden.org\/\">San Diego Botanical Garden<\/a>.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>We had a quick lunch at Wendy&#8217;s, and while we were waiting for our food, I could hear our two little boys, giggling like crazy.&nbsp; They had positioned their bodies against a window painting of the namesake for Wendy&#8217;s, and looked at their shadows on the floor that made them look like they had the hair braids that the painting had&#8230;such nuts!<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4070\/4422698045_1be7caf5a3.jpg\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2717\/4423462766_4dfa32186a.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>On to the garden&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Located in Encinitas, CA, about 20 minutes from San Diego, we thought this would be a good place to spend a little bit of time, but did not have high expectations.&nbsp; We were pleasantly surprised to discover that the kids loved this place!&nbsp; They were awestruck over the different plants and art pieces.&nbsp; We spent much more time there than anticipated and are so glad we went.<\/p>\n<p>Lizards were everywhere, especially in the desert garden.&nbsp; (If I were a lizard, I&#8217;d want to live here&#8230;).&nbsp; There was one lizard who seemed to enjoy having his picture taken.&nbsp; The boys had their own cameras, and I imagine we have about 20 pictures of a single lizard.&nbsp; It also let us get really close.&nbsp; Once, when we moved away from it, it moved closer to us!<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4011\/4423463102_4472de7f58.jpg\" \/><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2797\/4423463236_bbcc649231.jpg\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2781\/4423463748_89494e3f5f.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nOur little &#8216;R&#8217; (who&#8217;s not so little any more&#8230;), loves to give me little pieces of nature.&nbsp; He is always bringing me home a flower, rock, pinecone, etc&#8230;Here he is offering me a flower from a tree&#8230;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4066\/4422699423_c95f9771e0.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nThis is a garden sculpture covered in succulents&#8230;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4059\/4422700039_605acc4ef4.jpg\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2766\/4423465376_546d662c4a.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nAnother cool sculpture in the garden&#8230;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4006\/4423465962_8305ff91ce.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nEntering the bamboo garden.&nbsp; Have you ever seen bamboo this big???<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4070\/4422701911_27fca1f8e1.jpg\" \/><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2708\/4423467120_a4e26c1451.jpg\" \/><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4004\/4423467298_dc6425af76.jpg\" \/><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4006\/4423468038_f4604728f9.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nThe bamboo garden has a pond.&nbsp; We were happy to discover four big toads right next to us, eating Fruit Loops!<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4029\/4422703553_de0203da5a.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nBanana tree&#8230;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2785\/4422704049_73be9afd5e.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nBanana flower&#8230;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2753\/4422707331_7677093be7.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nThis tree is the cork oak tree, where cork comes from&#8230;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4072\/4423472286_fb35101818.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nThis sculpture startled me&#8230;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4008\/4422708177_5623a7f730.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nThe Childrens Garden has an incredible &quot;treehouse&quot;.&nbsp; The tree is not real, but it contains a bunch of live plants.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4009\/4423473602_602a7daabd.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nThis is an area to create music&#8230;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4008\/4422709461_da7e468382.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nGiant adirondack chairs&#8230;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4068\/4423475258_b575298440.jpg\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4037\/4423475600_5046275a92.jpg\" \/><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2689\/4422711415_88d5cd2c13.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nI love this idea.&nbsp; They took rocks and wrote a single word on each, then divided them into boxes (nouns, emotions, adjectives, etc&#8230;)&nbsp; The kids can take the rocks and create poems.&nbsp; Here is what &#8216;A&#8217; made&#8230;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2687\/4422711817_2471ac5c44.jpg\" \/><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4048\/4423476790_de45676bec.jpg\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4045\/4423477046_3fe3c8c4cf.jpg\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4001\/4423477538_1bff9cded2.jpg\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4072\/4422713545_dd1b5dfde9.jpg\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4011\/4423478788_f6e558b862.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nWe knew we were close to Legoland, so we decided to stop by and check it out.&nbsp; The grounds were closed, but this sculpture was in the parking lot.&nbsp; On the other side of the car was a Lego mom and baby in a stroller&#8230;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4061\/4422714429_858465e133.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nWe spent the rest of the evening at the Ralph family timeshare.&nbsp; Dakari and David treated us to a delicious dinner.&nbsp; Here is (almost) the whole gang&#8230;Marcus flew in the next day&#8230;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2799\/4422714825_d34f2e54b1.jpg\" \/><br \/>\n&#8216;R&#8217; is showing &#8216;R&#8217; the Legoland map&#8230;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4072\/4423479924_7c2c6e9cc7.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nFriends for life&#8230;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4017\/4422721895_e0b14df6b5.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have a dear friend named Dakari.&nbsp; We worked as graveyard waitresses back in 1986-87, and have been friends ever since.&nbsp; We were in each others weddings, and have remained close even after she moved to Siberia&#8230;I mean, Alaska! Dakari and her husband, David, decided to go on a once in a lifetime family trip, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-770939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-fun"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770939\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}