My husband, Porter, has a conference in San Diego this week, so it was a good opportunity for the family to get a little weekend break beforehand from the winter doldrums in Denver.  The recent snow had kept us cooped up, so it was refreshing to see a different change of scene, especially one that is very Spring-like with all its greenery and flowers.

It’s great to see the view of the bay and sailboats when leaving the airport.  Our hotel was at the bay, across from the museum/boat “Star of India.”  This boat was next to one used by Russell Crowe in a movie.  We enjoyed strolling on the boardwalk and appreciating the different artistic sculptures that adorned the area.  It was nice to see the changing views of the bay every time we went to our room.

It was sunny on Friday and after a nice stroll on the boardwalk, we were able to take a brief shuttle to the quaint Sea Port Village where Maya got to ride a historic carousel.  We enjoyed food while watching a sunset over the bay and listened to live South American music in the evening.

Maya had a challenging night on her first night, which meant Porter and I didn’t sleep.  It rained much of the day on Saturday.  I was already not feeling well from a cold, so Saturday ended up not very eventful.  A friend was able to show Porter and Colin some breathtaking views while I stayed back tending to Maya and hoping to nap.  Sunday was the primary day for sight-seeing and we spent most of it at the zoo.  We had vacationed for a week in San Diego in August of 2006 and this was about the only primary place we had not gone to.  There was lots to see and we were not able to see much of it in the six hours we were there.  I was especially sad to not have squeezed in the miniature train for Maya.  Petting a goat’s ear was probably her big event.  She probably thought it wasn’t very different from petting one of our dogs’ ears.

Our favorite views at the zoo were of the pandas and koala bears.  It was worth waiting in line to see the pandas up close, and glimpsing a baby panda sleeping on a hammock.

Napping baby panda and mama at the San Diego Zoo

There was an adorable view of a mama koala bear cuddling her baby koala, who seemed to be smiling.

A strange incident occurred once I landed in Denver with my kids.  As we were leaving the airport, I heard on the intercom about a black jacket being switched on my flight.  I looked in my pocket and there was a business card I didn’t recognize!  I had on someone else’s jacket!  I thought it was tight…I had to run my kids to customer service for the exchange.  The reps were amazed by the similarities in the jacket and apparently the had been stored together in the overhead bin.  The other customer had taken off with mine and I grabbed the black jacket left.  Something to keep in mind when traveling!  Make sure you have your own stuff!  I imagine black overhead bags get mixed up a lot as well.

Mama and baby koala

Sunny, 50 degree weather in Denver wasn’t too bad to come home to yesterday, and we will enjoy this for a few days.  We will then brace ourselves for our snowiest months coming up before we get peeks of the crocuses through the snow, promising Spring.