Our California Vacation

First of all, mommy wants it to be clear that this was no vacation for her or dad. It was a trip. Trips with kids should not be called vacations, she said. :) We did have some fun though! We started out on an 8.5 hour drive to LA. Luckily, Gabi and I slept for about 3/4 of the time and we were pretty well-behaved the rest of the car ride.

Our first day in Los Angeles, we slept late, explored the hotel a little bit and took a drive to Huntington Beach to play in the waves for a while. Gabi and I LOVED the ocean. Daddy took us out as far as we could go without the waves being taller than us. We also played a little bit in the sand, but didn't make much of a sand castle. Mommy wouldn't go near the water. She said it was too cold! That night we ate near the hotel at Buca di Beppo.

Friday and Saturday were the days for DISNEYLAND! We were so excited. Gabi screamed with excitement every time mommy or daddy said we might see Donald Duck. We didn't even know she knew who he was. :) Even the bus ride there was exciting to us! We started out by seeing Cruella DeVille (the mean lady from 101 Dalmations), which is kinda funny because mommy sometimes calls Gabi, Gabriela DeVille. :-). Then we went on the totally, amazing Dumbo ride, followed by the Nemo Submarine ride, Go-carts, the tea cups, It's A Small World (twice), Pirates of the Caribbean, Winnie the Pooh ride, Storybook boat ride (twice), the carousel (twice) and the Jungle Cruise. Of course, we did all this over 2 days. Oh, and Daddy and I went on the Matterhorn- SCARY!! Another favorite thing of mine was seeing a Star Wars performance with Darth Vader and Jedi. They taught all of us some moves with lightsabers.

Gabi and I took long naps both days. Friday we both slept in the stroller for 2 1/2 hours! That gave mom and dad a nice break to talk and sip on a soda. :)

Despite the long lines, big crowds and the heat, we still had fun.

Sunday we went back to the beach for a little while (Huntington) and then went to a cool pirate dinner show. They had a huge pirate ship inside and lots of pirate performers. We were rooting for the orange pirate (see the orange scarves on our heads). Dinner was yummy and I was very impressed with the show overall. Gabi and I played with our swords afterward in the parking lot, pretending to be scary pirates. :)

After that, we headed to The Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina. Got there late though- 10 or so.

The next day was another day at the beach. :-P BUT, mommy forgot how cold San Diego beaches can be! It was very cloudy too....no way we could get sunburned, right?! Ha. Mommy and Daddy got one of the worst sunburns they've gotten in a long time. Gabi and I were fine though.

Tuesday was one of our most fun days ever! We spent 11 hours at Sea World! I now tell everyone my favorite thing about our trip was the raft ride at Sea World that daddy and I went

on and got all wet. We also enjoyed lots of shows: the 2 Shamu shows, the dolphin show, the Cirque de Mer, the very funny Sea Lion show. We also saw the penguins (actually I was asleep for this one), flamingos and a couple aquariums. There were even fireworks at night. On our way out of the park at 10 pm, we discovered the Sesame Street park. It had a Dumbo-like Elmo ride, climbing ropes and a jumping castle kinda thing. Needless to say, we stayed there until the park closed (11pm). Mommy was so tired that she was crying on the way to the car. Daddy had to let her sit down and drive us back to pick her up. Poor, tired, pregnany lady. ;)

Our very last day was spent eating at a little deli and then swimming in the hotel pool. We were sad to say goodbye, but I was also looking forward to seeing Noah and my friend, David.