More parental shenanigans

It's me I'm back! Like my mum said, on Saturday we were off to San Diego to see the city. 

We started out early and went straight to La Jolla to see the sealions. It was quite cloudy when we arrived, but we saw them out on the rocks, and a rock full of seals too, which we haven't seen too many of before. 

Some of these brown lumps are noisy sealions

This is how I lose them

We walked along the seashore and looked at some of the little market stalls before heading a little way inland in search of coffee and pastries. We walked past some very busy shops, but just around the corner, was a little coffee shop which had very nice fresh croissants and pumpkin spice coffees. 

To get back to the car, we walked back along the coast. There's not really a beach and you're not allowed on a lot of the rocks to protect the sealions in pup season (which it was) but we did hop down onto one section to see a rock which been carved by the sea into a little arch and overlooked the ocean. It was sunny now and very photogenic.

Back at the car, we moved on to stop number 2. Balboa park is a lovely park with all the Spanish Architecture and we looked at all the museums, and then spent a while in the Spanish Art Village, looking in all of the studios.

We also went to go and see the rose garden which still had roses in bloom, and some smelt really nice. Our next plan was to get the bus into Downtown San Diego, but it was delayed and when I checked it was only $1 more for the four of us to get an Uber (taxi) so we did that instead which took us right up to where we wanted to go. We walked through the Gaslamp Quarter, taking in all the busy restaurants and bars and looking at more market stalls. We stopped at a sports bar with outdoor seating for a late lunch/early dinner in the afternoon sun. They had several American football games going on on screens inside, but sitting outside you could barely tell it was a sports bar.

After eating, we carried on walking through Downtown and found the huge convention centre and the marina where all the fancy yachts are kept. We walked a little further to the carousel district where there were some small shops and decorations, as well as the historic carousel, and then on to the aircraft carrier turned museum. 

Having walked all this way, we'd finally seen everything and called an Uber back to where we'd parked the car in Balboa Park. 

We got back to Riverside after dark, but our dinner had been very early, so we went out for a little walk to get ice-cream and bubble tea. I've officially converted my mum to boba, so she'll be on the lookout for a bubble tea shop when it opens in Bedfordshire.

On the way back, we found a little cat curled up under a tree by our apartment. It was a little scared, but did come over to get some pets. It didn't have a collar on, so we're not sure if it belonged to anyone. 

Sunday was our last day with my parents in Riverside, so we had a beach day. We went to have breakfast at IHOP, and all got big plates with pancakes, eggs and bacon (or hash browns) and then drove to the coast. 

We went to Newport beach to go on a whale watching tour. Driving through the traffic was hectic as always, but we parked in the residential area nearby and made it in good time this time. We left my dad on land (he does not like boats) and the three of us went on board. The tour was about two hours long and we saw so many dolphins! No whales again, but a huge pod of long nosed dolphins came to play in the currents caused by the boat. We also saw some sealions lying around on a bouy and the weather was perfect for being out on the ocean.

Back on land, we stopped for a big slice of pizza before heading off for Laguna Beach. We made a quick stop at Trader Joe's first, to pick up snacks and show off more pumpkin spice flavoured items. I bought some more ugly, lumpy gourds and I love them very much, much to Mitchell's disgust. 

We then drove to the hotel my parents are staying at this week and dropped them off. It's right on the beach and I think they've had a good time staying there!

More adventures next week,

Emily and Mitchell

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