San Diego, baby!

I have great childhood memories of San Diego - and even now, many years later, I still find the city simply wonderful - so diverse, with so many great things to do 🤩

But to start from the beginning: Very high on our 'To Do' list was the famous San Diego Zoo. And we were not disappointed: It is simply gigantic (in the literal sense of the word 😉). Most of the time, you don’t feel like you’re in a zoo, but rather in a (primeval) forest with many animals. The enclosures are totally 'embedded' in the landscape, and there’s even a cable car above it (Finn was thrilled 😉). A special attraction are the two pandas, but they were both sleeping like stones - not particularly exciting 😉 At the end of the day, everyone was quite exhausted, with about 12,000 steps logged in the zoo according to my watch 😅 After that, we took a short detour to Old Town San Diego, which we were told is lovely. We found it mostly very 'touristy', but we did come across a very delicious ice cream 😉

The next day, we continued with a visit to Sea World. (We had a bit of hesitation about indirectly supporting this type of animal captivity with our visit, but Robin very much wanted to see an orca live..) And: It was totally worth it. Sea World is no longer just a 'zoo' but much more like an amusement park.. Various roller coasters and attractions thrilled the boys (and us 😉). At noon, the orca show was scheduled. It was strongly emphasized how much Sea World is committed to species conservation, preservation, research, etc., and then you see these gigantic, majestic animals being showcased in these small tanks. I was almost in tears.. But it was still more than impressive to experience these animals up close - a unique experience 💙 (And hopefully one that won’t be possible in a few years. Sea World is officially no longer allowed to 'take in' new orcas.)

The next day, we hoped during the whale watching not for orcas but, for example, for a gray whale. The whale season is already underway here. We were extremely lucky with the (almost non-existent) sea swell, but the whales didn’t want to show themselves. Instead, we saw two different species of dolphins that performed their (voluntary!) jumps right next to our boat and swam alongside us. Simply beautiful 😍

In the afternoon, we then visited the USS Midway. The huge aircraft carrier is a floating museum in the San Diego harbor and truly mega impressive! Up to 45,000 people lived aboard, and 10 tons of food were consumed daily - a floating city including its own post office, etc. 🤯 We were all totally fascinated by these dimensions and the stories of the many volunteers who had sometimes served on the ship themselves. The boys were officially appointed 'Junior Captains' at the end, complete with badges and salute 😉

So, that’s it (unfortunately) from San Diego - I could definitely stay here a few more days 😎 Tomorrow we are heading back to LA and will swap our really great Chrysler Pacifica for the camper. Next stop: Palm Springs, stay tuned 😉