California dreamin’ once again…

Seriously, he’s becoming a pro jet-setter.

We flew into SD and then drove to Anaheim/Buena Park. LA traffic was a bear but that was expected. We stopped at a local Mother’s Market for a few snacks and eats for the next couple of days and then checked into our hotel. That night, we went for Singapore street hawker food at Chomp Chomp Nation. Y enjoyed chatting with one of the owners who was Caucasian and spent some time in SE Asia. Apparently, their dishes have been on Food Network, Guy Fieri’s DD&D and other features. And of course we totally forgot to take ANY pictures of it? Oh well… We’ll just be forced to visit again, hehe.

Guess who was up at the crack of dawn, still on Central Time? :)

Morning cup o’joe agua.

He chose this nutritious breakfast over waffles, pancakes, muffins or the like. Woohoo!

Then it was off to Knott’s Berry Farm. We had considered Disney but he was juuuuuust shy of the height requirement for a lot of the rides so we decided to save it for later.

He was especially excited about this 4-D ride (Voyage to the Iron Reef) that he saw on their website. “I want to shoot the octopus! I want to shoot the octopus!” We walked allllllll the way to the far end of the park for our first ride of the day.

Pumped and ready!

Sooooooo these were the before photos. Hehe. The ride was realllly intense with lots of special effects but perhaps a bit much for the little ones. He came out the doors and burst into tears. “I don’t want to shoot the octopus anymore” — a sentence that is still repeated to this day. :P

We thought we were toning it down for the next ride — Pacific Scrambler — but boy, were we wrong!

Stomach lurcher!!!

It was time for something tamer than tame. Enter the stagecoach ride.

E wanted to sit in the front but we couldn’t choose where we ended up so we actually faced backwards. It was a leisurely amble through the whole park. We also saw the kiddie rides that we probably should have started out with.

Knott’s Berry crossing guard held up pedestrian traffic for the horses. :)

Next, we chugged and choo-chooed on the Calico Railroad.

The trains are apparently genuine steam locomotives that ran in the 1900’s. A bandit managed to get on but he wasn’t interested in robbing Asians. :D

KBF is home to Snoopy and the Charlie Brown gang. The doggie was pretty occupied with kids throughout the morning but we did catch a rare moment when he wasn’t so tied up. E was more into waiting in line for an airplane ride so this is essentially the closest we got.

A MUCH more age-appropriate ride. ;p

We called it half a day and went back to the hotel for naptime. (Yes, way past time to wean off the binkie! It’s still soothing for him for sleep, though).

While Mommy and Son snoozed, Daddy stole away for some LA ramen.

His verdict was that it was good but not close to the illustrious Daikokuya he so hails.

Post-nap it was back to the park! We pretty much stayed in the kiddie area for the rest of the time. Well, Daddy sneaked off for a couple rounds of Montezooma’s Revenge to relive the last time he was here at 12 years old.

You wouldn’t think it but this boy loves him some shopping! He totally wanted to browse through all the shops.

Loving on his love of reading and books (what with allll our library runs!) even at a retail store. :)

Stopped to say hi to the Peanuts gang here and there.

Then he said he was done. Amusement parked out? Not too shabby for his first official one…

But pretty pooped, nonetheless…

Until… :))

雪花冰!

Sugar high!

On the recommendation of a friend, we ordered (more) Singaporean food at this place called Belacan Grill and brought it back to the hotel.

Daddy said it was pretty “zhwoon” (roughly, authentic).

A happening day of fun sure got E off of CST quickly! He slept in the next day. We had a slow morning of breakfast (hotel + coffee shop… Mommy found purple sweet potato latte, mmmmm) and packing up. Our plans were to head to Discovery Cube OC (reciprocal membership again, FTW!) before driving back to SD.

E saw a dinosaur at the entrance and was immediately drawn in so of course we stomped right onto the Extreme Dinosaurs exhibit first, which happened to be outside.

Dinosaurs have been a growing fascination for E of late so this was perfect timing. He’s even been asking repeatedly to go see the dinosaurs at the Heard back at home but they won’t return until this coming fall…

Then we explored the rest of the Cube…

Mission Control.

The Boeing Rocket Lab make it seemed pretty close to a darn real launch.

E was taken back a little by the smoke and loud noises.

The caged structure was interesting and we could see just beyond at the dinosaurs. It was like a modern window into the prehistoric world? Okay, no.

This place had more to it than we thought! Every time we were sure we had seen everything, we’d turn a corner and there was more to do.

If there wasn’t another kid waiting and us wanting E to give others a chance to play, he may have never left this little “rink”.

The Discovery Market was a huge hit where he got to scan items that made for more earth-friendly choices. (Son, if you like scanning stuff, wait ’til your wedding or baby registry. Haha!).

They take a picture of you upon checking out. Note E’s (upper left). :)

We might’ve stayed later but we knew we needed to get on the road if we wanted to beat traffic (if there is such a thing)… Pit stop at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (why, oh why did you leave Dallas???) for drinks on the road and we were off. And no, we did not beat traffic. Surprise, surprise.

So we stopped for chocolate and gelato at Chuao Chocolatier, which we missed out on last time after a long day at Legoland… :)

E was pretty antsy but doesn’t i.c. cure all things in a child’s life? :)

We finally made it to our little condo right by Pacific Beach.

It was a treat to walk out our front door and be right on the boardwalk.

E fancied the sand.

The sun was hidden a good deal of the time while we were there, which we later found out locals call “May Gray.” We didn’t mind it at all. The water was pretty cold but the temps were absolutely perfect.

Another “snow” day. Not as good as the one in LA but still yummy!

We definitely took advantage of the weather and made some early AM runs and afternoon ultimate.

Taiwanese “xiao chi”.

Hot pot!

We checked out another one of the larger farmer’s markets in Hillcrest. We made out with a pretty good haul but of course, E wanted nothing more than hipster popcorn! :)

Hung out for a bit at Liberty Station, which we read was formerly a Naval Training Center.

Every morning, we walked to a nearby cafe/coffee shop for breakfast and drinks and then sat along the boardwalk to people watch, listen to the crashing waves and enjoy the views.

E was amazed by the para-gliders! “I wanna do that when I’m a big kid, okay?” Umkay?

We made it out to Belmont Park one evening but it looked like E was done with amusement rides for awhile. He just wanted to play mini-golf. The attendant let him in for free. Yay!

On Memorial Day, we decided to check out Cabrillo National Monument which we missed out last time we were in town. On the way there, we saw a notice that it was closed for a private event until 1pm!

We killed time by having an early lunch at Peace Pies which happened to be nearby. Talked a bit with one of the employees the other day at the farmer’s market as Y told her she was a female version of one of his friends. Yes, weirdness.

Oh, did we mention it’s a raw, vegan place? Hehe and Y’s above mentioned friend is also vegan! It was froufrou food but Daddy actually found it tasty. :)

And E made a girlie-friend. Bleah. He saw her eat kale chips and then suddenly wanted to have them, too. Hrmmmm…

Cabrillo re-opened but the winding road up to it was jammed. Many were visiting loved ones at the Fort Rosencrans National Cemetery.

It got so bad that we decided to park and walk the rest of the way up.

After a bit of a climb, we made it!

Spectacular (albeit windy) views made it worthwhile.

There was a little lighthouse and visitor center with some historical information and a walkway all around to see the whole of San Diego.

Supposedly, the tide pools are notable here but it required going down a winding road to get to the water. It might’ve been okay with a car but on foot would’ve been a stretch with a tired E. We went back for his nap.

Then later, we soaked in some more beautiful scenery at Sunset Cliffs around Ocean Beach.

Daddy digs it when those brows become a “V”. Hehe.

Watching a sunset here would’ve been pretty sweet but the cloud cover was still around…

When in SD, must have fish tacos!

On another day, we headed to Birch Aquarium, a spot we didn’t have time for last trip.

Old submarine.

He started to get excited when he saw the whale tail.

He commented “Daddy eats these!”. Yes, he does!

Outside, it was another location for sweeping vistas of the city.

The Exhibit Court outdoors also had some hands-on activities outside that kept E busy for awhile.

E was “shopping” in the gift shop when we looked at the time and saw that we could actually make one of the fish feedings in their large kelp forest tank inside.

He wasn’t happy about being pulled away but we’re glad we did. The feeding demonstration was great!

In the early evening, we visited Windansea Beach, also known for tide pools since we had missed out on them at Cabrillo.

Can you find Y? :)

We strolled on the sidewalk and discovered we made it to the Children’s Pool with all the seals.

He reveled in seeing these cute sea dogs up close but you can only take the smell for so long… :P

On our last day, we bid farewell to the sea and drove to Balboa Park for some time at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center before catching our flight. Yep, you guessed it — it was on the reciprocal museum membership list so complimentary entry, it was.

“Kid City” was designed especially for kids five and under, and you betcha he had a blast!

Daddy was actually quite into many of the geeky exhibits and wandered off a few times on his own.

Seriously, Bernouilli is at like EVERY museum for children.

Taping Shape was a temporary exhibit where hundreds of rolls of packing tape were used to create springy spaces and tunnels for visitors to actually go in and crawl through! Never seen anything like it…

There was even a slide at the end. :)

Relishing (and pondering life’s deepest mysteries?) Balboa before it was time to go.