California, Here We Come (Part 3)

We're baaaack! And I am SO glad to be home. Now I can finally start catching up on blogging our California vacation.

My last California post was about our time in Pasadena. We left Pasadena on Tuesday and drove the few hours south to Escondido, California, where we met up with the rest of my family. While John unpacked the car, Katie experienced a swimming pool for the first time. She loved it!

Unfortunately, I realized a few days later though that her main interest in the pool was drinking the chlorinated water. So I had to be creative about the way I held her in the pool.

The day after we arrived in Escondido, our family went to Sea World. It was fun in some regards, but Katie would have enjoyed it much more if she were a bit older. She had trouble focusing on the fish, and was too young to go on any of the rides. She didn't nap much either which added to the stress of the day. Her favorite activity at Sea World was crawling around on a toddler mat in the Sesame Street section with her cousin Ali:

She also enjoyed seeing the killer whales and dolphins, and meeting a horse and a Sesame Street character:

Near the end of the day, we had reservations for Dinner with Shamu. We sat around the killer whale pool while eating from a buffet. They had told us that we might get a little wet. However, John, our digital camera, and our nephew Drew got completely SOAKED when the killer whale decided to splash our side of the pool. Our camera conked out after taking these photos. Thankfully it came back to life the following day.

Here's a photo taken by the Sea World photographer before the dinner began (and while John was still dry):

This was probably our most exhausting day since our plane had landed in Phoenix. Thankfully the next day, scheduled as an R&R day, things started to turn around.

To be continued...