San Diego! (Part 1)

Last year we took several long-distance vacation, so this year we decided to stay local - and we had a great time.  We went camping a couple of hours South, about half an hour from downtown San Diego.  And yes, by camping, I mean a tent.  Tenting works well for our family (although it is a lot of work).

We headed to San Diego the afternoon of Father's Day.  We had a little delay driving down there as a fire broke out along the freeway that we needed to take to our campground.

The fire - right were we were trying to head (here we are on an overpass turning around).

Monday we headed to the Safari Park.  The Safari Park has a 20 minute safari, but is also somewhat like a zoo with mostly African type large animals and birds.  This was a bonus for the trip as we were not really planning on it, but then a half price deal came up on LivingSocial.  This was the first real amusement park the girls had ever been too.  We had a good day, despite the heat.  I think my favorite animal was the elephants.  We were able to see them drinking and also spraying themselves off with their trunks.  We also stayed to watch the Cheetah run, where they get a Cheetah to run full speed - pretty cool.

Katelyn and one of the two female lions (don't worry, there was a thick glass window in between).

The male lion and another female laying down.

On the tram for the 'Safari' ride.

They had lots of baby elephants.

The girls with the elephants in the background.

The Cheetah after it's 2nd run.

On Tuesday, we headed to Mission Beach.  We did some biking around Mission Beach in the morning and stopped at a park to give kite flying a try.  Kyle was able to get one of the kites up, but the girls lost interest very quickly.  In the afternoon, we ate lunch on the beach and spent a couple of hours enjoying the sand and the waves.  Then we headed back to the campground for dinner.

She loves the sand!  (And the water!)

Building with Daddy.

Stay tuned for updates on our last few days of vacation in another post.