Chronicles of a Stay-cation: Monterey

After a day of being back home from our San Diego/LA trip, we were back on the road again.  Next destination - Monterey.  We stayed for a night and visited our usual favorite spots.

We took a walk on the Wharf

Found this alley in downtown Carmel

Kaykay was still recovering from our San Diego Trip

Secluded beach - reminds me of my favorite beach in Hawaii - Waimea

Chronicles of a Stay-cation: Ronald Reagan Library & Museum

Our last stop on our stay-cation was the Ronald Reagan Library & Museum in Simi Valley.  I would recommend visiting this place if you haven't had the chance.  The library portion was filled with Reagan's memoirs and chronicles of his days from being a movie star to, what I believe, was one of the greatest presidents we've had.

Our all-american hawaiian gal

Reagan's Airforce One was one of the highlights of the Museum; you actually got to go inside and tour; unfortunately they did not allow any photos.

Outside in the garden is Reagan's final earthly resting place.

A piece of the Berlin Wall

A great way to end our final day of our stay-cation

Chronicles of a Stay-cation: Los Angeles

After several days in San Diego, we drove up and stayed a night in LA.  Our first stop in LA was Universal City Walk

Chronicles of a Stay-cation: San Diego Zoo

Our second stop:  San Diego Zoo

This was one of my favorite exhibits: the Koalas

(Aren't they cute!)

My personal favorite land animal - the giraffe

My ultimate favorite: Kaykay the Giraffe

Chronicles of a Stay-cation: Great Grindz in San Diego

One thing San Diego doesn't lack in is their local grindz (food).  Here are some that we were able to visit and enjoy.

Sushi on the Rock is in La Jolla (a favorite area we like to visit)

Very friendly town; I liken it to Rodeo Drive but by the sea.

Caterpillar Roll

Sashimi

A few blocks from our hotel, we walked over to Joe's Crab Shack.  

Another very friendly place with delicious sea food

Crab Nachos

Mike order the burger, forgot the name but it was huge!

And the center attraction:  Their bucket specials

One morning we took a walk and visited Mary Jane's diner (adjacent to the Hard Rock Cafe Hotel in the Gaslamp)  Very good breakfasts with reasonable price.

An advantage of having family come with you on vacation is that you're able to "sneek" away from the kid(s) and that we did.  We walked down the Gaslamp District and found this saloon called Chocolat.  Very nice atmosphere; we got a window seat and watch the happenings outside.

Crepe and Gelato!

The Owner of the place recommended this to Mike

All I remember was it was good and discovered how good pistachio gelato was

Chronicles of a Stay-cation: San Diego

Our second favorite place to vacation, second to only Hawaii, is San Diego - the weather, the atmosphere, the town, and the people are what makes this place worth visiting and stay-cationing.  Initially it was exclusively our family but since my parents are retired and my sister and brother-in-law had time off, we invited them along as well.  

First stop - Legoland

So our first stop was Legoland - it was probably for the best as Kaykay kept asking us the WHOLE drive down if we were in Legoland already; this has become one of our family's favorite place in San Diego; we contemplated going to Disneyland but were concerned that Kaykay is still too young to fully enjoy it.  But not in Legoland; she is able to ride 80% of all their rides.  Here are some of the things we captured:

Chronicles of a Stay-cation

Summer for our family has come and gone and the lack of entries only indicate that we've been a busy family.  This summer, we decided to join millions of people and have a "stay-cation."  Although I don't know if there is a proper definition for this term, I've come to understand that this it means:  to vacation by staying around your area.  And that we did; however we extended our "area" to the state of California.  Come and join us as we chronicle our family stay-cation!