02 Jun Family Road Trip to San Diego

Hi friends! Hope you had a fabulous Memorial Day weekend! We spent the last 4 days road-tripping to San Diego with Erik and Katya! I was worried about going on a road-trip with a 1-year-old and hangry 372-month-old hubby, but my first visit to San Diego was a success! I will share my trip with you in order with some pics 🙂 Hope you enjoy it!

On May 26th, Friday

We left our house past 8 am even though we planned to leave 1 hour earlier. We got stuck in traffic and made it to Willow Ranch for lunch around 12: 30pm. Got some Starbucks for the road and ate dinner at Devilicious Eatery & Tap Room in old town Temecula at 6: 55 pm. There were many people enjoying Friday night, and it was lively 🙂 The old town was small but had a very cute country vibe. Drove some more, and we finally checked in at San Diego Marriott Gaslamp Quarter, which is located by San Diego Padres baseball stadium past 8pm. Great location if you want to stay near restaurants, bars, baseball stadium, and convention centers. One annoying thing about this place was no free parking. Only valet parking was available and it cost us about $50 per day. Yikes. But we chose the valet parking instead of the street or regular parking to avoid car break-ins (it was a bit sketchy in the area).

On May 27th, Saturday

I guess we were so exhausted from driving about 11 hours yesterday that we started the day at 10:30am. First, we went to Hillcrest neighborhood to eat brunch at a cute restaurant called Chocolat at 11: 30 am. We got our much-needed coffee and food, then walked around the area to explore. It is an interesting place as there are a variety of restaurants, from a cute family-owned restaurant to a fun one with a drag queen show. Regardless of your taste, you can find one that matches with your vibe here 😉

I needed to grab a coffee to go before we head to Balboa Park, so we stopped by a cupcake shop called Babycakes, which is still in the Hillcrest neighborhood. We drove to the next destination, Balboa Park, which only took us 5 minutes, and arrived at 1:10pm. We parked near Balboa Park Playground and there was a bunch of street parking that is free. It is cool that, once in a while, we don’t need to worry about parking spots. The park was very big so if you don’t want to walk too much, make sure to find parking near it! This park definitely has a different vibe, but it is so big that it reminded me of the Central Park.

We were planning to spend a whole day there exploring, so we were prepared to walk around by wearing flats and packing drinks and snacks. We had Katya run around to explore the greenery and made our way slowly to the main area of the park. We walked along the bridge, and we passed by many museums. It was kind of overwhelming not being sure what exhibits were there. If you are planning to visit a museum, then plan ahead to check out what exhibition they will have! I definitely wanted to see Casa Del Prado, so we made our way there first. Casa Del Prado is a Spanish Baroque-style building and the details are absolutely breathtaking! The location is in between the Lily Pond and San Diego Natural History Museum and the appearance is so significant that you won’t miss it!

After we blessed our eyes with the architecture, we walked up north spontaneously. I found the area where the ground is colorfully painted, and I was too curious not to checked it out. It was called the Spanish village art center where we saw many shops that sell handmade goods. Before we explored, we went to a cute coffee stand called Daniel’s Coffee to buy a bottle of water and 2 fruit smoothies. It was such a hot day, we had to take a break and hydrate. After we nourished ourselves, I went into shopping mode, checking out each shop to look for Christmas ornaments. I did not find ornaments that I liked, but I was so happy that I found 2 handmade colorful vases for our home!

We walked through every shop and corner of the Spanish Village, and we left to explore more of Balboa Park. We checked out Lily Pond, Alcázar Garden, and Timken Museum of Art before we left the park. If you want to go to the museum, I recommend Timken Museum as there is beautiful art to see with free admission. I heard Japanese garden is beautiful, but it requires an admission fee and has a closing time, so make sure to check that when you plan 🙂

It was time for us to leave to get dinner as we were tired and hungry. We didn’t want to move our car, so we found a restaurant that was walking distance from our car. Parc is the French restaurant that we went to have dinner at. There was live music and the atmosphere was very posh! Katya was knocked out from tiredness, so we kept her in the stroller and had her continue to sleep. Thinking that this was a perfect opportunity to squeeze in a date night, we ordered Artisan Cheese Board and drinks to start with. I got a French Lavender Martini as the waiter recommended, and the smell and taste was very elegant 🙂

By the time our main dish came, Katya woke up screaming, and we could not calm her down. So, we decided to take turns going outside with her while one of us ate the food. By the time I got to indulge my main dish, Lobster Risotto, it was cold. At least it was still very delicious! We definitely need a redo of date night, but we gotta do what we gotta do as parents 😉

The time was 6:40pm, still bright outside. As we walked back to our car, there was a playground where many kids were playing, and Katya wanted to play with them. Even though we were there to explore new things in San, what Katya loves is interaction with other kids in the playground. She had so much fun there, and we also walked off what we quickly shoved in our stomachs at dinner 🙂

Erik and Katerina were done for the day, but I wanted to explore more. Once we went back to the hotel room, I rested a little bit, and I went out to walk around the Gaslamp area, mainly looking for ornaments. There were sports fans watching games at a sports bar and many people enjoying the night out bar hopping. It is a perfect place for that, since the street is closed off and safe to walk around without worrying about cars passing by. I successfully found San Diego ornaments and got my night coffee and macarons from Olala Crepes. I was out for a good 45-min walking and checking out shops, and went back to my room around 8:30pm to call a day 😉

On May 28th, Sunday

We started a day little earlier than yesterday, walking to the breakfast sport at 9:30am. The road was still blocked off around our hotel and some shops started to open. However, this is not the area I wanted to go for breakfast. I researched last night and found a gorgeous spot called Morning Glory where the interior is all pink. Since we love a long walk when food is rewarded at the end, we decided to walk for 30 min to Little Italy. We got there at 10 am, and not to my surprise, the restaurant already had a long line wrapped around the corner ;( We were so hungry that we decided to go into another cute spot called Parakeet Cafe.  I definitely want to plan better next time to visit Morning Glory, but there are so many beautiful restaurants nearby, so you will find something great!

They had many baked goods which I was so tempted to get all, but we ordered an actual breakfast dish and coffee. While we were eating our food, Katya couldn’t sit down and eat, and she started to wander around a bit. She was curious about a young couple sitting next to us and started to play hide and seek by their table. They were waiting for their food and were probably bored, so they started to play along with her. We also started to talk to them and found out that they were newlyweds and were on their honeymoon. They told us that they wanted to start their family right away and asked us for advice as parents 🙂 Not that we would be the best one to give advice, I tried my best to set the expectation straight haha! We said bye to the adorable couple, and I got this cafe’s cute pink tumbler that said “more good times” to remind me of this happy trip.

We walked back and got to the hotel at noon. I checked my wish list I wrote last night to create the game plan for the rest of the day. After I decided the most optimal route, at 12:30pm, we first headed to Holy Matcha in East Village. They probably use ceremonial matcha, which is bitter compared to whatever Starbucks uses in green tea lattes. I got an iced match drink for to-go and checked out the pretty pink interior. But this was not the interior that I saw on the website and I found that there was a second location of Holy Matcha, so I took note for future redo.

With my ice-cold matcha drink in my hand, we got to the next stop, Spruce Street Suspension Bridge, at little past 1pm. It’s a very short attraction, and we probably spent only 10 min walking the entire bridge. It swings and moves as you walk and has quite a height, so if you have acrophobia, I wouldn’t recommend this location to visit.

A 10-minutes-drive to the next location. At 1:40 pm, we got to Old Town San Diego State Historic Park. I have to say, there was so much traffic and people were parking miles away and walking. Parking was very difficult for us, but luckily, we found parking in the park. Erik and Katya were already done for the day, starting to drag their feet, so I wanted to make this visit as quickly as possible. There were so many cute stores, but I just picked some stores to see. Even though I didn’t buy anything there, I recommend you to visit here if you are looking for a cute souvenir. By the time we left there, Katya was whining hard, so I gave her my empty cup with straw, and she was so happy 🙂 IDK why, but she loves plastic cups & straw. Why kids love most useless stuff like clothing tags is a mystery lol.

We drove in some traffic; we reached the location that was on top of my wishlist. When we got to La Jolla at 3:10 pm, we struggled to find the parking space again, and Erik did 2 laps around the block to finally find the spot. The view of the coastline is absolutely beautiful, and despite the windy weather, there were many families and couples picnicking. We walked down to the Children’s Pool, and lay down to chill for some time. After a while, Erik realized there were many seals swimming up on the beach, and we could see them come and go in the water very clearly. There were crowds surrounding the seals that came on the beach, and then I found out that it was because of the pupping season. There were patrol people making sure that we didn’t get too close to them to stress them out. I didn’t know that we could see seals here, so it was a nice surprise. Katya was quietly observing them for a little while, which was so sweet 🙂 One downside of the Children’s Pool is that the bathroom is pretty nasty. If you can hold it, I highly recommend not using their bathroom.

Wrapped up our time on the beach, we walked downtown to explore La Jolla. Inspired by the beautiful view, I really wanted to buy the La Jolla ornaments. On Sunday, since stores closes early, I was unsuccessful in finding one. Though, I surprisingly found Oppenheim Group office! Is anyone a fan of Selling Sunset on Netflix? If there will be San Diego version of the show comes out, I know where it is at now 😉 There was also my favorite retailer, Ralph Lauren, which was so gorgeous I wanted to buy the entire store!

Around 5pm, we got into a New Zealand restaurant called Queenstown. It was filled with very interesting object like upside down sheep hanging from the ceiling and a very relaxing vibe with a mainly green interior. Katerina loved her kids’ drinking cups, and she was experimenting with straws lol. We ordered appetizers and a main, and I was surprised by the craving for a burger, which rarely happens to me. I think I got a “Bare Lamb Burger” and it was my first time eating a lamb burger. I liked the taste of lamb but not sure if I liked it in the burger. Still, I enjoyed the food though 🙂

Second time’s the charm; just before 7pm closing time, we made it to the 2nd location of Holy Matcha in North Park. It had more seating area and their pink sofas stole my heart! When we get a bigger house, a pink velvet sofa will be a must! I got a hot matcha drink this time, which I liked the taste better in hot! That was our last location of San Diego Family trip, and we headed back to the hotel. Just before we went to bed, Katya and I had a girl’s time with a matcha drink (Katya had milk 🙂 ) and some macarons left over. We talked some gossip and cuddled to sleep!

On May 29th, Monday – Memorial Day

We woke up early to head home, and even with one stop to get a gas and a quick bite, it took us only 8 hours to get home. There was barely any traffic, which we got so lucky. We left early to see Erik’s sister since she was visiting over the Memorial weekend out of the state. When we plan this trip, we didn’t know she was coming, but glad we could make it on time to see her before she flew out. We met up at Erik’s cousin’s house, and we also met his cousin’s newly added member, a dog called Soda Pop. Katya was following him around and got chased around. Eventually, she was exhausted from all the activity and excitement after sometime (yay!)  We got home after maybe 3 hours staying there and started to unpack and chill.

So, this is it for the trip report! Thanks for reading all the way!

To fun family trip, 

Fatima