Visiting San Diego

I love Southern California. It is one of my favorite places to visit - possibly because we lived there until I was in third grade and I spent every summer and vacation at my dad’s place near Escondido up through high school. So in many ways, it still feels like “home” to me, although I’ve gotten to experience my favorite places all over again and in a different way when we visit now with the kids. 

I'm often asked for trip advice for the San Diego area - beyond the major attractions. 

The San Diego area has a lot to offer, and there's plenty to do without to make it a destination in it's own right, rather than a simple side trip from Anaheim. Here’s a rundown with links to some of my favorite San Diego / SoCal places to go and things to do:

No matter what your political affiliation, the Ronald Regan Library in Simi Valley is a pretty neat stop - you can see both Air Force One and Marine One and the Berlin Wall Display is very good.

There's also an In n Out Burger nearby!   om nom nom!

SeaWorld San Diego http://seaworldparks.com/en/seaworld-sandiego

USS Midway http://www.midway.org/ right near downtown San Diego. My kids LOVE this floating museum on a aircraft carrier:

Take a Hornblower cruise – brunch, dinner, whale watching and more to choose from, departing from downtown San Diego http://www.hornblower.com/port/category/sd+tours

If there is a San Diego "don't miss" I would say it is Balboa Park http://www.balboapark.org/

Not just one, but several different museums and gardens, located near the Zoo. There’s also a great miniature railroad and carousel that kids will love.

San Diego Zoo http://www.sandiegozoo.org/

Right where I grew up is the San Diego Wild Animal Park (now the San Diego Zoo Safai Park) where you can take a zip line or tour open enclosures http://www.sdzsafaripark.org/   

 While you're out there, stop at the San Pasqual Valley Museum and visit the the site of a battle featuring Kit Carson. Then visit the San Pasqual Valley Ranch for roping and riding lessons or take in a team penning or roping as a spectator  http://www.callspvr.com/index.html

Head on up the highway to the Ramona Rodeo http://ramonarodeo.net/ 

if the time of year is right. While you've got your cowboy boots on, you can also

Go Dancing – at InCahoots http://www.incahoots.com/ If you want to learn to two-step, swing or line dance, they offer free lessons (don’t bring the kids though).

Visit Julian –  Go for Julian Apple Days http://www.jma.memberlodge.org/appledays

Or visit the Camel Dairy http://www.cameldairy.com/  or other attractions at this quaint California town. 

For a little excitement, go to the Del Mar Races to catch a live horserace http://www.dmtc.com/ (kids are allowed in some areas but no betting!) 

At the right time of year you can also catch the San Diego County Fair  http://www.sdfair.com/

 

Old Town San Diego is fun to shop and eat http://www.oldtownsandiegoguide.com/

If you want some fabulous Italian food, visit Filippi’s in Little Italy http://www.realcheesepizza.com/web/locations/SD.html

Catch a ball game! Admission is usually fairly inexpensive for the "cheap seats" and the weather is almost always beautiful to see the Padres play http://sandiego.padres.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=sd

Lego Land is just a short drive a bit north of San Diego in Oceanside and a lot of fun, especially for kids 3-12 http://california.legoland.com/ they also have a waterpark and Sea Life Aquarium – it isn’t Sea World but is worth checking out.

Bates Nut Farm is also a little bit of a drive, but a fun stop http://batesnutfarm.biz/

 

Learn to Surf at San Diego Surfing Academy

 

Or just check out these good beaches -

Point Loma Beach – great for hiking

Mission Beach – crowded but a fun beachy vibe

Pacific Beach near La Jolla

Children’s Beach in La Jolla is a great place to see Harbour Seals. 

The Pacific Ocean tends to be pretty cold, so if you're visiting in the winter, don't plan on swimming without a wetsuit. 

For the ultimate place to stay, there’s the Hotel Del:

http://www.hoteldel.com/ one of the most iconic hotels ever. You could also just stop for a meal, but it is a neat place to check out.

SKIP any wine tasting in Temecula! If you want great wines, try Julian or better yet, Sonoma.

For more ideas or help planning your next vacation, contact me at www.nwfamilyvacations.com!

Why A Cruise is Right for You

Why go on a cruise?

I'm sitting on a lunch break at my day job (the one that pays the bills, as opposed to the travel agent one that I do for the fun of it) and I am longing to be on a cruise right now. This day has been really stressful and awful - people asking a lot of me. But when I get home there are little people asking a lot of me there too. I spend a lot of my time doing things for other people, mostly because I want to, but sometimes I really want to take some time for myself and that's hard to do with so many demands for my time and energy. Even at home I tend to always be doing something and it is hard to just sit and relax. That's what a cruise is for me - relaxing. I don't have to worry about anything, the food is there if you're hungry, my kids can go be entertained by someone else for a little while, and there are plenty of things to do or not do, depending on my mood.

As you might have guessed, I hate to be bored, I love to have a lot of different things going on and I crave diversity in my day to day activities. It's hard for me to relax because I get bored easily.
That what a cruise is for me - not boring. I can always find something to entertain me on a cruise ship - be it a wine tasting, a show, an enriching lecture, or climbing a rock wall, there's plenty to do.

Norwegian Jade

Also as much as I love to travel, I loathe hassle, especially when I'm traveling with my kids. One of the best things about a cruise is getting to go to new places without a lot of the travel hassle - Unpack once and let the ship take you to the next destination. We can get off and do the Rick Steves thing and explore all the off the beaten path points of interest without having to worry about planes, trains, automobiles, and questionable hotels. Many of the ports that I've visited are a bit of a challenge to get to by other means. That's what a cruise is for me - hassle free travel to interesting places.

You can take a trip and you can go on vacation, the two aren't necessarily the same thing. For me a cruise is always a vacation. Today I'm counting the weeks and months until my next sailing and looking forward to a good book, a comfy chair overlooking the ocean, and an attentive waiter bringing me drinks.

I'd love to travel vicariously through you, and Norwegian has a great sale on now through Friday, so if you feel like giving me a mini-escape and talking some travel, I would love the distraction! Call me at 509.307.2446, email, or check out the deal on my website.

BYOW

Have Vino, Will Travel

I often take my own wine when traveling, especially when we cruise. 

I’m lucky to live in the Yakima-Columbia Valley area of Washington State where great wines are plentiful and, especially if you belong to a wine club, relatively inexpensive. We also visit Napa and Sonoma with some regularity and have some of our favorites shipped to us by the case a few times a year. I’m not a wine snob, but I know what I like and I have a good idea of what wine costs. 

Sometimes I bring my own wine because there is a particular vintage that I want to enjoy on a special night, or sometimes it is because I plan to open a bottle to have in our stateroom when cruising. Often, we bring our own wine to avoid the ridiculous markup that many cruise lines and restaurants charge- sometimes 400% or more over wholesale (not kidding!). I do my homework and figure out if my bottle is going to be a better deal after factoring corkage fees than what’s on the wine list where I’m going, many times makes sense to BYOW (Bring Your Own Wine). 

When cruising, the BYOW policy of the cruise line is important to know and understand. I print a copy to take with me on embarkation day, just in case there’s ever a question about the policy when boarding.

Recently we sailed on Royal Caribbean and were allowed to bring two bottles of wine per stateroom. It didn’t matter how long we were going for or how many people were in the room. There was a corkage fee to drink our wine in the restaurants of $25 but we wouldn’t have had to pay this if we enjoyed our wine in our stateroom. By contrast, Norwegian Cruise Line doesn’t have a limit on the number of bottles that we were allowed, and the corkage fee was only $15 per bottle, but the fee was charged to us when we boarded the ship regardless of where the wine was consumed - so I paid a corkage fee for wine that I uncorked myself in my room. Disney Cruise Lines allows passengers to BYOW with no limit (except a corkage fee applies in their specialty restaurant) Disney is unique in that hard alcohol can also be brought onboard. Some luxury cruises are truly all inclusive and then BYOW probably isn’t worth the trouble. 

If you are planning to BYOW, you should also plan to carry on for the cruise – exactly the opposite of what one would do when flying. Because you want to bring your wine through security with you and have it checked in. If you put it in your checked bags, not only do you run the risk of having your bottles manhandled and possibly damaged, but there is also a very strong likelihood that you will get to spend some quality time with the security guys in the "naughty room" who will want to know why you’re sneaking booze aboard the cruise ship. 

For about $40 you can get a two bottle wine travel case similar to this one I found at www.winevine-imports.com Just remember if you’re flying to your point of embarkation, the wine has to go in your checked bags on the plane and should be carried on when your board the cruise ship. 

If you’re really hardcore, you could get something like this case, which would also make sense if you are visiting a wine region and want to bring wine home with you. (Did you know that if you fly Alaska Airlines to Washington Wine Country they will let you check a case of wine FREE with their taste and tote program?

Of course, when picking your vintages, you should account for the jostling of travel and go with a bottle that isn’t particularly fragile in terms of contents – a delicate library wine for example would best be enjoyed at home, and anything sparkling might be a tricky traveler too. Another option is to locate a wine store at your embarkation point where you can get the goods before you board the ship.

Anytime you BYOW to a restaurant or specialty dining venue on the cruise ship you want to make sure that your wine isn’t already on their wine list. It’s also nice to offer the sommelier a taste of what you brought, especially if you’re cruising because if they know what you enjoy they may be able to recommend other wines that you might like to try as well. 

I always try to balance the BYOW with the opportunity to try new things, especially when traveling, so don’t BYOW for every meal, but if you do your homework or ask your travel agent, it might make sense to BYOW sometimes to save a little money and perhaps enjoy a wine that you know and love rather than choosing blindly from a overpriced wine list.