SoCal July 2019, hopefully live

[Mortimer Mouse]

Sounds like everyone was overtired. How long are you in San Diego for? Is your ankle back to normal now?
I'm really enjoying reading along with your trip every morning, so thanks for posting, especially if you are exhausted at the end of the day

[liz-paul]

Thanks, I'm enjoying writing it actually and looking forward to reading it back when I get home. As such it probably doesn't read like a travel blog so much as a collection of my slightly rambling thoughts from the day!

Re all of our ailments: my ankle felt pretty much better yesterday 👊 our various bits of sunburn are much better, except i got more yesterday 🤦 and the 13 year olds toe has gone from purple to blue and he is hardly limping at all 🤣

Onwards and upwards and all that, OH slept well but for some reason housekeeping didn't give us any more coffee so we're not off to a great start 😂

[liz-paul]

Day 13.

Another lie in until after 8:30 today. No rush to get out as our first plan is breakfast at the fashion Valley mall. We arrive there around 10 and end up with: OH a crepe and coffee, ds1 a chicken philly cheesesteak sandwich and fries, ds2 cheese fries and me a soya iced latte as gf free options were thin on the ground. A strange selection but it filled a hole!

We spent a couple of hours in the mall. It is very nice with lots of high end shops. All I bought was some bath and body works stuff and the boys got some lego.

Bought a pizza from the food court to take away. A whole pizza was only a couple of dollars more than 3 slices. I had some corn chips 😐

After some lunch in the room we hit the pool for the afternoon and enjoyed chilling out for a bit. After we got showered and changed and headed to old town for about 5pm. We spent 1.5 hours looking around there at the shops, buildings and some music. We had a recommendation for dinner from Amy on the San Diego thread but the queue was huge and the kids weren't too fussed on Mexican. So we opted for the cheesecake factory. Except once we got there they had a 35 min wait so we left and looked elsewhere. Ended up at the California pizza kitchen (both of these were at the fashion Valley mall which is only 5 mins from our hotel). We waited about 15 mins for a table and our meal was... Mixed. My gf cauliflower crust pizza was delicious and definitely not made from only cauliflower. Ds1s pizza was 'fine', OHs pasta was also 'fine' but they brought out the wrong pasta for ds2 which the waitress took away without offering it to him (it was the same dish just with chicken which he hadn't ordered), she the stood in the kitchen for 10 mins while a new one was made 🙄 it cam eout eventually and once he had eaten most of it I discovered it wasn't fully cooked 😕 this coupled with my bacon not being added to my pizza (which I had taken off the bill) and the fairly slow service meant I only tipped about 15%. We really should have said something but we just weren't in the mood. Cost was a little under $100 Inc tip.

All in all we probably should have joined the queue in Old town and we would have been finished sooner and with a better meal 🤔😂

A fairly slow, relaxed day which I think we all needed! We considered doing the old town trolley tour but we just needed a day to relax I think. With hindsight it would have been a good idea to do the tour on our first day and get a proper feel for San Diego which I don't think we have or will get before we leave on Monday.

Stopped at the liquor store on the way back for 6 beers and 4 mini bottles of wine: approx $26 😱😱😱 which we drank half of on our balcony while the kids went to sleep 🍺🍷

We have definitely found this to be a very expensive trip.

No photos today I'm afraid. Zoo tomorrow 🦓

[olaf38]

Originally Posted by liz-paul

Day 13.

Another lie in until after 8:30 today. No rush to get out as our first plan is breakfast at the fashion Valley mall. We arrive there around 10 and end up with: OH a crepe and coffee, ds1 a chicken philly cheesesteak sandwich and fries, ds2 cheese fries and me a soya iced latte as gf free options were thin on the ground. A strange selection but it filled a hole!

We spent a couple of hours in the mall. It is very nice with lots of high end shops. All I bought was some bath and body works stuff and the boys got some lego.

Bought a pizza from the food court to take away. A whole pizza was only a couple of dollars more than 3 slices. I had some corn chips 😐

After some lunch in the room we hit the pool for the afternoon and enjoyed chilling out for a bit. After we got showered and changed and headed to old town for about 5pm. We spent 1.5 hours looking around there at the shops, buildings and some music. We had a recommendation for dinner from Amy on the San Diego thread but the queue was huge and the kids weren't too fussed on Mexican. So we opted for the cheesecake factory. Except once we got there they had a 35 min wait so we left and looked elsewhere. Ended up at the California pizza kitchen (both of these were at the fashion Valley mall which is only 5 mins from our hotel). We waited about 15 mins for a table and our meal was... Mixed. My gf cauliflower crust pizza was delicious and definitely not made from only cauliflower. Ds1s pizza was 'fine', OHs pasta was also 'fine' but they brought out the wrong pasta for ds2 which the waitress took away without offering it to him (it was the same dish just with chicken which he hadn't ordered), she the stood in the kitchen for 10 mins while a new one was made 🙄 it cam eout eventually and once he had eaten most of it I discovered it wasn't fully cooked 😕 this coupled with my bacon not being added to my pizza (which I had taken off the bill) and the fairly slow service meant I only tipped about 15%. We really should have said something but we just weren't in the mood. Cost was a little under $100 Inc tip.

All in all we probably should have joined the queue in Old town and we would have been finished sooner and with a better meal 🤔😂

A fairly slow, relaxed day which I think we all needed! We considered doing the old town trolley tour but we just needed a day to relax I think. With hindsight it would have been a good idea to do the tour on our first day and get a proper feel for San Diego which I don't think we have or will get before we leave on Monday.

Stopped at the liquor store on the way back for 6 beers and 4 mini bottles of wine: approx $26 😱😱😱 which we drank half of on our balcony while the kids went to sleep 🍺🍷

We have definitely found this to be a very expensive trip.

No photos today I'm afraid. Zoo tomorrow 🦓

See more...

Really enjoyed reading your trip. We are staying at the Handlery in August, is it ok?

[OB1LukeLucas]

Just discovered your report this morning so had a mammoth catch up. I’ve really enjoyed reading it. I’m pleased your ankle is recovering it’s so frustrating when you hurt yourself on holiday. I’ve managed to do this twice, both times flip flops were to blame thankfully I didn’t need crutches but I certainly never got to experience enough of Vegas than I should have Being stuck in the Bellagio watching the fountains with your ankle wrapped in ice is probably not the worst place to spend some time I found my ankle improved really quickly once I walked along the beach through the ocean, I’m not sure the sea was really any miracle cure!
I love the photos from your Air bnb the piano looks really cool. I’m looking forward to hearing more about your holiday, thanks for sharing it so far

[liz-paul]

Originally Posted by olaf38

Really enjoyed reading your trip. We are staying at the Handlery in August, is it ok?

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Hi, the handlery is fine. I will try and snap a few pics and post them before we leave and I'll do a mini review as well but in summary:

Room: 2 double beds and a reasonable amount of space. I did request a rollaway bed when booking but didn't mention it at check in and when we got to the room I decided it would be tight for space anyway. Our room is a premier one which has a balcony which is nice. Ours looks over the pool, some look over the car park 😐

Pool is nice, nothing wow or terrible.

Restaurant and bar are fine. Not a massive selection and a bit expensive but what we had in there was nice.

Parking is plentiful and $15 per night.

Location: only a 2 min drive to the fashion Valley mall which has a food court and several restaurants Inc cheesecake factory, pf changs, an Italian, a Mexican and a few others. You could also walk to this mall in about 15 mins, there are pavements the whole way. The zoo and old town are only 10 min drives, Midway was about 15/20 mins. Its not a very exciting location in itself but has good driving access to most places pretty quickly.

It's a sort of motel style with external corridors and I don't think there are lifts to the 2nd floor. We just lugged our cases up.

Hope this helps, photos will follow.

[liz-paul]

Day 14. Our final day

Alarm was set 7 and when it went off I woke up and everyone else carried on snoozing! By 7:45 everyone was pretty much awake and by 8.30 we were parked in a little parking lot in Hillcrest near to the fig tree cafe. We went here because in the space of a single block there were places for breakfast that came recommended and had gf options. These were the fig tree, Subterranean Coffee and snooze am. There is also a gf bakery called starry Lane here but sadly it didn't open until 10 😭 we paid $5 for an hours parking, there may have been cheaper places but we were in a hurry.

We ate in the fig tree and it was delicious with lots of gf options. I had eggs benedict on gf bread with breakfast potatoes. These are cooked in a shared fryer but I am generally OK with that so I had them. Came to around $70 Inc tip. I ate all of mine and it wasn't huge but everyone else left between 1/2 and 1/3 of their food, portions were shareable of many things.

Next up the zoo. This was only a few minutes drive away. We arrived at 9:50 and there was lots of available parking. When we left at 3:45 there was some available parking. We all enjoyed the zoo, it really is a good day out. We started with the bus tour so only had a 5 min wait. We had a look at most but not all of the zoo during the 6 hours were there. For lunch we had 2 pizza slices, a wrap and refillable drink for approx $45 😱😱😱😱 I was shocked at the prices to be honest. I didn't eat as I had read online that gf option s were thin on the ground and I couldn't be bothered trekking round looking for something. We had a couple of snacks with us that I ate.

For the budget conscious I saved $5 per head with a leaflet I picked up at our hotel. The cashier also charged me for a child for ds1 even though I told her he was 13.

After the zoo we came back to the hotel for swimming for the others and some packing for me.

For dinner we went to souplantation which is the California version of sweet tomatoes. It was in point Loma, about a 10 min drive away. Around $47 for the 4 of us and really nice food. Although I wished I had taken more salad at the start as it was so busy I didn't really feel I could go round again. Cashier charged me for a child again for ds1 despite me telling her his age (and he's a big lad), so that saved another few quid...

Back to the hotel for some night time (freezing) which the kids, esp ds2 thought was pretty cool 😁 no idea what to do tomorrow between checking out and dropping our car off in lax around 5pm...

A couple of random pics from the zoo. I will say that I really regretted not taking my dslr camera to the zoo as there were some great opportunities for photography.

[Edie ray]

I have been enjoyed reading all about your holiday,
some places I have been to, some I have not, I do have a soft spot for San Diego though we absolutely loved it there!

Have a great last day, if it was me I would drive the coast road and stop off at Laguna, Newport and end up in Manhattan beach, they have a great ice cream shop there, enjoy whatever you do, have a safe trip home

[Rockycat]

I’m really enjoying your trip report, it’s great to read about the different places you are visiting. Thank you for taking the time to write it.

[olaf38]

Originally Posted by liz-paul

Hi, the handlery is fine. I will try and snap a few pics and post them before we leave and I'll do a mini review as well but in summary:

Room: 2 double beds and a reasonable amount of space. I did request a rollaway bed when booking but didn't mention it at check in and when we got to the room I decided it would be tight for space anyway. Our room is a premier one which has a balcony which is nice. Ours looks over the pool, some look over the car park 😐

Pool is nice, nothing wow or terrible.

Restaurant and bar are fine. Not a massive selection and a bit expensive but what we had in there was nice.

Parking is plentiful and $15 per night.

Location: only a 2 min drive to the fashion Valley mall which has a food court and several restaurants Inc cheesecake factory, pf changs, an Italian, a Mexican and a few others. You could also walk to this mall in about 15 mins, there are pavements the whole way. The zoo and old town are only 10 min drives, Midway was about 15/20 mins. Its not a very exciting location in itself but has good driving access to most places pretty quickly.

It's a sort of motel style with external corridors and I don't think there are lifts to the 2nd floor. We just lugged our cases up.

Hope this helps, photos will follow.

See more...

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this, I really wasn't expecting that thankyou.
I hope you enjoy the rest of your trip and have a safe journey home.