Eric Turns 40 - San Diego 2024 - Jan 22-23 2024 (Travel to Palm Springs and home)

 It was raining hard this morning.  We were expecting rain, but not this much rain.  There was flooding warnings, and wow did the water just keep pooling in the yard.

We headed to Denny's close to the house for breakfast, got Krispy Kreme donuts, and packed up at the house. 

We left the house to take the crew to the airport before AA and Lola headed back to Palm Springs.  And wow it was flooding... we are lucky we got to the airport the way we did, we passed a lot of flooded streets and cars stuck in the flood waters.  

Successfully we dropped the group at the San Diego Airport, and tried to make our way to shake shack for lunch.  Little did we know how much flooding there would be, after unsuccessfully trying to get to a shake shack, we navigated north, to try and get out of the flood water.

It was still raining quite a bit, but AA found a mall with a shake shack, and Lola got her last burger before heading to palm springs.

The drive was scenic as we headed back to Palm Springs through the mountains.  We stopped at a little hike that was in between the 2 mountains, Santa Rosa and San Jacinto, at a monument, but we couldn't see much as the clouds were rolling in into the valley, but the plants and views around were great, and nice to get out of the van for a little bit.

Made it to Palm Springs after driving very slowly through the thickest fog we have ever been through. (no photos as it was white nuckles trying to navigate through the twists and turns in the fog.

Once in Palm Springs we headed to our hotel were we got upgraded to a corner suite.  It was still raining, and even the ducks were hiding from the rain.

We went to Boozehounds for dinner, where we had a great meal, but had to go through the flooded streets to get there.

Once back at the hotel, we tried the top golf simulator and got 15 minutes in the hot tub.

In the morning the views were amazing from our hotel room, and it was hard to head to the airport, and had an uneventful flight home.  It was cold when we got home, but we had a great trip!  See where we go for Eric's 50th...

Eric Turns 40 - San Diego 2024 - Jan 21 2024 (San Diego Zoo)

 Today's weather was a little rainy, but we made the best of it, as it was our last full day in San Diego. We made sure to be there when the park opened to be able to see it all.  We got our maps and headed to see the animal's. The zoo is huge, and hard to describe how big it is. It is also on a large valley, so you have to make sure you get on the correct levels.

We explored the whole zoo, and hard to explain all the animals we saw. We also rode the gondola down the hill, took the bus back to see the hippos we missed the first time around, and made sure to check off all the animals A had written down in her book from watching the tv show about the zoo.

We at lunch at Albert's Restaurant that was in the tree tops.  The food was really good.

Ended the day at the gift shop, where the girls were excited to spend the rest of their money they got from their grandparents for the trip.

We ordered food in from Pacific Beach Fish Shop.  The food was so good, with us all having fish. While we waited for the food, the kids and AA and Lola went into the hot tub, and then back into the hot tub after dinner.

We played more video games once the kids went to bed, and packed as we were leaving the house the next day.