Day 11 - Driving to San Francisco

Wednesday, March 31st

Not a single picture was taken today.  I was a little tired and sore from my sunburn and the drive was very long.  Ian was amazing though and drove the entire way to Lynnwood which is 20 miles from downtown San Francisco.

We got in to the hotel about 7 pm - I wasn't sure if we would make it into the Bay area as the drive through the LA area on I-5 was rather slow at times.  I really would hate to see that area during a rush hour as we were there around 11 and it was a slow go.

Early to bed tonight!  Bubba Gump's and Pier 39 are on the agenda for Thursday!

Day 10 - His Dream Land ....

Tuesday, March 30th

Yesterday, we went to one of my dream places ... the San Diego Zoo.  Today, we headed out to Legoland.  Until meeting Ian, I didn't know it was possible to own as much lego as Ian had as child and teenager.  There are pictures of him building bridges across the backyard in Nova Scotia ... he might have been more a manchild by then. 

So, off to Legoland we go .........

LEGOLAND California - one of the 4 or 5 Legolands in the world .... I wonder if Ian will want to conquer them all?

Bob the Builder

Miniland was amazing and really the Lego highlight of the part.  The next several photos are all from Miniland.

The White House, the band moved!

Ian in all his glory

New Orleans during Mardi Gras

This was one of my favorite buildings in the French Quarter when I was in New Orleans.  The Lego version is so near the real thing, I wish I had the NO pictures on this computer to compare.

Back in Vegas.

The Strip

The Golden Gate Bridge - San Francisco is our next destination.

Pier 39 in San Fran on our list of places to visit ... look at the sea lions on the docks on the right side.

Buildings of New York, you can see me pushing the stroller in this picture.  Notice how big the structures are around me as I was at the same level as them.

Seattle Space Needle, our last US city stop on this trip

After MiniLand, Ian took a break with a buddy and we were off to find some lunch but, we stumbled across a kids area and Hailey got pretty stimulated!

She was so excited ... this lego exhibit combined her favorite things music and water.

The instruments played music and water came out the spouts if you jumped on the pad/circles you see on the ground.

After lunch, we were off to go on a couple rides but with an almost 9 mo old baby that involves a couple very slow boat rides.

The first boat ride took us through an enchanted forest of nursery rhyme/storybook characters.  I picked out my two favorites.

Enjoying the boat ride.

Fairy Godmother as every girl needs one of these.

Sleeping Beauty - this was so life like.

Hailey enjoying the park in her ride with her monkey from the San Diego Zoo.

On to the next boat ride.

This boat had a driver and fit about 30 people or so.  It took your through a canal at the park and showed you some lego structures you really could only see from the boat.

Sydney Opera House

Taj Mahal

Eiffel Tower

Mount Rushmore, if you look at Washington closely you will see he is getting a bit of q-tip cleaning.

New York City in MiniLand - you can really only see Lady Liberty well from the boat.  We thought it was interesting that they have the new building that will be built to replace the Twin Towers in the sky line.

After the big boat ride, we walked around a bit but it was getting really hot and Hailey was ready for her nap.  Ian took about 250 pictures at Legoland so although I have uploaded a lot it doesn't even touch on what is on the hard drive.

An interesting tidbit of the day: I rubbed Hailey down with SPF 55 so she didn't get an ounce of red color however, her parents aren't as smart.  Ian and I were a bit red and hot come evening.  Ian's scalp was burnt, I had a slight line on my forehead where I must of missed with foundation and my part was burnt of course.  My arms are a bit red but nothing serious ....... I will remember to do myself from now on ... no more red.....

We are off to San Francisco in the morning.  A long drive a head of us - north on I-5.

***NOTE***

Our families have been reading about our trip via my blog posts so although we are home - it is now April 13th and I am just posting March 30th, I am going to continue posting about the rest of our trip as I know our families are waiting for the pictures and it is great journalling for my scrapbook pages down the road.

Day 9 - San Diego Zoo

Monday, March 29th

The San Diego Zoo has always been a dream of mine to visit.  I love zoos.  Up until now, I've only been to the Animal Park in Moose Jaw (basically farm animals and a few wild animals locked up), The Calgary Zoo and the Zoo in Oklahoma City Zoo.  So, to be visiting a world renowned zoo was going to be interesting.

We arrived at 10 am and already the parking lot was pretty full.  It appears the week before Easter is Spring Break for alot of the California and area schools.  The zoo was 100 acres and just massive.  We started off taking the bus tour around the zoo which takes you through a lot of the major exhibits from the side without all the high cages.  Hailey was pretty excited throughout, we aren't sure how many of the animals she actually saw and what exactly she was so excited about but she made it until 3 pm without a nap and was definitely a happy baby.

The cute little hat that didn't last long.  It is amazing how our little HAT hate hats!

The Polar Bear Plunge is a new area at the SD Zoo.  The female bear was really active when we wheeled by on the bus.

Ian scoped out what side of the bus we should be on and well it was choosen wrong.  So, a lot of pictures have some fine heads in them that aren't ours!

The grizzly bears were having a little fighting fun.

Always one of my favorites.  The long necked mammals.

After the bus ride we took off on foot to explore the different areas of the zoo.

And I thought I had cankles when I was pregnant.  This hippo took the cake.

Hailey loved watching the monkeys with her Daddy.

Sitting with a hippo.

SD Zoo is one of the few zoos in the US that has Giant Pandas.  There was an amazing viewing area and in the next area even a baby of 8 months old.  This gal was breed and raised in the US is just over 3 years old and will be going back to China and the wild later this year.

A ride back from the far end of the park on the sky ride was quite exciting for Hailey and I did well at the extreme hieght.  That was the end of the Zoo for us.  It was a great day in the sun.

A drive around the harbor while baby girl had a nap and some pictures of Sharpie to prove we were here.

Day 8 - California here we come

Sunday, March 28th

The Tompkins' are off to California for the first time.  Neither Ian and I have ever been to the Sunshine State so, we were very excited.  However, leaving Vegas on a Sunday with all the other Cali-bound cars might not have been the best idea. 

Since, leaving Las Vegas we have not been without traffic everywhere around us on the freeways and interstates.  The drive to San Diego was definitely a journey.  We did leave Vegas a little later than we had planned after days of Hailey getting up at 7:30, she slept until 9:30 - I guess baby girl was wiped out from her Vegas adventures.

Lots of traffic but it was a gorgeous drive.  We paced through so many different terrians.

Then things got green!  We were out of the desert.

We got in to San Diego before supper. Hailey was happy to be out of the car so she was a crawling machine around the hotel room. 

We are staying on North Harbor Drive so, we went out for a walk on the bay boardwalk and had some fresh fish and chips. YUM!  The plan for Monday is to tour the San Diego Zoo, I have always wanted to go to this zoo. 

Day 7 - Vegas Show n' Shine

Saturday, March 27

Have you ever wondered why laundromat is spelled with an 'o' - you don't say an 'o' sound.  Ian and I both being engineer tend to have bad spelling.  We left on Saturday morning to go out to do the laundry.  I type laundry into the GPS and we went on to find all the various laundry services for the Vegas hotels.  After figuring out how to spell laundromat and 45 minutes of driving in circles we were at a laundromat.  An hour later the clothes were folded and we'd enjoyed a Starbucks. 

We were then off on a Poker Run.  There were 3 community cards and we had to visit 4 locations to get a card at each.  Our favorite stop was the famous Welcome to Vegas sign. 

A long line of people were here all waiting to get their turn in front of the sign.

And just to have proof that we had Sharpie there.

We ended up with 8S, QS, 3D, 8D and the community cards were a Wild, K and Q (can't remember suits) - so the best we could do was a full house queens over eights however, the guy in front of me turning in his cards had a FH with kings over queens so I knew we were already beat.  But, we had a great time.  Ian also won a door prize of a circuit for his card for the window toggle.

It was then time for the show n' shine car show.  There were lots and lots of Cooper S but Ian entered his car.  Below are a few of our favorite cars.

The star of our vacation.

I love the decal of the flag on the side panels on this one.  I'm working on convincing Ian to do this one but white on the black car.

And our favorite classic.  We have been waiting for the owners of this car to be around for days.  As you can't see it here but you will understand when you see the next picture.

Hailey's got her own ride.  She was so excited in this little car that Ian and I ended up having to take pictures with her.  I have one on her own but I am going to have to do some photoshop work on them.  Apparently this car was bought at Costco online in blue and the classic owner made it up as a replic of his classic.  Hailey loved this car and of course, she has her MINI pooper shirt on.  We got her a new onsie from one of the vendors that she can wear in the future it reads 'Future MINI driver'.

Well, that was Vegas in a nutshell.  Tomorrow, is Sunday and we are off on our trip to San Diego.  Really the next leg of our adventures are just beginning ..... San Diego, San Fran, Oregon, Seattle .... and a visit with my Aunt and Uncle in Hope, BC ... then Calgay bound.  Another week and half at least.