Although mom came out to help us move to Temecula back in May of 215, she never really had a chance to explore it. So, as anyone from Wisconsin would, she confirmed her visit for the dark days of a midwest winter. I started planning on things to do, and living here in Southern California, I really had to cut back on activities. There was no way to do everything on just one visit. In our discussions prior to her arrival, there were a few things that were definite "to do's," and the rest we were just going to play by ear.
DAY 1:
Mom arrived into San Diego on Thursday morning at 9am, so it made the best sense to spend the day there. We decided on the San Diego Zoo. I love this zoo, and I would go with anyone! This visit marked my 3rd trip to the zoo, and my first in 2 years. The zoo is constantly changing, so I knew I would see something new this time around! The zoo is literally just 10 minutes away from the airport, but our time to get there doubled as we had to drive to the opposite side of the zoo to park! We were still there by 9:30am! It's always nice to go to these attractions on a weekday; that way we are able to avoid all the weekend families!
Mom and I started out by taking an open-air bus tour around the zoo, to kind of get a feel for all the exhibits. The bus tour was included into the price of admission, and it was narrated, so we got a history lesson to boot! The bus tour took us around to all the major exhibits including the polar bears, hippos, elephants, and giraffes, among others. The bus stopped at most of those exhibits, allowing the passengers to take plenty of pictures. Mom and I secured back row seats on the upper level of the bus, so the views were pretty much unobstructed to the exhibits as the bus drove away. We got some great shots!
After the bus tour, we circled exhibits that we wanted to take a closer look at, but it turned out that as we were en-route to see those select exhibits, we ended up seeing almost every exhibit the zoo had to offer! We started our trek on the Monkey Trail to the Lost Jungle, seeing all species of monkeys, including orangutans and a family of gorillas. It was really cool to see the monkeys moving from tree to tree and rope to rope so swiftly! Also in the Lost Jungle were the Pink Flamingos! I love the look of them!
From the monkey's, we headed up to the hippos. They had a huge enclosure mostly made up of a big pool, but when we arrived, the hippos were out of the pool and enjoying the warm sunshine! Smart hippos!
Further along in our trek was one of my favorite exhibits, Panda Canyon. The Panda's are a highly sought-after exhibit and the lines to see them are usually really long, so this was actually my very first time getting up close and personal with the Panda's! There was only 1 panda out at the time we were there, but all the while, it kept pacing back and forth in the enclosure giving us a great view of this awesome creature! There was even a narrator there to tell us all about this animal while we were there! Definitely worth the wait to see the Panda Bear!!
After a short reprieve for lunch, we made our way to the Northern Frontier where the Polar Bears were housed! When we walked there, the polar's were in feeding and we couldn't view them, but when we went by their enclosure on the bus tour, there was one enjoying the sun and one swimming around in their pool! In this instance, I'm glad we took the bus tour!
The San Diego Zoo has a Skyfari ride throughout the park, where you can take an open-air ride from one end of the zoo to the other high above all the exhibits in a cable car. This was also included with the purchase of our ticket. It was nice to get off our feet for a while, and we even saw a great view of the San Diego Skyline!
When we got off the Skyfari ride, we headed for the Elephant Odyssey, another favorite exhibit of mine. It's so amazing to see these mammoth animals in person. Just the way they are created and the way they move is a sight to see. We were able to see them interacting with each other, and we took the time to watch a bunch of them eat. They were eating full tree branches, and if the branches were too big for them, they would take the branch in their trunks and bang it against the ground or a fence until the branch broke. It was pretty fascinating to see this happen!
Walking past the Elephant Odyssey, we came to the Outback, all the animals that come from Down Under. This included a new exhibit of Tazmanian Devils, and my all-time favorite (drum roll please), KOALAS! I just love how they look so cuddly and cute, and I love the way that they curl up to trees to sleep. Each koala was doing just that, sleeping, but they sure made for great photo opportunities!
Our last stop at the zoo was the Urban Jungle, which housed the rhino and giraffe exhibit, and also included cheetahs and leopards! The rhino's were just as interesting to see in person as the elephants, but we spent most of our Urban Jungle time at the giraffe enclosure. The giraffe's were in a huge area with a total of around 8-12 of the long-necks. This area was set up with very low fences, so it felt like we were eye to eye with them when they bent down! We were able to see them also interact with each other and of course eat. One interesting thing I noticed when they ate was that their knees would buckle inwards! That was kind of cool!
Our day at the zoo was really fun, and we definitely got our money's worth with all the animals that we saw! We are lucky to have the biggest zoo in the country in my backyard practically! We left San Diego just at the beginning of rush hour, so we were able to make the hour drive north to Temecula without much traffic interruption! After mom got settled in at our apartment, we were able to relax by the hot tub, and that evening Robbie joined us for dinner after he got done with work. It was early to bed for both mom and I after all the miles we put on at the zoo!
DAY 2:
Mom's second day here started with a little hiccup in the schedule as our planned Friday morning activity was pushed off until Saturday. However, that meant that we were able to sleep in a little bit longer than we would've otherwise, and we just switched our Friday and Saturday activities around! Problem solved!
We started our morning with some warm sunshine on our patio, which mom loved! We then casually headed over to Old Town Temecula around mid-morning. Old Town consists of a walk-able street lined with a bunch of locally-owned stores and antique shops. I knew this was right up mom's alley! This was my very first visit in Old Town since we've lived here, so it was going to be new to both of us! After a recommendation of where to park, we were hitting the ground running!
Mom and I have very different ways of shopping. Usually when I go to the mall, I like to go by myself at my own pace, and my arm really does need to be twisted in order to do it. My philosophy is, I will only go shopping if I absolutely need something, or if I have a day for a "spree." And usually a spree for me means window shopping just to see what's out there. Mom has a much different approach to shopping. For lunch in Old Town, we at a Mexican place called The Bank. As the name states, this restaurant actually used to be an old bank, and it still had a vault in it! Mom even took home a margarita glass that had the name on it, fittingly, because she works at a bank! We shopped for about another hour, then it was back on the road to the beach!
Oceanside is one of my favorite beaches, and I will never pass up an opportunity to come here! Oceanside is about 45 minutes away, but it seemed like we were there in no time! It was a little chilly in the late afternoon by the water, but the sun was still very warm, so we laid out for about an hour. It was glorious!
After a short walk on the beach, we headed to the end of the pier in time to watch the sun set! After all the sunsets we have seen from the pier, there will never be a bad one, including this night! I particularly enjoy watching the sunset reflections in the clouds! It always enhances them! After the sunset, we ate at Ruby's on the pier, and then made our way back to Temecula. One thing I always hate about SoCal is the traffic. There really is no such thing as "rush hour" because rush hour seems to last forever, and we found that out first-hand on our way back. We left Oceanside around 6:30pm, and traffic was free-flowing until we hit the I-15 North. We only drive for 10 miles north on the I-15 after turning off a state highway, but this time it looked like a parking lot. It reminded me of the time we were on the roads in Minneapolis in the ice storm, the winter before we moved south ironically! There was so much traffic on this road, and it took us 45 minutes to go just 10 miles! The traffic patterns in Southern California are mind-boggling! Anywho, shortly after we got home, it was early to bed because we had a very early morning ahead of us!
Saturday morning Mom and I were making our 25 year dream a reality. That dream: going for a Hot Air Balloon Ride!! For as long as I can remember, a hot air balloon ride has been on our bucket list. I recall a birthday card from mom when I was turning 7 or 8 years old. That card had a picture of hot air balloons on the front, and inside she wrote, "one day that will be us!" Well, best things come to those who wait (and to those who get up before the crack of dawn)! A little background; when reading up on Temecula before we moved here, we found out that each year they have a Hot Air Balloon festival in June, and they also fly throughout the year as well, taking us above the city and above beautiful wine country! When I told mom about this, it was a given that when she comes to visit, that will be the #1 priority! We initially had reservations to fly on Friday morning, but due to another large group booking, the balloon company was thoughtful enough to put us in a balloon with less people for the next day. Being we had a pretty flexible schedule, we accepted the change.
Our instructions were to check into the Europa Winery between 6:15 and 6:30am, which meant my wake-up call was at 5:30am, allowing me to hit the snooze button a few times. Luckily we are only 10 minutes away from wine country, so it wasn't all that bad. There were about 20 people who signed up for this sunrise balloon ride, but they split us up into 2 groups to go up in 2 different balloons. They transported us from the winery to a huge field, near the eastern edge of the Temecula city limits to set up the balloon.
There were already a few other balloons taking shape in that field when we arrived, and the set-up process of the balloon was pretty cool to see. They transported the basket and folded-up balloon on a trailer to the set-up sight. After we were parked, they laid the balloon and basket on the ground on a tarp. Then they secure the balloon to the basket, and start pumping hot air into the balloon so it could start taking shape! When the balloon starts lifting off the ground, they turned the basket right-side-up. After the balloon is stable enough, that's when they start filling it up with its passengers! We had 10 people plus the pilot in our basket, which was divided into 2 sides, making 5 people on each side. Getting into the basket was no easy feat, as it only had 3 small foot holes cut into the side. I was glad when the pilot told us there was no graceful way to get in. I practically rolled up and over into the basket. Haha!
After we got in and situated, it was up, up, up and away!! Take-off was very smooth, and soon we were soaring over Temecula! Our dreams were now a reality! We took off just after sunrise, and it was shaping up to be the perfect morning! We couldn't have asked for better conditions to fly! The winds that morning were light and heading in the easterly direction, which was in our favor, because to the east was wine country! We could see everything from Pechanga Resort and Casino (Robbie's place of employment) to the south, the San Jacinto mountains to the Northeast, and wine country below us and as far as the eye could see! We had around an hour in the air to take it all in, and to top it off, our pilot was very knowledgeable of the area, and answered many questions along the way! As we were floating in the sky, we counted 13 other balloons that were sharing in the same experience! It was one of the best experiences of my life with my mom!
The balloon van was following us along the way, and when we touched down, they were right there with a crew to quickly disassemble everything. The crew actually guided our basket right into the trailer! Clever. We were able to watch the whole thing go down, literally. In a matter of 10 minutes, there was zero evidence of our ride!
The van transported all of the passengers back to the winery for a light breakfast and Mimosa's to make a toast! Each of us even got Honorary Aeronautic certificates! The hot air balloon ride memories will stick with me for the rest of my life! It was a fabulous experience!!
After a short rest at our apartment, we headed right back to wine country for an afternoon of Winery-hopping! We started out at the very first winery I ever went to, the Robert Renzoni Winery. We came back here because the food is wonderful and it was lunchtime. We had a perfect day of mid-70 temps, so we enjoyed lunch outdoors, overlooking the vineyards! It was the best! After the first winery, we headed to the Monte de Oro Winery, one of the newest wineries in Temecula! The views from this winery were amazing, and it also included a view to the barrel room below from a glass floor in this winery! From Monte de Oro, we headed back towards home, but there were still several wineries between! Our next stop was Wein's Winery. A cool thing in each winery is a small gift shop area in each tasting room. It was fun to see the trinkets at each winery! After Wein's, we went to one of the oldest wineries, Hart Winery! This was a very small winery, but it was busy, and it had a great view as well! Our last winery we visited was the Europa Winery, where we started our day with the hot air balloon experience. Even though neither of us took advantage of the tastings that were offered, it was still fun to experience each one! We got back to the apartment in late afternoon and we both took a well-deserved nap! For dinner, mom, Robbie and I went to a restaurant in the casino, then we taught mom the fun board game Ticket To Ride! It was another early night only because of the early morning we had. But what a great day it was!
DAY 4:
Sunday was a cool rainy day, so most of the day was spent doing indoor activities. The day started out by making brunch at our apartment. Brunch has evolved into a tradition when mom visits. We always make enough food to last us until dinner! Our brunch included French Toast, hashbrowns, bacon, fried eggs, and chocolate milk to top it off! It was delicious!
We found out that the Temecula Community Theater was doing a production of Beauty and the Beast in Old Town during mom's visit, so we figured the rainy day would be the perfect time to go! When we got there, we realized the production was going to be done by Temecula's junior population. Cool! The unfortunate thing about this is that the production came to a halt at intermission due to a power outage! Dang! They were doing such an incredible job. Luckily I know how the story ends! The rest of the rainy evening was spent relaxing at home!
DAY 5:
Monday was mom's getaway day, but luckily her flight wasn't due out until Monday evening, so we still had a good chunk of the day to spend together! She was flying out of San Diego, and we decided to spend the day there, so we were closer to the airport when mom had to be there to check in. Our plan was to explore Coronado Island, just across the bridge from downtown! I had only been to Coronado Island once for like 2 minutes, and that was just for the purpose of driving across the bridge! The bridge is always tricky to cross because it bends to the right halfway across, and it gets windy because of the height! We found a nice beach online that was supposed to have a great view of the bridge and downtown, so after we were on the Island, we navigated around to find it. Let me just tell you, the roads on the Island are very hard to navigate. The streets are nowhere near grid form, and there are half streets all over the place. We even came to a 5-way stop!! Needless to say, this beach was pretty hard to find, and we ended up at the military base! Haha! We were able to turn around, and the beach was right next door, but the street that it was "supposedly" on did not exist! Dumb Island living! The beach did offer a really good view of the Coronado Island Bridge, however!
From the beach, we walked along the marina to a cute little boathouse to have lunch. We got there just in time to get a window seat right on the marina. Not even 10 minutes after we sat down, the lunch crowd started pouring in! Our lunch was served as 2 authentic seafood dishes! Excellent!
We still had a few hours to kill, so we walked just a couple short blocks to the Hotel del Coronado, a beautiful and old hotel situated right on the beach. We spent some time wandering around inside, and were able to take in some views of the courtyard! It is just what I imagined a beach hotel to look like! After wandering around inside, we walked outside on the beach, which was just as beautiful!
Sadly, mom's time in Southern California was coming to an end, and I just did not want to bring her to the airport. Those 5 days went by so quickly, but I'm left with so many memories with her! The good news is that Southern California will always be here for her to visit! Next time, DISNEY! :)
