Oceanside

Oceanside
Originally uploaded by Thomas W-P

A small update on our travels by Thomas:

The arrival was smooth through customs but chaotic afterwards.. uphill through a tunnel with our three huge trolleys. One (Tamsin's) inevitably collapsed, and as I rushed to help my hastily parked trolley (through fog of fatigue) started to roll backwards down the slope to screams of 'look out for the child' from the gallery above. It was all fine though. A porter leaped in to help. E was brilliant and stayed very calm. We filled the Hertz bus with luggage to much amusement from the rest of the occupants; until they found they were packed in! I had to order some dopey passengers to move up the bus to make room for the luggage in the end.

We got a massive car. EASILY fit the luggage in the boot (nothing in with us, and I could see out of the back). We were all ravenous despite it being 2am and got navi to get us en route to San Diego whilst keeping a beady eye out for somewhere to eat. The fact we got an identifiable, quick, tasty, sit down meal at a reasonable price now seems quite miraculous as we have since bailed out from meals at the door stage because various of the above criteria have not been fulfilled, particularly 'identifiable' and 'sit down'.

It was two more hours from when we stopped and I toughed out the driving. I idly wondered what the stats were on post long haul drives as I grappled with an unfamiliar and enormous car travelling at 65mph next to massive trucks on the wrong side of the road at 4am Thomas time.

At first sight the hotel was a little worrying but as we gave settled in we have got used to it and it is pretty good. The best rooms are 'beach' ones, but they are very expensive I suspect. Modern decor, flat panel TVs etc. We were more bargain basement with the dated electrics and weird 80s decor. But we can see the bay and walk to the public (park) beach 50m away. The pool was lovely and *almost* Tamsin temperature. We worked out how to make tea using a microwave and a paper pepsi cup, and this made us happy since the coffee here is universally awful (so far).

The pacific beach is lovely but we hardly spent any time there because the hotel one is less crowded, safer, and has a playground. And we have spent two days in Seaworld.

Seaworld is all you'd expect from the name. Water based animals and rides. They have a massive area aimed at 2-8 year olds which all three enjoyed. Elizabeth is somewhat anti rides after going on a very traditional (creaky wooden) rollercoaster by Mission Beach, so the gentle kiddy rides were right down her street. The killer whale show was fabulous in a showbizzy sort of way. The kids lapped it up of course and we went back the next day. E, A and I had been drenched (my pants were full of water, and not in the US sense of the word) earlier in the day whilst on a wild rapids ride. This meant E and I (A too cold) sat in the front row of the soak zone where the whales splash you. H decided this looked fun so sat with us. I was unconvinced she knew what was coming, but she had it all worked out and complained whe we didn't get wet early on. She was so excited when we did get soaked by icy salty water from a 2 tonne whale 3m away that she started dancing for joy. It was delightful though quite offputting if you were trying to watch the show whilst stop her falling off her seat to the concrete floor. We ate lobster for dinner. They deal with the kids meals so much better here. Cheap and simple fare that comes quickly. I was still damp when we got home. Glad to get a fresh set of clothes on!

The next day we headed to spend the day with Peter. Great fun mucking around at his house and swimming in the community pool. We hatched a plan to sleep on their floor last night and checked out of the Bahia a day early. Yesterday was spend almost entirely at the Pacific Ocean at a beach called Oceanside. The kids loved it. Elizabeth enthralled by boogie-boarding ('Fun with a capital F'), Harriet swallowing half the Ocean but coming up with a smile.

Today - off to Disneyland...