Blueberry Patch: San Diego

After leaving Albuquerque, Ava and I flew to San Diego to meet up with Jake. He was there for a meeting for work, so Ava and I decided to stowaway on his trip. What a fantastic time we had!

Ava loved the pool (thankfully it was heated). She was practicing "swimming":

We also checked out Mission Bay one afternoon. The water was a little warmer than the ocean, and the waves much calmer. There was some seaweed washed up on the shore when we got there, and Ava announced, "Look! There are nesties!" I guess they did kind of look like nests.

While Jake was finishing up his meeting, Ava and I hit the San Diego Zoo. What an amazing zoo! She really loved the elephants, and of course the tiger was a big hit as well. She is currently obsessed with Bengal Tigers specifically, because The Wonder Pets "save" one by removing a thorn from its paw in one of her movies. We now play the game probably 20 times a day where she pretends one of us has a thorn ("forn") in our hand and the other one has to pull it out.

After the zoo, we hit Mission Beach to play in the Pacific for a little bit. We ate some delicious fish tacos on the beach, and then Ava and Daddy played in the water. It was pretty cold, so I just stayed on camera duty. Ava charged right into the ocean as soon as we got there...a humorous contrast from Aidan who was terrified when he realized he actually had to get into the pool at swimming lessons. :)

The next day we went to Sea World, which I think was probably Ava's favorite. The dolphins came right up to her, and one of them playfully splashed her in the face. She thought that was great.

Here she is waving to the sea turtles:

Loving the dolphins:

Showing off her dolphin face painting:

Ava was thrilled to meet Elmo. She wasn't too sure about The Count, but was definitely a big fan of Elmo. This is reassuring that she won't freak out when we go to Disney World next month. :)