the flower bed

My kids are in Gymnaestrada, a combination for gymnastics and dance which is usually non-competitive and done in a group. We have about 20 kids, including 4 boys, in our group, and their skills range from advanced rec to high level competitive. Most of the kids have been together for a few years now, going to Ottawa for nationals in '06 and Austria last year for Worlds. This year's trip was an extra long weekend in San Diego.

I had arranged to drop off the bird with one friend and the dog with another, and swapping the use of my car for a ride to the airport. As it happened, we didn't need that, since one of the girls was flying standby and her dad asked if I would keep an eye on her and make sure she got to the hotel alright. He also drove us to the airport and said he'd bring us home as well. Perfect!

We had an uneventful flight down on Thursday, even arriving about 12 minutes early. It's a long enough flight - 3 hours - to watch a movie, and I only scrolled through half of the choices before I saw "The Other Boleyn Girl". I'd recently read the book, loved it, but didn't get around to watching the movie. As always, it wasn't as good as the book, but it was really good all the same.

When we arrived at the San Diego airport, we split up - some to catch a shuttle and the rest of us to grab a couple of cabs. The 3 kids (my own plus Emilie) sat in the back and I sat up front with the driver, who regaled us with his views on everything from politics to the local plant life (which he knew nothing about!)

We stayed at the Crown City Inn on Coronado Island...



Because of a mix-up in the bookings, we were stuck in a smoking room with a king size bed, so we weren't too impressed, given the stale smell and the view into the back parking lot. Our door was opposite the housekeeping area and right by the path from the lot to the inner courtyard, so the noise of people coming and going was constant. Still... the room was comfortable and we had a nice selection of shampoos and soaps as well as coffee.



Perhaps the best part of the Inn was the award-winning Bistro where we had breakfast every morning. They had a nice selection of waffles, pancakes and various egg dishes, as well as the daily specials. We never did eat lunch or dinner there, but those menus looked delicious as well.

The hotel was nicely situated in the middle of Coronado Island, so we were only a few blocks walk from the passenger ferry dock with bike rentals and shops as well as a small beach and a nice view of San Diego and the aircraft carriers from the military base. (remember, Top Gun was filmed here). A few blocks the other way took us to the impressive Hotel del Coronado where Some Like it Hot was filmed.



We spent some time wandering the grounds and the lobby and lounged on the beach and swam in the waves. The sand was like icing sugar and had sparkly flecks in it, like gold dust. My son asked why we didn't stay there (rooms run over $1000 a night) so I told him to look around and see if he could spot some nice looking single man who looked like he could afford to stay there. He whipped his head around and gave me a funny look, so I laughed and said "not for you... for me!"

We never spotted any such person. :uh uh:

The kids biked around the sea wall on these cool looking things where everyone pedals and the one front person steers. It looked like fun. We shopped a fair bit in the various markets, malls and shops and managed to find some nice touristy shirts and gifts to bring home. I even found my sunscreen - Ocean Potion - the best in the world. I bought 4 bottles of it.

Sunday we spent the entire day at Sea World. We got there early enough that we could go on the Atlantis ride - and got thoroughly soaked. We had a quick bite to eat then hung around while the girls got their hair and make-up done. It was quite an assembly line, with one girl drawing silver and black stars on their cheeks, another braiding the bangs,someone else doing the pony tails and yet one more manning the hair spray. Another gal did the eye liner in purple, green or blue to match the outfits and one final person doing the mascara.

Once done, we went into the pavilion to watch session 3 which was competitive. Some of the groups were impressive. One group even came all the way from Great Britain. When they played the anthems, I sang, then listened to a few ladies in front of me ask aloud why they played "that song" for Britain. I explained that it was their anthem - God Save the Queen. She said it sounded like America the Beautiful, so I said it was the same tune. "They must have stolen it from us." she said.

Just before session 4 started, one of our coaches approached a couple of us moms and asked if we'd sing O Canada, since the CD didn't seem to be working. We said sure, but we weren't promising to impress anyone. The music did play, but we sang anyway. I think we were the only ones who not only sang our own anthem, but we sang all three.

The kids did really well in their performance, except when one girl slightly over-rotated on a throw and she landed hard on her heels and had to crawl off the floor. The upside for her - she got a wheel chair and front of the line service on the rides. Other than that, everything went well, so after they got their pins, we wandered over to the picnic area where we were given a delicious buffet lunch.

After we ate, we again split up and went to watch various shows and go on as many rides as we could. Mu daughter and I waited 90 minutes for the river raft ride, which was only about 90 seconds. Hardly worth it, but.... you still have to do it. We met up for a pizza dinner and then to watch the evening whale show, Shamu Rocks. After that, we had time for the pinniped show (otter/sea lion/walrus) which was hilarious and one last ride on the Atlantis. We then walked back to our waiting bus and returned to the hotel in time to massage our aching feet and go to bed.

The highlight of my day, of course, was meeting the lovely Nanza and her husband for an all-too-brief visit. She watched the kids preform, and even sang along with our anthem. She's a wonderful lady and I wish we'd had more time to really chat.

Monday we took one of those hop-on-hop-off double decker bus tours around San Diego and then to a Padres game and took advantage of their July dollar days - $1 each for beer and pop. Cheapest dinner on the holiday, even factoring in the price of the seats. The Padres won - a shocker - 8-5 over the D-Backs.

Tuesday we slept in and had a late breakfast before packing up to go home. We ordered a cab and a van to take us to the airport and then had to drink our water and eat our fruit in the security line-up - it's right after the check-in there, unlike YVR where you can wander around a little first.

It's nice to be home, but I would really love to go back. I'm glad we stayed in Coronado rather than in San Diego itself, because it's beautiful and laid back. I wish we'd had time to go to the Zoo and do a few other things, but it was also nice just to relax on the beach.