The Chronicles of Kortman: San Diego County Vacation

We spent July 12-19 2009 in Ramona California (in San Diego County). We stayed at the San Diego Country Estates. I had no idea what to expect. The drive out to California was wonderful with the 2 boys. We woke them up at 4:00 AM, gave them some dramamine and we were set! They slept the first 5- 6 hours. It was very "interesting" to say the least after we got off the main interstate and onto the road that took us out to Ramona. The road went forever into the middle of nowhere, it weaved and climbed through the mountains. Then after about 15 miles, we arrived in Ramona. It is a smaller, quaint city that really has a "small town country feeling". The 2 bedroom condo we stayed in was amazing.

There were 2 huge master bedrooms, and high vaulted ceilings, and each bedroom had it's own private balcony. The boys were in heaven. The walk out to the main clubhouse/pool/exercise room was kinda cool, you had to walk around the maze of 15+ tennis courts. The boys loved this walk because we'd usually see lizards that they'd try and catch running around the ground cover. We spent at least 2-3 hours/day out at the pool, Ramona was sooooooo HOT.

I had to maintain my 5.5 mile run every other day and fell in love with the state of the art exercise room they had in the clubhouse. I enjoyed running on the treadmill as I watched these amazing little kids at tennis camp practice. We visited Mission Beach, which was a crappy beach. It was so overcrowded and there were huge piles of nasty/stinky fly infested seaweed everywhere. We also took a trip to Old Town San Diego where we decided to tour one of the most haunted houses in America, the Whaley House. It's actually a historical landmark. We did not see any ghosts but I did catch a strange looking "orb" around Gage in this picture. The ghost of Mr. Whaley has been sighted numerous times standing at the top of the staircase, where Gage is sitting (creepy huh).

Then we walked around Old Town San Diego for like 30 minutes because the boys hated it and were so ready to go to the beach. We decided to eat at an Old Town Mexican Restaurant, but the one we chose to eat at was just sub-par food. But we loved the ambiance.

We also spent a day at the World Famous San Diego Zoo. It was such a wonderful/amazing experience. The first time any of us had every been there - so new to all. We loved all the various walking paths off the main roads through the zoo. We definately got our exercise in that day. The boys really liked all the open-air aviaries throughout the zoo. The animals were amazing and very active. I just cannot rave enough about this zoo. Kinda makes me greatful we have an ok zoo here locally in Salt Lake. I will definately visit San Diego Zoo again someday.

So were were walking out of the zoo and noticed a sign and arrow stating the "Balboa Train Ride" was this way. So of course we had to go check it out because we had a curly haired train loving freak with us. It was Gage's dream come true. For only $2, you could ride on this cute little train around this little park. Gage was in his element. I let both Gage and Brock go 2 times. If I would have let him, Gage would have rode it over and over for the next 10 hours. I was the meanest mom when I made them leave with me. Here is some video footage of the boys on the train.

We went to Legoland too. For those of you who have never been, this is not a place for kids who love thrill rides. Brock just began liking roller coasters in the Spring of 2008, and really thought the rides were very juvenile! However, Gage LOVED all the rides, they were really geared towards the younger ones. The rides were very cute though. I was the proudest mother in the world when we went on the "scariest" ride there, the Dragon roller coaster and Gage cheered during the whole ride and even lifted his arms above his head. A lil guy after my own heart! The thing Jon and I loved most is looking at the many Lego Structures - especially the Las Vegas Strip (way cool). This was our first time visiting Legoland as well. Don't think we'll be going back there again, but we did enjoy it and the new experiences.

We unknowingly saved the best for last. The original plan for our last full day (Saturday)was to just chill and relax at the condo and let the boys swim all day. At the last minute, we decided to wake up at 5 AM and travel to Coronado Island at the suggestion of a friend from highschool. He told me to go to Coronado Beach just behind Hotel Del Coronado and go to the tide pool. WOW! It was amazing. There were 100's of crabs of differing sizes from the size of 1/2 my pinky finger nail to the size of Jon's fist. There were also tiny sea anenomies and star fish. It was so much fun to climb among the boulders and look at the crabs. I also loved this beach because there were so many unbroken sand dollars that we collected. The boys were entertained for hours. The US Open Sand Castle Building costest was also on Coronado Island at Imperial Beach, so we went to that beach as well. Not much going on there, only 1 team had started "sculpting" their sand masterpiece. The beaches at Coronado Island were nothing short of amazing, the sand at both beaches was golden. What I mean by that, is there were gold flecks all throughout the sand that made it beautiful. I wish I would have kept a small jar of sand.

It was a wonderful vacation. I cannot wait to go back and stay another week in Ramona and go back to Coronado Island. I am so glad that we are members of a pretty decent vacation club and can stay there for a great deal. Many fun memories made that will last a lifetime.