Cali Trip Day Two: San Diego zoo, Coronado Island and La Jolla

Our second day in California was definitely the busiest one. We got up around 7:30, got ready and went to breakfast at a place called Pipe's in San Clemente. They have the biggest burritos I've ever seen, but they were SO good. Then, we headed south towards San Diego. I really wanted to take Laine to the zoo there and was excited to see one of the most popular zoos in the US. When we got there the temperature was a cool 72 degrees, but once the cloud cover disappeared the temp skyrocketed to around 90 and it was very warm. I haven't mentioned yet that Cali was experiencing some sort of heat wave while we were there, so the "average" temps were not experienced by us :( The San Diego zoo is HUGE, so we decided to take a bus to most of the stops. We saw all the typical zoo animals and rode a Skyfari from one end of the park to the other. Laine had a blast, but by the end of the trip she wanted to be held which is understandable..I wanted to be held too. After the zoo, we got back in the car and drove out to Coronado Island. It's absolutely beautiful there. You go over this long bridge and then drive in to one of most lush, green and busy places in California. There were people everywhere and shops and beautiful hotels. We ate lunch at the Hotel Del which is a historic hotel on the beach. We checked out the inside of the hotel where the courtyard is and took some pics by these beautiful plants and trees. There was a live band playing at one of the outdoor restaurants, so we had a drink there and people watched. Then we walked out to the beach and took some pics. We had a two hour parking spot, so we couldn't spend a ton of time, but we had fun anyway. I think we went to California during the busiest tourist time of the year because everywhere we went it was jam-packed with people, including La Jolla. La Jolla is one of the most amazing places I've ever been to and I definitely want to go back. It's home to the Torrey Pines golf course, so if I can get Jackson to go next time then I'm sure he'll want to play a round of golf there. Like all the other places, we had to drive around for awhile until we found a place to park, but once we did and I saw the beauty that La Jolla has I understood why it was so crowded. We walked down to the beach, but stopped in this lush green field area first and Laine had a ball chasing all the seagulls and pigeons. After walking down a pretty slippery and sandy path we stood on these huge rocks and watched seals swim with people who were snorkeling and it was awesome. The seals would come within feet of the snorkelers and then come up out of the water and bark. I couldn't believe how pretty it was there. We walked down to this cove area and watched people swim in this crystal clear water and explore in this cave that was right by the cove area. High tide was coming in though so we didn't stay down there for too long since we didn't have our bathing suits on and the water was pretty cold. We walked back up towards the shopping and I bought a really cute hat at the Roxy store. It's funny how style is so different from here. Roxy and Ripcurl are the most popular brands out there it seems. I'm pretty sure La Jolla was my most favorite place on our trip because of how pretty everything is and the laid back feel of the city. Day three consists of Dana Point's baby beach, Paddle boarding and Laguna Beach! Laine and Matt on the bus at the zoo

Hotel Del's courtyard

View of the ocean from our table at Hotel Del

My first view of La Jolla!

This is the beautiful field that overlooked the ocean. I know it looks like just a field, but it was so incredible.

Here's that cave near the cove. High tide was starting to push water in to it, so most of the people had cleared out by the time I took this pic.