We got back from our mini-vacation on Sunday, and we are leaving again for a trip to Michigan on Wednesday. The girls are starting to think their entire lives are just one big vacation!

Our San Diego trip was a little spontaneous but we managed to snag a good “last minute” deal at a pretty nice resort on Coronado, which is also called Coronado Island, but I think is technically an isthmus…it is connected to San Diego by a little bit of land. At any rate, very cool little downtown. Pretty nice resort. This was the view from our window…

…of course just to the left was the parking lot, so it is all about selective viewing, here.

We found a bagel shop and had our Saturday morning bagel ritual and headed out to the San Diego Zoo. Which, if the animals have to be caged up and on display, the SD Zoo does a pretty good job of it.

The zoo had just started a program on Friday where you can pay to feed the giraffes, which happens to be my favorite animal at the zoo. Nice timing on our part, totally not planned, but we did get to feed them, which was really cool. Let me tell you, they are very, very TALL.

J. makes fun of me when I said that, “Um, what a profound statement: giraffes are tall!” But although they are very gentle, it is slightly intimidating to have this animal literally towering over the top of you and reach down to take a “biscuit” out of your hand.

Em did great and really loved it, Ad acted all tough until she looked up and the giraffe started down towards her, then she quickly handed her biscuit to me and said, “Dohwanna, Mama!”

These little guys gave the giraffes a run for their money in my book, though. I could watch the meerkats all day (and yes, I’ve been known to watch Meerkat Manor mesmerized for hours as well).

Addie’s favorite was the flamingos, or “mingos”…

Em’s favorite was the Reptile House. Yes, you read that correctly. She drove us crazy with her “are we going to see the reptiles, yet?” We stupidly made it the last stop. Will not make that mistake again. She kept asking Daddy to take her picture with the snakes. Addie thought we were talking about “snacks” and got antsy, so she and I only made it halfway through before we went out for some snacks.

I think Daddy’s favorite was probably the monkeys. Here are my two monkeys watching the monkeys in the cages…

After the zoo we tried the pool (too cold!), Em got her hair braided (took forever and ‘Nise does a much better job) and tried to rest in the room (most unsuccessfully), but the light through our balcony was very pretty so I got to practice taking photos of the girls.

Then we had ice cream for dinner!

Granted we had a very late lunch, so it wasn’t like we only had ice cream in our bellies when we went to bed. But the ice cream and a romp on the beach, plus all of the ocean-fresh air helped everyone sleep very soundly that night.

Tomorrow, I’ll fill you in on our experience at Legoland…and the second day of our San Diego excursion. In the meantime I have a few more hundred photos to go through…