San Diego Trip- USS Midway and Seal Tour

 The third day of our trip we decided to start out with a walk around Shelter Island:

Along our way we found a park that the kids played at for a bit:

The kids also found lots of trees along the way that they had fun climbing:

We also saw the marina side, along with some other hotels:

We also saw this sculpture in honor of the tuna trade that used to be big in San Diego:

Later that afternoon we toured the USS Midway, a retired aircraft carrier harbored in San Diego bay. They still had some Christmas decorations up as well:

We saw a whole bunch of rooms in the underneath part of the ship, including a ready room:

And we saw the planes on the top deck/ runway:

The kids enjoyed playing with the controls of the command center:

They fulfilled a scavenger hunt, and thus became honorary junior pilots of the USS Midway:

That night we went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Old Town San Diego called Barra Barra. Ryan really loved it, and said it was taking him right back to the food from his mission in Southern Texas:

We also saw some Christmas singers and statues in Old Town:

We ended the night with a quick visit to the San Diego temple. Man, that temple is tall! And SO beautiful:

The next morning (New Year's Eve) we checked out of our hotel and headed back over to Seaport Village for our Seal tour. While we waited for our bus, we rented a 6-person bike to ride along the marina there. It was seriously a highlight of the trip! Many, many people laughed at us as we pedaled by, since I'm sure we were quite a sight to see. It was so fun, especially since Ryan did most of the pedaling :)

Then it was time for our seal tour on an amphibious vehicle. It was a boat ride through part of San Diego, then the same bus goes in the water in San Diego Bay:

It was fun being out on the water like that!

We saw lots of seals:

We also saw the Navy training dolphins and sea lions. I didn't even know they did that! So cool to see!

The kids got to touch an abalone shell and some real seaweed!

We left for home right after the seal tour, and stopped for the night near St. George. We drove straight home the next day (New Year's), and were glad to be home. But we did have an awesome time in San Diego, even with the setbacks of coughing kids and crazy traffic!