Graduation Celebration Vacation Part 1: Getting there.

About a year ago I had a fabulous idea. I decided that we needed a vacation. For real. We hadn't been on an actual vacation, one that didn't revolve around taking someone's pictures, or attending a mission farewell, or making up for a dad-let-down, in years. All three of us had been so busy working and sacrificing for me to go to school, we hadn't had time, or frankly, the funds for a REAL vacation. So I talked to my kids about the possibilities, and the "Graduation, Celebration, Vacation" was born. They were instantly on board, and brain stormed all the possibilities. Some were good - a cruise to the Bahamas. Some were not so good - a trip to the moon. Finally we narrowed down the possibilities, invited some friends (and my parents who both enthusiastically declined) and started planning. In the end we hit a bit of an impass. We wanted to spend a week on the beach. Our friends wanted to spend a week at Disneyland. Luckily for us we found something fantastic, which made the choice for us. It was the CityPass. While searching for cheap tickets, our friend Cassie found the Southern California City Pass. It included tickets for three park hopper tickets to Disney, including one magic morning, a day at Universal Studios, a Day at the San Diego Zoo, and a day at Sea World. And as an added bonus it included little extras like discounts on food, discounts on shows in the parks, and free rides on the sky tram at the zoo. We searched an searched for discounted ticket prices, and in the end the City Pass saved us a couple of hundred dollars over the best deal we could find. And there's a City Pass for a lot of different places, so if you're planning a trip check them out HERE, and see if they have some deals for your location. So we decided to rent a house on the beach in San Diego for a few days, (to appease me) while we hit the attractions there, and then head up to Anahiem for the rest of the vacation to go to Disney and Universal. It was the greatest! We had so much fun! The next several posts will be full of pictures, details, trip tips, and adventures. I realize that not all of you care much about our vacation- it's really more for my own records than anything, so if you are one of those, come back in a couple of weeks and I will be back to blogging about our every day life. There's your warning.

So DAY #1
We met in Moab at 6AM ready to hit the road. We were so excited! So we set out, and drove... and drove... and drove some more.  (Don't judge the quality of these pictures, they were taken with my phone while driving down the freeway - I'm thinking I need a co-pilot next time)

Through the nothingness of Utah...

And briefly, the nothingness of Arizona...

Followed by the nothingness of Nevada... (We did have a bit of excitement just outside of Vegas. I was on the phone for a meeting for work, I had a car sick girl who I had just forced to eat Kentucky Fried Chicken because I told her she was just hungry and greasy, crispy chicken would make her feel better...  SO NOT TRUE... and then Levi, who I was trying to follow kept flipping U turns in the middle of freeway on-ramps and then leaving me behind not knowing where he was going with my GPS yelling at me to turn around... not the best few moments of the trip...)

But we figured it out and drove a few more hours through the nothingness of California, which looked quite like the nothingness of Nevada until all of a sudden IT DIDN'T! It looked like wall to wall traffic in the middle of rush hour! (No pictures, for obvious reasons)

But we made it through that mess only getting lost a couple of times, and ended up on a beautiful drive into San Diego. It was spectacular. I wouldn't mind living there, at all. 

We found our darling beach house tucked in tightly with a bunch of other beach houses. It was crowded without much parking, and the house wasn't much  to look at, but just as promised, it was just steps away from the beach, and the view was phenomenal. We shopped around a lot when looking for a house on the beach and there were two sites we found that were reliable, and helpful - Vacation Rentals By Owner and Home Away they are both sites by the same company, but they have different listings and prices, so check them both out - They have listings everywhere, not just Southern California.

See, cute, with tons of character. Where I'm standing to take this picture, I'm literally on the sand of the beach. It was an unbelievable location. 

And tune in soon for part two of the Graduation Celebration Vacation, which I promise will be more fun, and less business, with much better pictures.