San Diego - Day 5 - Point Loma/Cabrillo National Monument and Balboa Park

Friday was our last day in California! It was a short trip but well worth it and we really made the most of it. We decided to make one more outing that morning to the Point Loma tide pools and then up to Cabrillo National Monument (same location). When we got there though, the tide was high so the tide pools weren't a huge success. Despite that though, the girls loved hiking around the cliffs of Point Loma so we stayed for a little while hiking around.

Even while hiking around a bit in wetter area though we found some little crabs coming out of the rocks.

There were both cliff-like areas to climb, and flatter, drier areas as well.

(Eleanor holding up the lighthouse)

True to pretty much all of San Diego so far, it was just gorgeous scenery as far as the eye could see.

From there we went up to Cabrillo National Monument and the lighthouse on the top of Point Loma. There were views of Coronado (we were looking at Point Loma from Coronado Beach our first day in San Diego) and downtown San Diego from way up there.

We toured the lighthouse up there but the pictures inside were mostly boring. They did have a really cool spiral staircase up there though.

We were all already getting tired and ready for lunch but we decided to squeeze in a short trip to Balboa Park, another place we wanted to see, so that after naps we could just hang around Lauren's place, go swimming in their pool, and relax the rest of our trip. Eleanor had been carrying this baby doll around that Lauren had for the whole day and enjoyed riding with her.

We didn't stay too long, but the architecture and set up of this place was incredible. There were museums everywhere, fountains, botanical gardens, etc. It was almost like a more sculpted National Mall (in D.C.).

There was also a live statue, which was quite amusing, especially to Eleanor! It was a guy dressed head to toe in something that looked like copper, and he would strike poses and stay super still. He must have been so hot. He looked like he was going fishing.

From there we headed home for naps. After naps my cousin Michael (who also lives in San Diego) came over for the afternoon! We hadn't seen him in around six years we think (four of which he spent in Alaska), so it was really nice to see him and catch up a bit. We went swimming at Lauren and Eric's pool where Eleanor showed off her new swimming abilities to everyone and then we headed up to order pizza and watch a movie together.

The next morning, we sadly had to head to the airport. Eleanor and Jane spent some time playing with Uncle Benny on some phone game.

And, of course, I had to take a picture of the girls' favorite part of their apartment, the elevators!

It was so sad saying goodbye, even though we know we'll see them again some time around the holidays :( :(

Goodbye Auntie Lo and Uncle Benny! We had a great time with you and are so sad we couldn't stay with you forever - you were excellent hosts! Eleanor especially loved sleeping in her "secret room" (a walk-in closet) and Jane loved having her own "kib" (crib). We miss you guys already!!

Overall the girls did fairly well on the time change. We had a bad experience last time we took just Eleanor to California, so I was a little hesitant this time, but far more protective of them getting enough sleep, which ended up making the entire trip less stressful and easier. We hope we get a chance to go back to visit!