The Baima Family Blog: San Diego: PETCO Park and Maritime Museum

The family recently spent 9 days in the southern California area. It was a fantastic vacation - full of both sightseeing and relaxation, with many many happy memories made by all. I took over 500 pictures during this time, and while I will bore you with a great many of them through many postings, I have done my best to narrow them down.

On our first full day in San Diego, we took the ferry from Coronado Island to the baseball park. The kids had such a good time both waiting on the pier for the ferry and on the ferry. Here is a picture of the San Diego skyline. As you can see, it is a beautiful day - as every single day was. Highs in the mid 70s, lows in the 60s, sunny, no humidity...perfect.

We watched the Padres win over the Orioles on our trip (well, we made it through the 3rd inning so we didn't actually witness the win). It was a baseball glove give-away on the day we went, which thrilled the kids. PETCO Park was fun to explore, but it has nothing on Busch Stadium. The real downer for the stadium (in my opinion) was that fans are not allowed to return to their seats while a play is occurring. The ushers will stand at the top of the aisles holding signs asking fans to wait until the end of the play, and when it is done you have to rush past them so they don't cut off the line again when the next play starts. Sorry, I didn't think I was at the opera! OK - that is my vent for the trip. However, if we do return to PETCO with the kids I will buy tickets for the bleachers - there are a TON of kid activities around the bleachers and there is a huge sandbox between the seats and the field's fence for the kids.

We went to the game on Father's Day (and Joe and my 12th wedding anniversary!), and were lucky enough to meet the Padre and his father while exploring the stadium.

Joe and the kids in front of Tony Gwynn's statue. This statue is in a large field area (still within the ballpark) where people can purchase extremely cheap tickets, bring a blanket and a picnic and watch the game on a huge screen.

After the ballgame, we took a trolley to the Maritime Museum in Seaport Village. This is a floating museum - 7 real and replica ships to board and explore. The kids had a blast! Here are Joe, Ethan, and Olivia on the Star of India from 1863.

The kids playing on a kid-size ship inside the Star of India. Olivia was the captain and Ethan happily swabbed the decks.

Still aboard the Star of India (I think - the ships began to blur together after awhile!) attempting to steer.

Hoist the sails!

The Star of India.

This is the B-39, a Soviet Attack Submarine. This picture pretty much sums up Olivia's view of this sub - "the stinky small sub". It was rather smelly. I cannot imagine spending longer than an hour in a sub, much less weeks/months at a time! At first the kids really liked the submarine, but as we continued exploring the sub it appeared that the kids became a bit claustrophobic and we began to quickly walk through it to the exit! However, it must have made some sort of an impression on them as they continue to talk about the sub (not always in a negative way)!