The Joys of Boogie Boarding and Reasonably Priced Wetsuit Rentals

Day 3 of our vacation, and our only firm plan was a two hour harbor cruise that was set to leave the dock at 3pm. The rest of the day was open. We decided to leave the room early (9am) and head to Mission Beach. Shannon had some money she had saved up, and what she really wanted to do was go boogie boarding, and we had promised her that she could. So we loaded up towels, sunscreen and sand toys and headed off. We got to Mission Beach and got all set up on our little patch of sand, and Steve and Shannon went here and rented a boogie board.

I had no idea how much it was going to cost, but I figured ok, tourists are the only ones who rent this stuff, people who live here have their own stuff, this place is right on the beach, it's going to be expensive. Steve and Shannon came out with the board, and since she was spending her own money, I didn't even ask how much it was. Shannon took her board and went out, in the 60 degree water. That kid is nuts, but she was having a great time.

After about a half hour, she got pretty cold and came and asked me if she could please rent a wetsuit. She was having so much fun and I really wanted her be able to keep at it, so I said yes, thinking yet again that this would probably cost a lot. But, how often do they ever get to do something like this? Steve and Shannon went back to the surf rental place to get her a wetsuit. Steve called me from his cellphone from the rental shop to ask me something, I forget what, but I finally asked the price. I about dropped the phone in shock when he told me it was only $7 an hour for the board, and another $7 an hour for the wetsuit. I thought it would be so much more. So I told him for that price, I was sending Danni up to the shop too to get her outfitted with a board and wetsuit. In the meantime, Kylie had found friends. There was a family of four boys, I'm guessing their ages at about 2, 4, 6 and 8. She had fun playing with them.

Back from the surf shop, Danni and Shannon are now outfitted in proper boogie boarding gear:

And they hit the waves. They had such a great time. I think if you asked either one of them what the best part of the vacation was, they would both say this was it. Here are a couple of short video clips of them riding the waves:

They stayed out for two hours, and when they went to return the boards and wetsuits to the surf shop, the owner of the shop only charged us for the first hour, and not the second. So, two boogie boards and two wetsuits for two hours? $28. Watching my kids ride the waves? Priceless. I know this wouldn't be a big deal to anyone that lives anywhere near an ocean, but since we live in the desert, this was heaven for them.

The kids also wanted to browse the shops near the beach, and they wanted to ride on the roller coaster. So we packed up our stuff, and got a quick lunch on the beach, shopped a little bit, and headed over to the roller coaster. Danni and Shannon took a ride on the coaster:



While Kylie went for a spin on the merry-go-round.



After that, we headed back to the room so the girls could change. We got over to the harbor downtown in plenty of time for our cruise. On the cruise you see a lot of navy ships and other things I couldn't even begin to identify. I had to have Steve help me make captions for all those pictures, because if left up to me, they would all say "Navy Ship", or "Another Navy Ship". Shannon took most of the pictures from the boat, so there are a lot of ships. I did take a beautiful picture of the San Diego skyline though:



After our cruise, we went to dinner at ... Outback of course, because we had that gift card. It was actually a $200 gift card, and somehow I thought the five of us would get three meals out of that. I'm not sure what I was thinking, but we did get two nice meals. :) We also watched the first part of the first NLDS game, Diamondbacks v. Cubs, since Outback has TVs in the restaurant. After dinner, we went back to our room to continue watching our Dbacks beat the the Cubs. Woohoo! Once again, no fighting with Kylie to go to sleep, as she crashed soon after we got back to the hotel.

For all the pictures from the beach and the cruise, click here:

Mission Beach and Harbor Cruise

Up Next: The San Diego Zoo and Coronado Island
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Panda Bears, Koalas and the Sunset That Wasn't