GUIDE TO SAN DIEGO

B E S T B E A C H E S

what we come for

Coronado. Our favorite with small kids. Spaced out, long shoreline, small waves, ample free parking. There is a paved path by the main life guard station all the way to the beach, which is a lifesaver if you’re pushing a double stroller. So many places to walk to for lunch. We were here all the time.

Mission Beach/Pacific Beach. Another favorite with kids. Shorter walk to the ocean from a paved path. Mission Beach connects to Pacific Beach, and together they make up a giant stretch of shoreline with a two mile boardwalk for running/walking/strollering along the water. I ran it many days and the kids loved it. Also near our favorite playground.

La Jolla. A few beaches in La Jolla and tide pools and seal watching. La Jolla Cove Beach is small area with a beautiful view, lots of scuba divers and swimmers to watch, and a cool cave to explore. We also loved Windandsea Beach, soft sand, wide open, not too crowded, and little cove areas acted as kind of natural separation for people to keep their distance. We tried Wipeout Beach on another day and found it is aptly named, great for the views, but I don’t recommend it with little kids for the wave size and hard to get down there with all the boulder climbing.

Ocean beach is also fun but a little more grungy. We tried it one foggy morning and watched some surfers. Home to a really cute tiny local ceramics shop MAEK.

P L A Y G R O U N D S

besides the beach, our favorite places to play

Pro tip: hit the parks early, like before 9am, and on a weekday to avoid the crowds. Many times we were the only ones there.

Maruta Gardener Playground. Mission Beach in Bonita Cove. New as of November 2020, beautiful, and amazing! So many things for various ages and ADA accessible. There is a paved path that I ran with the kids in the stroller to South Mission Beach, and it is exactly one mile from the playground. This was our very favorite San Diego park we found.

Waterfront park. Big and updated. Really amazing view, right by the water. Lots of slides and swings and things to climb. Walkable if you’re staying downtown.

Pepper Grove. Right in the center of Balboa Park. Large free parking lot nearby, two structures.

6th Avenue. The other larger Balboa Park playground. One updated climbing area, another older playground.

Tweet Street Linear Park. Tiny little park hidden in downtown. Feels very city life with lots of apartment dwellers and dog walkers.

Linda Vista Skate Park. Trey requested this one afternoon. This park is only three years old, and the second largest skate park in California! Better for older kids but still fun to watch, and a playground nearby.

City of Coronado Skate Park. Not actually a skate park! But we found a little playground next to the water here. Spreckels Park on Orange Ave in Coronado is a neat little grassy area with a little playground too.

E A T S & D R I N K S

AKA all the best tacos, coffee & ice cream

Oscar’s Mexican Seafood. Two locations, we got take out from one in Pacific Beach. Ceviche is $7. Loved it.

Ocean 57. Medican Seafood food truck that’s changed hands a few times, confusing to find online. Located in the Target parking lot in South Park, just a block south of the second Communal Coffee. I loved it. $1.80 fish tacos (can you ever beat that?), I had the fish ceviche and the shrimp, and the fish was the best - just $3!

Clayton’s Mexican Takeout. Coronado. Next door to Clayton’s Coffee, which is more of a diner. Carne Asada tacos are $4. Love their green salsa and they gave us a lot which is my favorite.

The Taco Stand. A few locations, the downtown one is just a few blocks from us so I walked there one day. Another one with $4 carne asada tacos and with lots of salsas, the best.

Fat Fish. Pacific Beach on Mission Blvd. A daily HH that changes. We had the $2.50 fish tacos on Thursdays (not GF) and the $4 (!!) margs. A block from the beach.

El Chignon. In Gaslamp Quarter downtown. We walked here one night and it was really fun. The Gaslamp district is closed to cars for a few blocks right now so that restaurants can do all outdoors seating in the streets. So nice with a double stroller. Our kids did surprisingly and amazingly well for eating out, and they have some great HH specials. We had $6 margs and $5 rolled tacos, and our kids were thrilled about the bacon wrapped hot dog. Free chips and two house made salsas too.

Tahini. Our friends ordered take out from here for a park picnic and it was so great. Featured on Food Network, authentic Middle Eastern street food made from scratch, no cans! I had a chicken schawarma salad and loved it.

Communal Coffee. North Park is the original (with the “COFFEE + FLOWERS” painted side that you may have seen on Instagram) and then their second location in South Park. South Park is my favorite! All outdoor seating, and you order from a remodeled little white camper that looks like it maybe could be a wedding venue. Great with kids. There is a darling, curated, local shop they also own next door full of pretty things.

Moo Time Ice Cream. Coronado. My kids love the “silly vanilly,” a bright blue vanilla. Sugar cones are free.

Salt and Straw. Doesn’t feel entirely local since we have one in Seattle and there are multiple locations, but there is one downtown in Little Italy, and it was fun and novel for us to get to walk to ice cream. A few vegan options and lots of unique flavor combinations.

Babboi Natural Gelato. We went to the one in La Jolla, there are two others. Our favorite! Organic and amazing flavors and they’ll split a scoop in two cups for free. We took ours to the grassy park overlooking the ocean just a block away.

The Donut Bar. Downtown. Walkable for us which is super fun. Award winning donuts, not GF, but big and uniquely designed. Trey picked out a giant unicorn one and it just about made his whole life.

Baked Bear. We went on a different trip a few years back, and it’s still there! In Pacific Beach, a fun ice cream sandwich shop.

Trader Joes’s. We joke that the success of our vacations depend on the proximity to a Trader Joe’s. We love it there! So nice being able to cook when traveling. The Liberty Station one near Point Loma is my favorite, followed by the Westfield Mission Valley, both have lots of parking and wider aisles. There is also a University Ave one, but it’s much smaller.

Enjoy! We loved our time there and look forward to being back someday.

GUIDE TO VANCOUVER

We snuck away for a quick two day, one night adventure to Vancouver. We brought both kids, and it’s never been “just us” before on a family vacation, we’ve always gone to see extended family or friends, so this was a first. It was a lot of chaos and a lot of fun.

Tacos: La Taqueria. Cheap and great. Happy Hour 3-6pm.

MeeT in Gastown. Almost everything is vegan/GF.

Nelson the Seagull. Cute coffee shop. We also liked JJ Bean.

One of the best parts of staying downtown: we walked everywhere and didn’t use our car for two days. This city double stroller by Thule saved us. This is the glider board which drives easier than the universal fit ones.

Our rookiest move was trying to eat in restaurants with small children. It was too much for our kids’ ages. Luckily we had Trey’s tablet with us which saved us multiple times, but we learned next time to just always take everything to go and picnic our way through the day. (Another options is to stay in an AirBnB outside the city so you’d have a kitchen.)

Pool of my dream! Kitsilano Pool. Heated, outdoor, saltwater pool. We spent hours here. Our whole family got in for $6 CAD (under $5 USD!) for the whole day with in/out privileges. Outside the city, so if you’re staying downtown it’s a short drive (or a bike ride).

Umaluma Gelato. Plant based, dairy free, right above the pool.

Our downtown hotel pool view was insane. It really is a gorgeous city nestled right next to water and mountains.

Other noteworthy things:

The exchange rate changes daily, buy when we went the rate was 1 CAD to .76 USD, which means everything is about 30% off if you pay with an American credit card. (Especially fun at the Lululemon flagship where the prices are the same as marked in the US, but you get the discount.)

At this time, babies need only a birth certificate to travel between countries, instead of a passport.

Pack all the snacks you think you’ll need, then double it.

A tablet (or something similar) and kids headphones are a lifesaver.

The drive time from Seattle is only about three hours, which we’ve found is the perfect amount of time for a road trip with kids at this age. Not too long, but far enough that you feel like you’re really out of your daily routine.

Seawall is a fun walk. We put the kids in the stroller, walked along the waterfront, and actually got to have a conversation.

Next time I want to try:

Coffee: Matchstick, Jam Cade, Le Marche St George, Federal Store, Liberty, Dalina

Eats: Nuba Town, Tacofino, Juice Truck, Las Margaritas, 33 Acres, Hey Komoko, Ask for Luigi, Tuc Craft Kitchen

Ice Cream: Rain or Shine, Earnest

To Do: Mt. Pleasant Park, Old Faithful Shop

We’re excited to go back! Traveling with kids takes some strategic planning, but the adventure is worth it. Just go, embrace the chaos, the laundry will still be there when you get back home.

ON GETTING AWAY

A few days ago I polled Instagram on what's the thing that's helped you the most in motherhood, and the responses were great. Not one single product was mentioned, but all the non-tangibles and little (big) things. Among them: grandparents, perspective, grace, coffee, alcohol, a good babysitter, friends, self-care, and time away. It took me a long time to realize that last one but after our trip last weekend I am a big believer.

Daniel planned this trip and it was his idea. Last year we attempted a 2 night getaway and Trey was too young, it was too soon, and I wasn't ready. I was kind of expecting the same thing on this trip, but agreed to go anyways. I know it's good for me to get away and I wanted to, it's just also really hard for me to leave Trey.

This trip was night and day from last time. The resort was incredible. A boutique, luxury resort in Scottsdale, Arizona and I think it might be my favorite place we've ever stayed. (Not sponsored at all, just sharing.) The design is mid-century modern and the concept is little bungalows all over a sunny, warm, resort nestled near Old Town Scottsdale with mountain views. We absolutely loved it.

I think the biggest realization for me on the trip was: baby/toddler/kid life is demanding. These years take A LOT of resources - time, energy, money, etc. But they are not forever. In the midst of the day to day craziness that is raising small children you think they will, but this pace of life will someday feel slower. When we retire yes, but also when we're empty nesters, and even when we're at the elementary age, we won't be parenting as intensely as we are during this time of life. It's chaotic and messy and crazy most days, but now that I've taken a step back to notice this, I can more fully fill myself up first. I think I gained the perspective that self-care is a THING. A real thing and a needed thing, and exponentially more so during these all-hands-on-deck years.

It was shocking to me the amount of noise and speed that is raising kids. I don't think it was so much the place (even though it was amazing) but just the time away to chat. To go whatever we wanted, to really pause and relax, to have time. That is the biggest scarcity element I think of my days right now and the kicker for me was that I realized: someday I will have more time.

I am trying to parent out of this new long-term mindset. I am trying to find pockets of rest and relaxation during my days, and right now, I have to be strategic about it. I have to find it/make it/get creative with it/put boundaries around it. I typically run at about 110% percent, like most moms, since we have a lot of roles and responsibilities that we keep spinning each day. But I'm slowly learning to also put myself on that list of importance things. What would fill me up today, what would I like to do? It can be hard as moms because we take care of so many needs that what we'd like often gets pushed so far back that we don't even know what it is that we need or want. Also, I think our culture values productivity and busyness, and when that's ingrained in you it's hard to get off that train. But I'm doing it. I'm getting off the train of de-valuing self-care. I placing myself on my priority list.

I think sometimes as a mom I've thought about things in pretty black and white terms. Can I both (fill in the blank) and be a good mom? Can I take a parents-only trip and love my child? Can I work and still love my child? Can I enjoy time away for a pedicure and still love my child? I think subconsciously I've thought I had to be this mom martyr, dying to myself all the time in the name of loving my child well. And I know now that while I fiercely love my child, I'm actually a better mom when I'm filled up first. It's the oxygen mask strategy. Our needs matter. What we do for ourselves matters. Not just matters, but is vital.

Part of it for me is that I get so much joy out of being with Trey. This is a great thing. But it does make it hard for me to leave him, for trips or even just a night out. I know these years go fast and I don't want to miss it. But I think there is also something to be said for doing them well and being able to do both - I can love my child well, and enjoy time away. Filling me up fills my family up. We take care of so many needs as moms. Let's make sure to also take care of ours.