On our third day in Carlsbad the forecast was for rain to start around 11:00 am and get steadily stronger as the day went on. We decided to head to Escondito to visit San Diego Zoo's Wildlife Park. This originated as a breeding area for the zoo but has developed into an amazing park all on it's own. It opened at 9:00 so we figured we could get at least a couple of dry hours in to start, unfortunately it started raining on our way there, but it wasn't too heavy of a rain, and we had a fairly clear morning. The boys were obsessed with all of the different kinds of birds and both loved the tram that took us through the entire Africa area. We went out to the car for lunch and it started to really rain. I decided I still wanted to try to see the baby tiger, other tigers, and the gorillas so we rented a stroller with a small cover and headed, at a quick pace, to see a few more of the habitats. The drive home was pretty bad, there were multiple emergency vehicles that went passed with sirens on, the roads seemed to be beginning to flood, and we were getting emergency alerts on our phones including flash flood and tornado warnings (yes tornado), so we decided to stop at a grocery store and pick up some things to make dinner instead of heading out into the elements again.
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| It's difficult to get McClartys to smile! |
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| Lemur experience - Reed and I actually got to go in the habitat with them |
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| On the Tram |
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| Hillside of Rhinos |
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| California Condor |
After another night of heavy rain, it was fairly clear on Thursday morning. The rain was supposed to start again later in the morning but we decided to head to the beach and let the boys build the sand castle they had been begging to build. After walking the two blocks to the beach we discovered the staircase leading to the beach was completely submerged due to the high surf and the waves were crashing up against the cliff, leaving not a single patch of beach that we could access. To say Reed was disappointed is an understatement but both boys seemed okay with the idea of digging in the mud that was in the empty campground above the beach. I actually went running for the 30 minutes that it took them to fill up their bucket and got back in time for the big "mud castle" reveal. I think Reed had expected it to magically turn into something amazing and was so sad when Jon revealed the pile of dirt. Jon had to take him aside and have a talk about life/disappointment/etc. - it was heartbreaking, but also so endearing to watch the two of them talk it out together.
After the beach was a bust, Jon suggested we check out the Museum of Making Music that was just a few miles away. Jon said that he couldn't tell how kid friendly it was so I figured we would be there for a max of 30 minutes and I would spend the whole time keeping the boys away from things they shouldn't be touching. When we got there we saw other toddlers playing with different instruments in the gift shop and a group of kids gathering for a tour - both good signs!!! The museum was awesome, each era had a bunch of buttons you could push that would play tunes from the era as well as at least one instrument you were allowed to touch and play. I was pretty impressed that we were able to take our time and walk through the entire museum and even had to encourage the boys to move along a couple of times. The gift shop was at the end and had a bunch of books and instruments for purchase and a whole table set up for kids to color at. It was a really great, unexpected find and something I would suggest anyone in the area do (especially on a rainy day).
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| Dancing to some tunes |
Reed loves to eat out and he also loves pizza - both things you would think a kid with food allergies would avoid. He was so excited about the idea of going to a new restaurant and I found a place in Oceanside, called the Bagby Beer Company, that could accommodate us and had pizza and quite the beer selection to boot. They were great about Reed's allergies and we had a wonderful last night together before it was time to head home.
