Our 2019 trips took us around the U.S. and Canada to visit the places Mark and I have lived, and share them with our kids: Canada, Florida, Colorado, and the place where I was born and lived as a young girl: sunny California.
I'm splitting this trip up into several posts, as we venture up and down the state through National Parks, family visits and down the Pacific coast. Our journey began after our flight into LAX with a drive south to Coronado Island in San Diego.
Our first stop... a graveyard. Glenn Abbey Memorial Gardens, where my great-great-great grandparents were buried. Albert & Rubie Redmond, and Rubie's parents, Olive and Perry Stone.
Rubie, my psychic great-great grandmother, was visited by the ghost of her dead sister, Stella, who told her to leave her Kansas home and go to San Diego, where she was needed to care for their mother, Olive.
So Rubie and Albert packed up their things into a wagon, and headed west. It turns out that, just as the ghost of Stella had said, they were needed to care for Olive before she died. And now they are all resting here, together. It took awhile to find their graves, but I've felt a strong connection to these particular ancestors all my life, ever since inheriting Albert's handwritten journal. We said a prayer at our visit, and asked them to watch over us and bless our California adventure.
Just a few miles away, we crossed the bridge into our home base, Coronado island.
Mark and I have spent a lot of time at the Grand Floridian in Orlando, and it was so fun to explore the actual hotel in Coronado it was modeled after.
It also happened to have a gorgeous beach.
We stayed across the street at a cute motel, and enjoyed the pool.
Mark and I took a lot of strolls down the charming lanes of this darling island.
Mark even found bunnies. Ha!
Next we ventured into San Diego proper, and I took the kids to some of my favorite places.
We had so much fun darting around sites and boardwalks on scooters.
Check out the roots of that ginormous tree!
Old Town.
Back to Coronado Beach.
La Jolla.
The gorgeous San Diego temple was a sight from the highway, so we pulled in to appreciate the architecture.
On our way up the coast, we stopped by Laguna Beach, where I have a lot of memories with my family. My aunt has a home here, and we'd visit when I was young.
Gryffin was so excited to be there. ;D
Next stop up the coast was our favorite beach, Newport. And of course we had to rent tandem bikes.
I talked Gryffin into going on the ferris wheel with me.
I rocked the seat a little. He made a tear sign because it freaked him out.
A bit of trauma, but he recovered.
We picked up some boogie boards and soaked in the Newport sun.
And then drove to our next stop, the worst-ever booking on AirBnB.
Universal Hotel Suites.
It was disgusting and gave us the creeps. Oh man, sometimes you get what you pay for...
Another tear.
Seriously?
To escape the room, we headed on a tour of L.A. through Beverly Hills, Mulholland Drive, the Sunset Strip, Rodeo Drive and of course, Hollywood Blvd.
I have a photo with Gryffin here when he was a wee baby, so we posed again in front of the Harry Potter handprints.
Early the next morning, after a terrible sleep at the Universal Suites BnB, we walked to Universal Studios and were the very first people in the park. We had Harry Potter world almost to ourselves!
After a great day at Universal (and another rough night at that sketchy BnB), we headed out early in the morning for the next leg of our journey northeast toward the National Parks...
