The Loooooong Night, Shopping, The Park & McDonalds...

Phan and I ended up going to bed around 9pm last night... which was just as well, because Beth woke up at midnight thinking it was breakfast time and demanding breakfast. Luckily, I had packed some nutrigrain as a snack in our luggage, so we had some breakfast on hand... So here we were... midnight, feeling oddly refreshed after only 3 hours sleep, feeding Beth nutrigrain... I honestly thought that we weren't going to be getting anymore sleep that night because Beth was full of beans... dancing around... poking Phan and going right up to his face and saying "Hello Dad!" when he was closing his eyes and trying to get some rest... but then we turned out the lights and I got her to lie down next to me and after 2 hours of tossing and turning from her, she finally fell asleep at 3am! And then we all slept through straight until 9am! Sooo good to have a decent block of sleep.

We get breakfast included with our room, so we headed down quickly to get some breakfast before it closed at 9:30am... None of us were that hungry... Beth managed a bite of toast (literally, one bite) and a glass of juice, I managed half a bagel (which was weird... the bread here is really sweet and feels stale!) and half a cinnamon scroll (which was ok) and Phan (who is normally not a breakfast eater), managed some scrambled eggs and a breakfast biscuit thing. After that small bite to eat, we went back and sloooowly got ready to go out. We didn't leave until 10:30am and went off to catch the San Diego Trolley... we needed to go to a supermarket and there was a big one called Ralph's near one of the Trolley stops and also near the Westfield Horton Plaza shopping centre. So we went to the shopping centre first... it was a multi-level open air plaza... a bit confusing to negotiate, but we figured it out. Beth got hungry and asked for a sandwich at about 10:30am, so we bought her a turkey sandwich, which turned out to be the worst $10 we've ever spent... the bread was dry, the turkey ok, the lettuce was a token addition and it was served with the weirdest potato crisps I've ever tasted... they looked like thins potato crisps, but they were kinda bland-ish/yet sweet... not salty at all... it was really strange. Then we did a spot of shopping and Beth fell asleep in her stroller (poor little monkey was really tired, but it was perfect timing for an afternoon nap)... Phan scored a pair of casual Vans shoes on sale for $50US and I bought a couple of things for Beth from Baby Gap and I went nuts in my favourite US kids clothing store, Gymboree. I loooove the clothes Gymboree have... bright, colourful... it's such good quality clothing that really lasts. I've spent a fortune when I buy stuff online (which has only been on 2 occasions), so I probably spent as much as I would online, but without the additional shipping costs! I was just so excited to be standing in the actual store!
After my mini-shopping spree at Gymboree, we stopped for Phan and I to have a bite of lunch... we got some teriyaki chicken thing, that was pretty decent (and good value) and followed that with cookies and cream icecream which Beth loved. Then off to Ralph's to grab some fruit for Beth to snack on and some bread and stuff in case she wakes up needing another midnight feast!

Back to the hotel at 4pm for a rest and then we headed out to this little toddler park that is a short walk from our hotel... Beth had a ball here... looooved the slides and the rock climbing wall (which she can climb all by herself). Then after that, we wandered over to our nearest McDonalds (which seemed a bit of a dodgy place...) it had a bit of a bogan feel to it... and didn't help there was a sign saying "No loitering. Please consume food within 20 minutes." (Seriously, that's what the sign said!) and there was classial music being played outside the McDonalds, which I'm pretty sure is a tactic to detract loiters! Anyway, the only reason we had Maccas was so I could see how big the food sizes were... we got a large and it was HUGE! Phan was going to supersize, just so I could see, but I got to see a few people around me with the supersized drinks, which was really just ridiculous!

And that was our day today... And a couple of photos (and these haven't been processed, 'cos we can't run PS on this notebook)... sorry, the comments don't line up with the photos, but I can't be bothered fixing that... but you should be able to figure it out!

The famous San Diego Trolley

Horton Plaza where we had a good time shopping.

The Bad Sandwich... what a waste of $10AU.

Beth loved this park!

She was so happy... this will look really good once I've processed it... notice that lovely sunflare in the corner?

Our Dinner... Phan's hand is in the photo for context of size... ;)

The view from our hotel room.