Knowing that Coronado gets super crowded on the 4th, we left my parents at 5:00 am. In order to get parking along the beach you need to get there before 6:00 am. We first stopped at a taco shop for breakfast burritos.
We're usually freezing when we get to Coronado very early in the morning. The marine layer typically burns off between 1:00 to 3:00 pm but this time it burned off by like 10:30 am. We weren't cold at all.
Grandpa and Riley ... just walking. My mom didn't come with us. She's really not into spending the entire day at the beach.
Eating our breakfast burritos. We all got machaca burritos. So good!
Busy walking back and forth from the water. We don't like to set our things too close to the water. First because we don't want to have to move once it's high tide and second because everyone else likes to be close to the water and I really don't like to have people so close to our little camp.
Since it wasn't cold I changed him into his patriotic swimming trunks.
We also saw dolphins, several of them.
It's always the sweetest thing to see when older brother is taking care of baby brother. Nathan helped us out a lot with Riley on this vacation. Definitely much appreciated.
Good thing I remembered to put sunblock all over Riley's exposed skin.
My dad wanted to go see the parade so him and I went. Jacob stayed with Riley and the kids at the beach. My sister had left to get us coffee. I was wearing a cardigan but after standing in the sun for about half an hour I got hot so I took it off. Well, I forgot that I didn't have sunblock on my arms and so I got super sunburned especially on my right arm. It hurt SO bad for about five days. I'm still peeling.
The parade was fun. This was my most favorite float. A re-enactment of the flag raisers on Iwo Jima.
When we got back I found Riley asleep. Poor thing was cold. He was curled up in a fetal position. Jacob covered him up. He slept a little over an hour.
And of course, Geico is everywhere. Jacob's been so blessed to have the job that he has but he's also worked SO hard to be where he is today.
As soon as he woke up from his nap he was at it again. No stopping this kid from playing in the sand.
Guess what?! I caught grandpa giving Riley a bite of a snickers bar and Riley didn't hesitate either. He took a big old bite.
We had s'mores while he had a marshmallow.
An impromptu picture of us. I actually love it!
Although there are public restrooms on the beach I really avoid using them because by noon they are usually filthy. I really don't care to walk on a peed on floor ... even with shoes on so we made the ten minute walk to the Hotel Del to use their facilities. Now that's much more like it. We know this hotel like the back of our hand. My dad worked here. I worked here. Jacob worked here ... and this is where we met.
He always gives me a silly face when I ask for a picture. That's why I'm really not a big fan of staged pictures.
One of Sydna's friends from Tucson now lives in San Diego so she called her up and had her hang out with us at the beach. I'm glad that she still keeps in touch with her closest friends. They had a good time together.
At around 7:00 pm we began to load the truck and we made our way to the fireworks site. You can't see them from the beach side. You need to go to the front of the Hotel Del or the towers ... or to even get a better view you need to go to the golf course or by the swimming pool where the barge is in the bay.
I happened to look back as we were walking and I noticed how pretty the sky looked. Had to take a picture.
We didn't feel like walking across the street from the Del so we sat right in front of it on the lawn. We were tired and sunburned. It was a bit muggy and I was sticky and that always but always grosses me out. I do not handle humidity well at all. Besides, Riley was tired too that's why we decided that this spot would be a good enough spot to watch the fireworks from.
Riley enjoyed them. As a small child they are easy to please. But if I'm not mistaken these fireworks aren't as good as they used to be from several years ago. They used to last half an hour now they last twenty minutes. They used to have a lot more big loud fireworks and now those big ones were very few. It's fun to be in Coronado on the 4th of July during the day but now I'm having second thoughts about coming back for their fireworks show. The ones across the bay at Seaport Village looked like they put on a better show. Maybe this tradition has come to an end and it does make me sad because I've been coming to Coronado since I was a little girl and now with my own husband and kids.
Maybe now that we live in Washington we need to reconsider where to spend the 4th at. Upon researching I've come across a beach in Oregon that has a great firework show for the 4th. Maybe we need to start a new tradition and stay closer to home. We shall see.
All in all it was a great day. I had a good time at the beach with Jacob and the kids, with my dad and sister. The kids had a great time. My sister was a great help and that sure kept me from stressing out too much. She was even kind enough to take Sydna's friend to her house.
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