California Adventure: Day-by-Day

March 4, 2018 / Comments (0)

Here’s a quick overview of our trip by day. I tried to be as inclusive as possible with all we did and what we spent. I bought food for breakfast and dinner a bunch of times and cooked where we stayed. Additionally, my family and friends were very generous taking us out to eat for meals quite a bit and driving us around.

I would do it again. It was a GREAT trip!

Happy to answer any questions I can 🙂

Day 0

Flew from Charlotte to San Diego ($270)

Hopped in a Lyft from the airport to the hotel. ($22)

Arrived in the evening at Days Inn Hotel Circle. Bought via Groupon. ($225)

While I normally don’t like motel-type places, this place felt safe and clean.

Day 1

Breakfast at Crust – walking distance. ($25)

Hopped in a Lyft and spend the day at Balboa Park.  ($12)

Train Museum ($11)

Science Museum – Free with our home museum membership

The Natural History Museum – Free with our home museum membership

Reyna wanted to climb the tower, but you had to be six and she refuses to lie.

Hopped in a Lyft ($8) to the Maritime Museum ($36)

Played at the park across the street for an hour.

Lyft to my cousin’s house. ($9)

Dinner at the Corvette Diner. PEFRECT for the kids!

Day 2

Leftovers from yesterday’s breakfast.

Sister-in-law picked us up and we spent the day at the San Diego Zoo – $115 (we received discounted military tickets)

Spent the entire day at the zoo. ($45 – snacks and stuff)

Crust for dinner.

Another cousin picked us up and we went to The Donut Bar for dessert. ($15)

Day 3

Work up early and went hiking up Cowels Mountain

Picked up a rental car from the airport. ($38)

Checked out of hotel

Spent the day in La Jolla ($11)

Drove to LA

Ate at In-N-Out Burger ($25)

Checked into our Airbnb at Venice Beach ($425)

Day 4

Returned the rental car to LAX.

Hopped in a Lyft back to our Airbnb ($12)

Walked the Venice Canals

Spent the day on Venice Beach

Rented wet suits for the kids – $20

Friends came to visit and just hung out ate at condo. ($35)

Day 5

Rented bikes from Ride Venice for the Day ($45)

Stopped at Santa Monica Pier and had lunch. ($12)

Biked all the way to Malibu

Stopped at playgrounds and beach areas during the ride.

Day 6

Checked out of Airbnb

Hopped in a Lyft to the Amtrak Station ($35)

Took the train from LA to Oakland. ($472)

This took 11 hours and it was WONDERFUL. We had a sleeper car, all meals included. The views were glorious. One bummer – they had recently removed the parlor car. This car showed movies, had board games, etc. I really wanted to have this. At least I brought enough to keep us entertained.

Hopped in a Lyft $(12) to our Airbnb in Oakland. ($305)

Day 7

Used Turo and rented someone’s personal car for the day. Since I was a first-time user – it cost me $6! Hopped in a Lyft to pick it up. ($7)

Drove to Muir Woods and spent 3 hours there. ($25)

Drove back to San Francisco but stopped to take photos at the Golden Gate Bridge first.

Went to Fisherman’s Wharf, played games, talked about Alcatraz ($20)

Dropped off the Turo ($7) car and called it a night.

Day 8

A friend picked us up and we went to the Chabot Science Center. Spent ALL day there! Free with our home museum membership.

Hopped in a Lyft to a friend’s house for the dinner. ($10)

My niece picked us up and she spent the night with us.

Day 9

Checked out of the Airbnb at 12PM

Went to Jack London Square so the kids could play games and I could catch up with a mentor over lunch. ($40)

Drove to San Francisco.

Went to the famous Mitchell’s Ice Cream ($16)

Met a friend for dinner at Papalote.

Went to the airport

Took the redeye to Raleigh ($211) Charlotte is our home airport, but it pricey to fly in and out of at times, so if the price us right, we fly in or out of Raleigh.

Day 10

Arrived at 6:15AM

Rented a car ($38)

Home in Charlotte by 10:15AM reunited with Hubby and Papi 🙂

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