Southern California: Family Summer Vacation

Travel Date: June 2025

People often ask me how I decide where we are going to plan our next vacation. There are a few factors that our family prioritizes:

• National Parks: We would like to visit all of the U.S. National Parks, so any destination where a park visit side quest is possible is a huge plus

• Major League Baseball Stadiums: My husband has the goal of visiting every MLB Stadium. He started ticking locations off his list before we met and it was fun for me to join him on this goal. It has been extra special to watch our kids get excited about it as well! If baseball is in season, I'll look at what parks we still need to visit and see if I'm inspired to build a trip around any of those cities.

• Disney: Our family loves Disney and all Disney related travel. Disney destinations are particularly perfect when we're traveling with our kids- they've truly perfected catering to that age group.

With all this in mind, there was one travel spot that seemed to really be beckoning us to visit...Southern California.

Day 1: Santa Monica Pier

We took a direct flight from ATL to LAX, picked up our rental car, and immediately headed to the Santa Monica Pier. We ate burgers, marveled at how different California squirrels are than Georgia squirrels, and played our hearts out at the Playland Arcade. There were several events going on for the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, so all of the rides were closed. That was a bummer, but we still had a great time soaking in the culture of the area. After we got our fill of Santa Monica magic, we hopped back in the car to drive to Anaheim and check into our hotel.

Day 2: Disney California Adventure Park

I was most excited for our Disney days on this trip! Growing up on the east coast, I've visited Walt Disney World plenty of times. I had heard that Disneyland was a bit smaller, less impressive, etc. For me, this couldn't have been further from the truth! We were at a bit of an advantage being on Pacific Time and actually got to the park just as it opened (my family are not "morning people", we have never once rope dropped Disney World, and in Florida it's kind of a miracle if we make it in the park before 10 a.m.). We walked from our hotel and used a double stroller for our 4 and 6 year old. The park was honestly pretty empty for the first two hours we were there, but by lunch time we were incredibly grateful that we had purchased Lightning Lane Premier Passes. We had gone back and forth on our decision to buy LLPP, but ultimately decided this very well could be our one and only trip to Disneyland and wanted to make sure we were able to see and do as much as possible. Our favorite parts of the park were Cars Land and Pixar Pier.

We had planned to try to go to the Los Angeles Dodgers game this night to see Dodger Stadium, but the cheapest available tickets were $300 each (apparently it was Ice Cube bobble head night). We decided to stay at the park and enjoy the Downtown Disney District instead. We shopped, watched shows, and ate at the Grand Californian.

Day 3: Angel Stadium

This day marked our first baseball game of the trip! We started the day by visiting the Anaheim Costco to pick up some necessities (read: snacks and chocolate milk) before heading to the Anaheim Packing District for lunch, This was a great spot because everyone was able to get the cuisine they wanted and outdoor seating was available to enjoy the perfect Southern California weather.

We then went to Angel Stadium to watch the Anaheim Angels take on the Houston Astros. The stadium was on the smaller side and felt very tight. I mention this because my kids had a hard time seeing from our seats due to there not being much elevation between the rows (their line of sight was right into the back of the adults in the three rows in front of us). Our 6-year-old did enjoy the arcade at the stadium. It was great to check Angel Stadium off our bucket list, but it probably won't top the charts for us of greatest baseball stadiums. That afternoon we walked around the other two Disneyland Resorts before having dinner at Great Maple Modern American Eatery at the Pixar Place hotel. The food was the best we had in Anaheim, and the adjacent table Pixie Dusted us with an order of the Famous Maple Bacon Donuts.

Day 4: Disneyland Park

We had such a great experience with the Lightning Lane Multi Pass at DCA that we decided to purchase it again for our visit to Disneyland Park. We headed straight for Mickey's Toontown. My 4- and 6-year-old loved this land so much that we spent most of the morning there. We did eventually move on and were able to hit every ride in the park. We were totally blown away by Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. It's so unlike any ride we've ever been on and was by all means the epitome of Disney magic for my son. We ate and drank our way through the rest of Galaxy's Edge and I can't recommend this enough. Be sure to get drinks at Oga's Cantina and lunch at Docking Bay 7. After an incredible day at the park, we ended our time in Anaheim and drove down to San Diego.

Day 5: Beach Day & Petco Park

I have to start by saying that I absolutely loved where we stayed in the Mission Bay area of San Diego. We were at the Catamaran Resort and the property was fantastic. We ended up scrapping most of the plans we had for this day to just take it easy and enjoy the resort, We visited the birds, played in the arcade, swam in the pool, walked along the beach, threw the football, and built sandcastles. The kids took an afternoon nap, Ty did some work, and I washed clothes at a laundromat.

That night we headed to the Gaslamp Quarter before heading to Petco Park for the Padres vs. Nationals baseball game. Petco Park was absolutely incredible to visit with kids! My 4-year-old daughter spent the first 4 innings in the sand box behind the outfield before we finally made it to our seats. The park food was great, the weather incredible, and the atmosphere impeccable.

Day 6: San Diego Zoo

We started our day at the zoo by taking the bus tour to learn the lay of the land. We honestly saw more on this tour than we would for most of the day. It's hard for me to admit we didn't really enjoy the zoo because my husband and I are both animal lovers who grew up seeing the San Diego Zoo on travel commercials. But...we didn't really enjoy the zoo. I expand on why that was in the "What I'd Do Differently" at the bottom of this page. While the morning at the zoo didn't play out how we imagined it would, we did have a great afternoon back in Mission Bay at Belmont Park shopping, playing, and eating dinner at Cannonball (this was a great restaurant that overlooked the beach, had great food for kids that wasn't chicken tenders/hotdog, and space to move around).

Day 7: Whale Watching, Encinitas, & Luau

We started our morning on a whale watching tour, which I should have marketed to my kids as a dolphin spotting tour with a chance of seeing a whale 😂. Our kids enjoyed watching the dolphins race the boat and seeing the baby dolphins in the pod, but we did not see any whales on our journey. From there we spent the afternoon hanging out by the sea at Cardiff State Beach and getting some incredible donuts at Broad Street Dough Co. That night we enjoyed the dinner show Luau at our hotel- a great family activity.

Day 8: La Jolla and Seaport Village

Our 8th day in SoCal was so heart warming! We drove up to La Jolla and walked along the La Jolla Coast Walk Trail. At this time of year, we got to see many baby seagulls and sea lions. I relied heavily on La Jolla Mom's page to make a plan for our day here. After finding parking on the street (not for the faint of heart during the summer months), we walked to Shell Beach --> Children’s Pool --> Seal Rock --> Point La Jolla Sea Lion Rookery --> Sea Cave. The views were spectacular and the wildlife abundant.

That evening we drove to Seaport Village to have dinner with friends. This was a great location for restaurants and shopping, and was back in the heart of San Diego. If you are interested in air craft carriers, the USS Midway Museum is nearby (about a 4 minute drive).

Day 9: SeaWorld VIP Tour

Our day at Sea World will likely be a core memory for our family. We decided to splurge on this day and do the VIP Sea World Tour. We got preferred parking and met our family's personal guide for the day, Sher, just outside the gates. Booking this tour allowed us to make the most of our time in the park and see everything. The park contacts you in the time leading up to your trip to find out about your travel party, what you're interested in, and which animals you'd like encounters with. Sher was so great with our kids, stopped frequently to let us pick out drinks (soda, Body Armor, Icees, etc. were included with the tour), and had a plan ready for us to see all the things. We got to hit all the animal exhibits and go to the front of the line on all rides. The tour included the Orcas Dining Experience, which was an incredible buffet lunch and orca show. Sher sat us in preferred seating for all shows.

The most exciting part of this tour were the animal encounters. We got to go behind the scenes to get up close and personal with beluga whales, macaroni penguins, and dolphins (other options were sea turtles, walruses, sea otters, and sea lions). It was such a magical day and left us with memories to last a lifetime. If you're planning a trip to Sea World San Diego and you're debating about booking the VIP tour....I say do it! It was expensive, but we really felt like we got what we paid for.

Day 10: Joshua Tree National Park Off Road Tour

We went ahead and drove from San Diego to Palm Dessert when we left Sea World on day 9, so we woke up in Palm Dessert on day 10. Our trip wasn't primarily based on our Joshua Tree National Park Visit (it's 110 degrees and higher this time of year), so we knew we weren't going to get the full Joshua Tree hiking experience this go round, especially since we were travelling with small kids (reminder that even if we as adults feel okay, children are much more affected by extreme temperatures). For this reason, we decided to do an off-road driving tour to see the majestic landscape of JTNP. Our guide was wonderful- he took us to the highlights of the park, explained the history and significance of everything we looked at, and guided us on very short in-and-out hikes at different places around the park.

Day 11: Children's Museum & Home

On our last day, we drove from Palm Dessert back to Los Angeles, returned our rental car, and flew home! Before leaving Palm Dessert, we stopped at the Children's Discovery Museum of the Dessert. This was a great way to burn off some energy before a long travel day while staying out of the heat.

If you are traveling with kids, I feel like I should take a moment to mention how incredible the Delta Sky Club at LAX was. It was the most updated club I have visited and the food, drinks, and space were perfect for my kids to fill up pre flight. They were particularly excited about the slushie machine that was brought out just before we had to catch our flight!

What I'd Do Differently:

• We stayed at the Hilton Anaheim. While it was a great hotel, if I got a do over I would stay at the Grand Californian, It's obviously a different price point, but we would have benefited from being able to easily bounce back to the hotel for a mid-day nap (hello time change) or to change clothes after the Grizzly River Run. Especially with DCA, Disneyland, and Downtown Disney all being so close together, the price tag would have totally been worth the convenience.

• The San Diego Zoo was big. Like, really big. If got a do over, I would book the private tour that is available to escort your family around the park. It's not that the zoo was difficult to navigate per se, but rather that everything is so spread out that if you do take a wrong turn, it takes a really long time to a)figure it out, b) turn around and walk back where you came from, and c) figure out where you need to go. Not to mention we had to complete a-c every time we got to an exhibit and the animal was not visible (spoiler alert: that happened a lot). I suppose I am spoiled by the easy to learn layout of Zoo Atlanta (our city roads may be an absolute cluster, but our zoo is a simple loop).

• When we went to Joshua Tree, we stayed in Palm Dessert. If I got a do over, I would definitely stay in Palm Springs. There wasn't much to do in Palm Dessert. When we were looking for restaurants, most of what sounded good was in Palm Springs, and we were just too hot at this time of year to really venture that far.