Visit from Ioli!

I was really happy my cousin Ioli graciously drove down from Los Angeles to visit us in San Diego! I hadn't seen her in nearly a year and I also wanted Sophie to see her again. It was so good to catch up with Ioli as we all miss her and wished she lived in Texas!

We agreed the Birch Aquarium at Scripps sounded like a fun activity for the four of us. I must say I was impressed by the exhibits mostly because they had very unusual fish from the Northwest, which I have not seen before. Sophie was intrigued by the scuba diver feeding the fish in the big aquarium and the interactive water ponds outside. Of course, we couldn't have a visit to an aquarium without Sophie's question on "where is Nemo and Dory?". Luckily, we were able to find Nemo's "cousin", so all was well!

Sophie would have gotten into the water with the fish if we would have let her:

In another area, there were some really good fake marine creatures for the kids to enjoy. Sophie had a ball with the starfish. I think she thinks they were are real. She is picking it up so carefully. It's too cute:

Sophie insisted on getting into a shark's open mouth to pose for a picture. Typical Sophie, she decides she doesn't want to look AT the camera once the three of us followed her lead and got in:

After a few hours at Birch, we decided it was time for lunch. It's not a true a vacation if we don't eat every few hours! The four of us headed to La Jolla Village and had an amazing lunch at George's on the Cove. We sat on the rooftop and enjoyed Bloody Mary's, fish tacos, great company and a gorgeous view. Can't wait to see Ioli again. I'm hoping it's at Christmas this year: