Home Away

Theres nothing better than staying in a comfortable home while on vacation. For the last four years our family has been getting together for our annual family vacation and I've been using HomeAway to find a place for us to stay.

It's a site that offers vacation homes by owner.

This time the husband and I wanted to celebrate our anniversary in San Diego. We went a week early due to the Presidents Day holiday.

The extra day allowed us to have a nice long weekend to spend some anniversary time together.

Little did we know our planning couldn't have been timed more perfectly.

Just 5 days before our schedule departure we woke to the sound of water running through our pipes. What we found at 3 in the morning was a flooded basement.

The husband took quick action and grabbed our carpet cleaner and began sucking up water. Once we got the floors dried we started moving stuff out of the bedrooms and living room and packed it in the hallway, bathroom and laundry room.

After about four exhausting hours. He called our friend who owns a carpet cleaning business and they came out to finish the job of sucking up water in the carpets and setting the dryers.

The dryers were busy the entire week, while we were home and continued after we left. 

It was so nice to leave the craziness of the house to the professionals and have the peace of mind that it's being taken care of while we were on our trip.

Speaking of which, we arrived in San Diego late Wednesday, Valentines night and woke to the sound of the ocean.

A much better sound than that of water flooding the floors.

Our little one bedroom studio condo was so charming and 
accommodating,

not to mention just steps from the beach.

Mission Beach to be exact. It's the same place our family went last spring and it's just as fun with adults as it was with all the kids.

My sister and brother in law came and hung out with us while we were there.
We booked a boat tour around the harbor.

Enjoyed eating out and

Spending time at the beach.

We even took in a movie.

Ok and the really crazy, random thing was while we were walking around before my sister and brother in law showed up, was bumping into my niece and her family from Utah who just happened to be vacationing in California as well. They had just rented bikes and were heading off when we saw each other.

She took this picture of us and sent it to her mom, my sister. The only one not showing is their little baby in the bike carrier. Thats them riding off with all six of their kids.

On our last day, the husband and I also rented bikes and road around, like 12.3 miles to be exact. 

I was kinda thinking our ride was going to be up and down the board walk but the husband had is own idea mapped out.

Although there was a time where I had to get off and walk the bike up a hill, the scenery was so pretty I couldn't help but snap a photo.

The ride was a perfect way to end our vacation.

San Diego has become a favorite destination for us and I'm sure we'll be back.

It's kinda our home away from home.