The Springville group left at 5:45 am. Anthony and Arianne picked up Tara, Savannah, and me on the way. We stopped and did some rock climbing at Chuckawalla wall in St George, UT.
After rock climbing, we drove the rest of the way to San Diego. We checked into the Padre Trail Inn in San Diego, then we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Then we swam in the pool. The pool wasn't heated, so it was pretty cold.
After breakfast, most of the group went to the beach. Dad, Anthony, Arianne, Ondylyn, Zachary, Jaxon, Broox, Tara, Savannah, and I went to Mission Trails Regional Park to do some rock climbing.
Anthony getting the rock climbing gear ready.
After rock climbing, we headed over to Mission Beach near Sea World. It was really windy, so the waves were pretty big. I think there was even a high-surf warning.
We spent all day at Sea World. We got there around 9:30. The first show we watched was Blue Horizons, where we saw the dolphins perform.
We rode both of their water rides several times. The lines at Journey to Atlantis were pretty short, so we rode that one several times in a row. We also rode Shipwreck Rapids and got totally soaked.
We watched the Pets Rule Show.
Then we watched the Sea Lions LIVE show.
The first place we went was to the Mormon Battalion Museum. They had some really cool displays. It started out by having a wall of portraits give an introduction (each picture was actually a TV screen with a picture frame around it). Then we all went into the next room where it was set up like a campsite, and they had three videos playing simultaneously.
The next room was the general store. The sister missionaries chose Caleb to have him wear the uniform and carry the ammo and gun. They also had a TV screen that looked like a window, and the characters in the movie talked to us through the window.
The next room was decorated like a desert campsite. Stars were projected on the walls, and the "logs" that we were sitting on rumbled when there was a cattle stampede on screen.
In the museum portion, they had kiosks where you could look up and read about members of the Mormon Battalion.
Jarvis Johnson is one of my ancestors on my dad's side.
Outside, we spent over an hour panning for "gold". Once again, completely free. We really got the hang on if after a while and collected almost an once in an hour. Too bad real gold panning isn't that easy!
From the Mormon Battalion Museum, we walked down to Old Town San Diego. We watched the blacksmiths make a spoon and some hooks. The guy on the left even made a hook and gave it to the person who guessed closest to the number he was thinking of.
We ate lunch in the park.
Then we watched a guy paint pictures with his fingers.
The last thing we did as a group was go to the Serra Museum (an old Catholic Mission). There was a wedding, so we didn't get to see the inside, just the outside.
It was a fun reunion, and everyone had a good time.
