The Lafayette Swim Club Hotel had good ratings. It had a decent price too. I had reserved the family room which had a king bed and glass doors separating the kids room. Each room had its own bathroom. The kid section was big with a bunk bed that had a full size bunk on bottom. They had their own tv, round table, closets, it was, as the kids say, awesome!
They had a big pool that was designed by Johnny Weissmuller, the Olympic swimming champ. In the 1940s, big names like Bob Hope and other movie stars plus musicians would come here. It is amazing that it has survived. I picked this hotel from hotel.com as it had a family room. Two rooms, one for the adults and separated by a glass panel door, a room for kids. It had a bunk bed with the bottom a full size bed. They would have their own bathroom (yeah!), table and TV. It was a big space to get comfortable in after a long train ride.
What I didn't know was that to keep in business, they had sold swim memberships to the local community. The place was hopping when we got there! Full size mattress floats, the young and old around the pool and a DJ blasting music! There was a big screen at the end where at night they would show movies while people gather by the pool. The mattresses would be reserved on the deck for added comfort. The bar and restaurant were always busy and they had a conference room down below that always seem to have something going on too!
Miles took to the pool right away but there were mostly older people in pool. It was a good place apparently for singles to meet at night or during the weekends. So Zacky finally agreed to go into the pool with me and we had a bit of fun that even Zacky liked!
Later when deciding what to eat, Zacky requested buttered noodles. So I called down to the desk and asked for a casual Italian restaurant. They steered us to the Italian Pesto Craft Kitchen. Miles ordered a pizza and smallest was 12 inch. We figured we could always take some back and put in fridge. Zacky ordered his buttered noodles and Jim and I ordered a great spicy ziti dish with Italian sausage. Yum! The pizza was amazing and when the waitress stopped by Miles informed her "this was the best pizza--even better than his New York pizza! She said the manager was from Brooklyn too and she would tell him! He came over and hi-fived everyone and said how great that made him feel! He had been there a year and was working hard to bring New York to San Diego!
The next day we headed out for the San Diego Zoo. We started out with the Skylift that took us to the top by the Polar Bears. The boys loved looking over the zoo from up high and there wasn't so many things to see, would probably have gone several times! It was hot and I had put sunscreen on the boys and my face. Unfortunately I forgot I was in a tank and didn't do the rest of my body! A bit of a sunburn that luckily didn't peel later.
There is no way to really describe the zoo. It is big! But our main goal was to see the Koalas and the Pandas. Both are shy and we were advised to try the Pandas around 4 when they were usually out of their enclosed areas. At one point we took the tram around the park as we counted down the time. Zacky promptly fell asleep! He missed his beloved giraffes! But the good news is when we got off we made our way to the Koalas and saw one sitting inn his tree eating. Miles was so happy we got a picture!
Then off to the Pandas and we got really lucky and took some great pictures. Zacky was thrilled! You could spend two days here but by 5 we were all ready to go back to our hotel.
When we got back, Miles noticed immediately there were boys his age in the pool! Super fast change and he was gone! I finally got Zacky out by the pool with his swim trunks on. But this time Miles didn't need him and he didn't want to get in the pool. I tried everything but his comment was "I don't know why people like swimming. It is so boring! All you do is swim!" Well, dude, it is fun if you swim! Instead, I told him to keep taking lessons and this time next year he would see why it was so much fun!
Miles in the meantime, found a way into the two boys fun and together the three would get two mattresses stacked and then run off the deck and try to land on them! Just my adrenaline kid favorite idea of fun! It wasn't really dangerous so I let him have his fun. The music is blasting, parties seem to pop up around us and it was a Friday Movie night so the popcorn machine was getting ready for the evening.
Luckily, the place also had a great laundry room. So while the kids rested in rooms with a movie, we started the laundry. Jim kept it going while I went into their restaurant. I was surprised to see they had a kids menu and reasonable prices. The kids decided on chicken fingers and mac and cheese. Jim and I got some amazingly good spicy fish tacos. By the time we got back to the room, the place was packed and a movie was starting. I thought, if I was 30 younger, this would be a hip place to hang out!
The great thing was by 10pm the place was quiet from our bedroom. I repacked, again, as the next day we headed to Legoland! My nightmare of theme parks was about to begin
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