Goodbye California

We all slept in until about 9am, which really felt great after a long day at Legoland and the long week We dressed and headed down to our little breakfast place in the hotel and ate cereal, juice and bananas before heading back up to our room to finish packing before checkout. We checked out, thankful to be free of that crumby hotel, and said our goodbyes to Sian. It was such fun having her with us for our visit to Legoland and was great to catch up with her a bit. She's so great with the girls and it was fantastic to have another adult since so many of the rides are for two people and being with both girls would have been impossible on some of the rides. Hopefully we can see each other again soon.

As we drove off the girls settled into the backseat and started coloring in their coloring books. They have both been really fantastic travelers and have colored, played, looked through/read their books or made up stories while we drove. We stopped at Starbucks for a real cup of coffee and then headed onto I-5, heading for John Wayne Airport. We had plenty of time and I started wondering what we should do instead of hanging out at the airport for hours. Of course, we hit stop-and-go traffic even though it was late Saturday morning and not a weekday or rush hour.

Finally I decided to take a break and stop at one of my favorite places, the San Juan Capistrano Mission. I've visited the mission so many times growing up and worked at my Dad's office in college which was just a few minutes away. It's always been such a peaceful and beautiful place and I've enjoyed the history of Junipero Serra and the founding of the mission system in California, which was a huge part of our history lessons growing up.

We found parking right next to the Mission, even though it looked to be fairly busy and bought out tickets. Once inside the girls were drawn to a huge raised pond full of koi. The koi were fairly tame and kept returning to the gils and checking out if their fingers in the water might be food. We walked around and read about the Mission and took a lot of photos. It was a perfect day outside and it would have been great to explore further, but we had to get back on the road after an hour or so. As we left, we stopped at In N Out to grab a quick meal while driving. It was shocking how many people were waiting to get into the drive thru!

Within 20 minutes we were back at the airport with plenty of time. The girls were happy with full bellies of grilled cheese sandwiches and milkshakes. We returned the car to the right rental office and the man offered to drive us to the terminal which was a lifesaver! We had plenty of time but I dreaded the idea of getting all of our stuff out of the car and to the terminal. We checked our bags, checked in and were through the security line in minutes. It was so easy. On the other side, we bought See's candy to bring back to CK and the girls colored and played while I read. Before we knew it, we were on the plane and heading home to Texas. It was such a fun and exciting week but I think we were all looking forward to getting home too.

The raised koi pond and old mission in the background

The girls by an El Camino Real sign, which are all over California

Selfie!

Olivia "reading" up while sitting by the statue of Junipero Serra

The bells

Sofia by a small fountain

Another koi pond

The Mission's bell tower