For May's trip, we decided to go to Oceanside, California, as we've never been there and we needed to use up some expiring free hotel nights. We chose Hyatt's Mission Pacific Resort, literally across the street from the ocean.
Our $21 flights on Allegiant were easy as they fly from Provo airport which means from check-in to gate is 5 minutes and once off the plane, it's 5 minutes to your car.
We flew in to John Wayne airport in Santa Ana which is a quick 90 minute flight. Leaving Provo at 8am got us there at 8:30am due to the time change. Oceanside was about a 45 minute drive south, but we spent some time first in Newport Beach and went on a whale watching and harbor tour.
We had to read and sign this very interesting waiver first though.
We did see a few whales but the stars of the trip were hundreds and hundreds of dolphins!
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We then had some lunch and headed down to Oceanside. Once we got to the hotel, we were escorted to our upgraded suite with a side view of the ocean - it wasn't a bad view at all, as we could see the pier. The little house in the middle of the hotel is referred to as the "Top Gun House" as it was used in the original Top Gun movie. Here's an interesting history of Oceanside and the house. The house now sells pies.
We checked in to our room, and headed out to walk on the pier and the ocean side.
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| View from our room |
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| View from room overlooking the Top Gun house |
VIDEO Room Tour:
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The next day we found this very yummy and extremely popular donut shop - Parlor Donuts. It was popular for a reason - wow, they were so good! Rumor has it one opened up here! I need to go find it.
We walked more around the city, along the beach, got some reflexology massages, found yummy dinner spots, and just pretty much relaxed!
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| You can see how far out the pier goes |
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| One of the round-abouts on the street had lots of painted rocks people leave |
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| Can you see the Y? |
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| This was a geocache on the pier! Like in the middle where everyone was walking. It took us three attempts, and two hints from the owner before we finally found it. See the very small brown phillips screw beneath the knot on the right? There is a small wire attached to the screw...... |
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| At the end of the wire was a small geocache. The hard part was looking and getting it with so many people walking right around and over it |
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| Our hotel offered beach chairs, umbrellas and towels so we took advantage of that daily |
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| The hotel also had spots all over to just sit and relax |
The elevators have 3D moving pictures inside:
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| The hotel has a roof top bar/restaurant and each table has heaters inside the umbrella! |
We visited some meditation gardens which overlooked the ocean which were beautiful and well kept.
The next day the pier was packed! And so many people fishing! It was so crazy!
Our last day we visited San Juan Capistrano Mission which we've never been to.
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| Before heading to the airport, we walked along the Dana Point Preserve overlooking the ocean |
Monday came to an end with us leaving the ocean far behind and coming home to the mountains.
We loved the trip and the chance to just do nothing and relax most of the time. Thank you $22 flights and free hotel nights!
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