What do you get when you combine a roughly 450-mile (one way!) car ride, some furry friends and an over-the-top excited toddler?
A very memorable trip.
My granddaughter turned two in January.
Her mom – my daughter, Ally – wanted a special birthday trip for her. The trip was to San Diego, to an amusement/water park called Sesame Place. My son-in-law Judd and I convinced Ally that January was not the time to go to a water park so we did the big birthday trip in August instead.
We got tickets for two days in the park when all of it – including the water features portion – was open, and added a couple of perks like preferred viewing for an afternoon parade and a very special Lunch with Elmo.
Disneyland will have to wait a few years; granddaughter Lorelei is a huge Sesame Street fan and that’s what this trip was all about. She loves Elmo and Abby, Zoe and Oscar the Grouch (or, as she calls him, “Oscar Gouch”), Cookie Monster and all the other well-known inhabitants of that very special street.
My daughter learned of this Sesame Street theme park from a co-worker and knew we had to go.
We ended up booking an Airbnb within a roughly 15- to 20-minute drive of the park and that was our home base for the Thursday through Sunday trip.
Tickets for the park were for Friday and Saturday so we spent Thursday getting there, Friday and Saturday in the park with a side trip to the ocean on Saturday, and Sunday getting back home.
We had barely gotten underway when my daughter stated, more than asked, “So, you’re taking notes for a column.” Which, I kind of was, at least in my head. I knew there would be plenty of moments to remember.
Such as checking out the Airbnb for the first time and Lorelei discovering that the main portion of the house went around in a big circle. You could go in the front door, into the living room, through a TV room and into the kitchen, pass through a small office and get back to the living room. She ran a few laps while we were there.
Or the fact that she was initially petrified of the pink bathtub and didn’t want to even stand in it, let alone take a bath.
But at the park itself, her face when she got to meet her Sesame Street friends was just precious. The first thing she got to do was a dance party with Rosita and Telly; she happened to have her little plastic Rosita figurine with her and showed it to her furry friend, who promptly hugged it, kissed it and then gave it back to her.
The Lunch with Elmo was the best, though, as Elmo, Zoe and Cookie Monster were the three that came out and did a little show, then invited the kids to join them for some high fives, dancing, photos and more. She got to hug Elmo and was quick to snatch her cupcake away from that always-hungry Cookie Monster when he came a little too close for comfort during the ‘meet and greet’ portion when they stopped by each dining table.
She also enjoyed the wave pool and was excited to be tall enough to ride all the rides, although some required an adult companion. She did Ernie’s submarine ride way too many times but she loved it.
Outside of the park, we literally went to the same nearby mall each night of our stay to get dinner at one of the many dining options there and Judd found a ‘claw store’ that was nothing but rows of the claw machines where you try and win a prize. Lorelei loves those. And darned if she didn’t scoop up two stuffed animals in one claw, making sure she got her money’s worth. Definitely a memorable trip for all.
