Wordless Wednesday: Shave Ice in Winter

Enjoying his Shave Ice

I love making little traditions with my family. One of our little traditions involves minimum school days. My daughter is in 1st grade and every Wednesday she gets out an hour early from school. On these days we do something special. We usually head over to 7-11 to get a slurpee or grab some frozen yogurt. A new shop has opened up near our home, Oahu Shaved Ice and we can’t get enough. We now head over after school on Wednesdays for some Shave Ice. It’s something the kiddos look forward to and so do I! Do you have “little traditions”?

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I would love to feature your photos of your outings on Wordless Wednesday. If you have any that you would like to share, please send them to mom@daytrippingmom.com

San Diego Model Railroad Museum

I’m excited to introduce the first of our new contributors Syreeta! She recently had the opportunity to head down for a fun day with the family in San Diego and shares all about it.

Credit: S Morales

I’m always looking for new and exciting things to do with my little buddies, and this weekend was no exception. We jumped in the mommy mobile and headed south to visit the San Diego Model Railroad Museum. The museum is located in historic Balboa Park which is chock full of beauty, art, and culture. Parking is free, but it’s a bit of a nightmare, so wear your most comfortable shoes, leave your car out on the street and walk into the park.

Credit: S Morales

The SDMRM is located on El Prado Street between the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center and the Museum of Photographic Art. The cost to enter the museum is $8.00 for adults, and the best part is that kids under 14 are FREE with a paid adult admission. Luckily, I found a great deal on Living Social to get our tickets for $4.00 each. If you live in San Diego County, the first Tuesday of the month is free.

Credit: S Morales

When we first entered the museum, my kids ran straight for a small replica of an American steam engine train from the 1830’s. And that was just the beginning of their intense amazement at this awesome place. The models were built using several different scales, with their descriptions printed in the windows. One awesome thing is that they allow you to go upstairs where you can watch some creators painting and working to complete new models. It’s pretty cool to see them in unfinished status. The intricate detail that goes into these model towns is amazing. One model town even had an old school McDonald’s and kids sledding down a snow covered hill.

After spending quite some time marveling over every billboard and cop car with flashing lights, we made our way down to the star of the museum since Thanksgiving: the Holiday Lego Train Exhibit brought for our enjoyment by the Southern California Lego Train Club. If you’ve ever been to Legoland, you will immediately recognize the outstanding level of creativity in every piece of work in the Lego display. There was a train track and real moving train surrounding a town filled with busy occupants. The club created a list of Lego items for you to search for in the town, and my kids had an absolute blast looking for things like a cat burglar and a porta potty.

The San Diego Model Railroad Museum is a great place to spend a couple hours with your kids exploring these impressive models. To learn more about the museum, head here

Syreeta is mom to two very busy boys, ages 3 and 10. She works full time as a loan processor at a local credit union, and part time as a finder of fun! She loves to take her family out on new adventures all over Southern California. Disneyland is her favorite place to make memories, but she also enjoys other amusement parks, museums, zoos, exhibits, and anywhere else there are good times to be found.

Daytripping in Newport Beach: The best $15 I’ve ever spent

: Ruby’s Shake Shack is like no other!

Last Saturday, we had planned to go whale watching with Dana Wharf and Sportfishing, however, due to the stormy weather and not the ideal boating conditions, we decided to reschedule to next Saturday (post coming soon). I had two kiddos that were very disappointed that the weather had thwarted our plans. We decided to have some fun even if we might get a little wet. We decided since we were already on our way to the beach to head to Newport Beach to explore the Sherman Library and Gardens.

Sherman Gardens

The Sherman Library and Gardens, located in Corona del Mar is a museum of living plants and fun to walk around with the kids. I would recommend that if your kiddos have cameras,to bring them along. I let the kiddos borrow my iPhone to capture whatever they found interesting and it really put a fun twist on our outing. The kiddos loved getting up close with the plants and trying to learn as much as possible about the different plants. It was downright beautiful and peaceful. The kiddos and I were both “zenning” (I just made that word up) and taking in the beauty of it all.

Love all of the different colors!

Smelling it all in

We had a great time at Sherman Gardens but we were still itching to do some exploring and we decided to head further down PCH. Next stop, Ruby’s Shake Shack. I’ve passed the Shack so many times but it’s usually crowded, but not this time. We stopped in for some shakes and ice cream and boy were we in for a treat. The views are spectacular and the kids and I took it all in.

Taking it all in

We sat down and watched the waves crash down. The kids couldn’t stop talking about the view and the waves. It was breathtaking.

"Look at those waves!"

After we watched the waves, we were wanting to go down into the sand so we traveled further down PCH to Aliso Beach Park (it’s not technically in Newport but close enough). We played in the sand for an hour and a half. The kids ran around having the time of their lives and I couldn’t stop grinning from ear to ear!

Playing their heart out

It was a beautiful day

The kids and I had the best day. We finished it all of by sitting on one of the nearby benches, all snuggled up and watched the sunset. It was a simple day, yet so magical all at the same time.

Our view of the Sunset

Our unplanned day trip turned out to be an unforgettable one. We had so much fun and made some incredible memories and we hardly spent a dime. I hope you can jump in the car and just head down somewhere fun. No planning, simple fun and incredible memories!