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5 Kid Friendly Activities in San Diego for FREE (or close to it)

Tosha Tingey • June 13, 2019

Family friendly activities to do in San Diego that aren't Seaworld or the Zoo

We love the San Diego area and that is why we couldn’t wait to come back! We spent our babymoon before Addie was born in San Diego, and were so excited to bring Addie back here and explore more. Here are the 6 toddler friendly things we did in San Diego! This was just scratching the surface, there was still so much more we could’ve done.

1. Mormon Battalion & Old Town - FREE

San Diego has a rich Mexican and pioneer history. This is so clearly captured in Old Town San Diego at the Fiesta De Reyes and the Mormon Battalion. The Mormon Battalion is a free historical site where you go on a 45 min tour and learn all about the history. This tour is so fun and kid friendly and you learn a lot about how San Diego was settled. And at the end you get a free old timey photo as well as a bunch of activities. We loved panning for gold!
Old Town is an entire block of culture and history! There are so many neat stores, museum sites, places to eat, and live entertainment all in one area. We loved eating the street tacos and watching the dancers perform traditional Mexican dances.

2. La Jolla - FREE


La Jolla is an old favorite that we had to return to. The beaches in La Jolla are so unique because most are below beautiful cliffs. Torrey Pines is a fun place to go watch hang gliders glide all around the cliffs. There is a beach below but it requires a long walk down some sketchy stairs. And the beach is swimsuit optional. You've been told so you can't say you didn't know. haha



There’s also the famous Children’s Pool where Sea Lions love to hangout! We must have gone on an off day or season or something though because there weren’t many there. But the area is still beautiful and we still saw lots of them swimming around.

3. Downtown San Diego & Cabrillo National Monument – FREE with National Park Pass

We went to the famous El Indio Mexican restaurant, that was super authentic and very yummy. After lunch we headed to Cabrillo National Monument. We got in free with our National park annual pass. The entire area is out on a peninsula and is gorgeous everywhere you look. You have a really great view of the military instillation. The drive there takes you by a huge veteran’s cemetery that feels very sacred to walk on those grounds and read the headstones and the monuments. 
The National Monument has tide pools and a light house, along with lots of trails to explore. Addie had fallen asleep in the car so we mostly drove around and enjoyed the beautiful views. Once she woke up we headed down to the tide pools just to learn they were closing at 4:30. We headed up to the lighthouse and had a half hour before it closed at 5. So our exploring part of our stay felt very rushed. We weren’t quite ready to leave San Diego so we headed to the marina where the USS Midway and the kissing statue are. We didn’t have a lot of time before needing to head back home for dinner and bed, so we just walked around and admired the massive ship.

4. Chula Vista – $12

As I mentioned, we didn’t have service at our campground. So we needed to find places we could connect to our MiFi (see all the ways we connect on the road here) and have Addie be entertained. We were so fortunate to find and be so close to Play City! It’s a huge indoor playground for kids with a dedicated closed off huge toddler area! Plus, comfy couches for the adults. It was a win win win! We spent two days here and Addie had a blast and we got a lot of work done. We noticed the entire area had tons of kid friendly places around, like a little artist shop, a trampoline center, and more! There were lots of beautiful parks nearby with tons of grassy areas. We had so many positive experiences in Chula Vista that we added it to our list of places we could live in once we settle down.

5. Ocean Beach - FREE

Ocean Beach was one of our favorites when we came here on our babymoon and was the first beach we came to on this trip. Ocean Beach has a portion of it that allows dogs! We took Finnick and had a blast playing in the water and playing with other dogs. It’s definitely not a beach you sit and relax on, because dogs will come up to you and your stuff constantly. But very fun for you and your furry friends. The rest of Ocean Beach is really nice and has the longest pier in California that you can walk out to and eat at their little café. There is a lot of free parking right by the beach too!

6. Strawberry Farm - $14-$22

The Carlsbad Strawberry Farm was a little way out of San Diego but well worth it! We stopped by here on our way to Anaheim. It was a bit pricier than what we were expecting. We chose the large $22 dollar bucket that included all three of us to go pick strawberries. But it was well worth the money. We spent over an hour picking strawberries and snapping pictures. I can’t emphasize how much fun we had picking and eating fresh strawberries! We saw several other families there as well with kids of all ages participating in this fun adventure!
Check out our blog post all about Disneyland and where we camped within walking distance of the park!

Jamaican Family Fun

By Tosha Tingey • February 4, 2020
When you're on a cruise it can be difficult to experience the island or country you are in when you only have a few hours. The other challenge we had was finding an excursion that our entire family could join. And by entire family I mean my parents, my sister's family with four kids, and our family! So when we found Chukka Caribbean's excursion that included Zip-lining, River Tubing, ATV ride, lunch, and a bird aviary - it was the plan for a perfect day!

What is there in Granby Colorado?!

By Tosha Tingey • October 1, 2019
If you’ve ever gone to Rocky Mountain National Park, you most likely came through Estes Park. It’s pretty well known but from now on when we go to the National Park we will be going to Granby. Granby is on the western side of Rocky Mountain National Park. We found an AMAZING campground to stay at that has so many amenities and the area all around is packed with fun things to do!

3 Times We Almost Called it Quits

By Tosha Tingey • August 5, 2019
I always want to be real with anyone reading this blog about full-time travel, tiny living, Airstream life… all of the above. So I want to share some of our hardest moments that had us either wanting to quit or had us seriously questioning, “what are we even doing?” So here we go…

One Day in Seattle with a Toddler

By Tosha Tingey • July 22, 2019
Pike’s Place Market place is the longest-running farmer’s market in America! The hype and the buzz of the atmosphere is palpable. You have flowers lining one side and the most unique crafts, food, art, jewelry, anything you can think of on the other! On the lower level, you’ll find shops dedicated to vintage prints, toy cars, magic shops, and more unique products! And of course, the famous fish throwing vendor will not leave you disappointed. I usually get anxiety in large crowds and people trying to sell me stuff. But the vibe here was so family-friendly. The crowds felt less annoying and more like I just found the after party of Seattle. Just a short stairway away is the somehow popular and extremely gross, gum wall. This alleyway is just covered in gum on the walls and it looks really cool, just don’t think about it too much.

3 Months of Tiny Living - What we love and what we don't

By Tosha Tingey • July 18, 2019
As with just about anything in life, you can only prepare so much until you are actually living it. We have been living in a 150 sq ft Airstream for the past 3 months and here are 3 things we love and 3 things we don’t.

5 Best Features in our Airstream Renovation

By Tosha Tingey • July 18, 2019
1. Self-Cleaning Vacuum We have a little hidden cubby where we keep our Deebot (googly eyes not included). This almost didn’t happen and I am SO glad it did. I learned within one day how dirty our floors get. It’s awesome to run the little robot vacuum while we are gone or asleep or packing up and have it do all the work.

Thousand Trails - Pacific City

By Jonathan Tingey • July 16, 2019
Pacific City RV Resort had so many amenities and the biggest, most private campsites we've ever had! It's across the street from the beach and lives in the beautiful small coastal town of Pacific City, Oregon.

Thousand Trails - Russian River

By Tosha Tingey • July 4, 2019
The Thousand Trails campground, Russian River was just a half way stop near Santa Rosa, CA and we were pleasantly surprised with what this RV campground had to offer!

Thousand Trails - Yosemite Lakes

By Tosha Tingey • July 4, 2019
The Yosemite Lakes campground was actually the one that got us interested in a Thousand Trails to begin with. This campground is chuck full of amenities in the campground itself, and it’s 10 min away from the Yosemite National Park entrance. And I’m apologizing in advance, we were enjoying it so much that we forgot to take pictures until we left! So I only have a few but hopefully it’s better than nothing.

Thousand Trails - Rancho Oso

By Tosha Tingey • July 4, 2019
Our first mistake with our stay in Rancho Oso is that it wasn’t long enough. This stop was an in-between stop to break up driving days. So after they tell us about the fun rodeos, activities, horseback riding, and more they were doing this weekend we looked at each other and wished our stay was longer.
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