We’ve been owing the pups a road trip somewhere since we moved to California a year ago, and this weekend we finally had the chance to explore San Diego! The lovely team at the Loews Coronado Bay Resort set us up with a three day, two night stay situated right on the water.

Upon check in, the pups and I received a handwritten note welcoming us to the hotel. The service at this hotel was probably one of the best I’ve ever received, and everyone was super friendly towards Kokoro and Chibi.

Kokoro quickly claimed the bowl of goodies filled with chews and a “California” dog toy that was left in our room. Chibi went straight under the bed to claim her spot in our room.

Our hotel room was clean, spacious, and opened out to a nice balcony that gave us a partial view of the bay.

The location itself warranted a walk around the resort. There was plenty of beautiful blue to look out into and explore with the pups.

We enjoyed a ton of amazing food while we were in San Diego. The hotel has an all-you-can-eat breakfast with an optional all-you-can-drink special on Saturdays and Sundays. Definitely worth it if you’re planning on doing bottomless mimosas (which we did)! We didn’t bring the pups down to the restaurant but did see a Frenchie sitting with his owners during breakfast.

We also stopped by the North Park area for one of our lunches. We stumbled upon Tostadas, a quiet and unassuming restaurant on a corner with some of the best seafood and tapas I’ve ever had. And the presentation on this fast casual food was SO impressive!

Down the street from Tostadas is Hammond’s Gourmet Ice Cream. This place is unique in that you can get a flight of mini ice cream cones (or cups) to try a ton of different flavors. We got six, but you can get up to one of each of their flavors (32!). I am a HUGE ice cream lover so this was definitely one of the highlights of our eating adventure. Pictured below are fun-sized scoops of Mint Chocolate Chip, Sea Salt Caramel, Macadamia Nut, Lychee, Kona Coffee, and Butter Pecan that we viciously devoured shortly after snapping this quick pic.

On the last day of our stay, we woke up bright and early to enjoy the remaining hours of our time in San Diego. We planned a kayaking trip as our last to-do for the trip. You can simply call the kayak rental place from your hotel room and reserve equipment. You can also walk in, but on a weekend, it’s probably best to make a reservation. They also do canoes, stand-up-paddleboards, and other water sports equipment.

Photos don’t do the outing nearly enough justice. The water was serene (so much cleaner than in tourist-filled LA) and it was such a peaceful way to start out our day.

Kokoro hung on to the front of the canoe as if she was leading the way for our voyage. Chibi instead decided that she wanted to go for a swim and hopped from my kayak within the first five minutes of our trip straight into the ocean. She’s become such a good swimmer and developed such a love for water since she started swim therapy for her hip dysplasia.

Although both of our dogs can swim, we had them each don an Outward Hound life jackets for extra safety. These turned out to be super useful because the handles on their backs made it really easy to pick the pups up and plop them back into the kayaks when they wanted to come back in.

Needless to say, the pups were absolutely exhausted after three full days of exploring.

Till next time, San Diego!