48 hours of summer bliss

This past weekend, we squeezed in a last minute trip to say farewell to summer before our daughter starts TK next week!

Because it was just a short little getaway, we didn’t stray too far and ended up staying in San Diego for the weekend at the new Gaylord Pacific Resort Hotel. It opened in May 2025 and I can confirm walking in, it still looks and smells brand spanking new, which was really nice! We’d seen the hotel on social media and thought it was perfect since we wanted somewhere where we didn’t have to leave the hotel for anything and ideally we could just sit by the pool. And we did just that!

The resort is STUNNING to say the least and the pool area is definitely their main attraction. They have 5 pools and a big jacuzzi- one adult only area/pool, a wave pool, a lazy river, a pool with two huge water slides, and a baby/toddler only pool where the depth was only 2 feet and it had it’s own 3 mini slides. The baby pool is where we stayed for both days, although we did do a dip in the lazy river as well. They have cabanas for rent and beach chairs throughout the pools so you’re never far from where you dump your stuff. There’s a pool front restuarant where you can walk up and order or they also have waiters walking around each section if you want food delivered to your seats. At the adult only pool, there’s a bar over on that side as well. They also have an arcarde which is super cute and open 24 hours!

It was so relaxing and the kids pool really made the trip. We were able to sit and let Jaxson crawl and “swim” all he wanted and Avery could go up and down the slides as many times as she wanted without us feeling like we had to chase her down all the time. From our seats we could see her everywhere she went. And honeslty, we really sat in the pool the whole time waiting for her to come down the slide anyway. Another little detail that I appreciated– the kids pool was the only pool that was heated!! So the water was really nice, it felt like soaking in the bath!

If you look up the resort and are thinking about visiting, I’d say do it! Especially if you have kids! It’s such a laid back way to vacation! And because it’s in San Diego, if you stayed for a longer period of time, you could plan other excursions too like the San Diego Zoo or Wild Animal Park, Sea World (if you’re into that, I’m not a fan of Sea World), Legoland, the list goes on! On our way home, we actually stopped by the Birch Aquarium which is really cool and typically not packed so you can really take your time and actually see all the fish up close! They also stay open till 7 pm!