Go West, Young Man.....

So, what are the rules on how long these things can be? My intent was to make a new post every day of our vacation, sharing with you all the good, the bad, and the ugly as it unfolded. Sadly, the ugly came first - in the form of a mondo virus that apparently evades even my up-to-the minute (paid extra for it; how brilliant is that?) software - and I was unable to access anything computer-related.

Now here's the really cool thing: You heard about the ugly - and that actually happened during the "business" portion of my trip to California - but for the actual vacation, there was not one single thing that I can say was "bad". My travel curse has lifted. In fact, it is so far gone that this trip was phenomenally awesome. Every single element involved some kindness from family, friends, or complete strangers. We were able to do so many things that we never planned to do because of last-minute freebies and gifts. The kids had a blast - they hardly fought at all. No flight delays, no bad weather, no roaches in the condo. Just overwhelmingly fun!

So, I thought since I was unable to update you as we went along, I would just cram it all into one giant post and let you read it in installments, if you need to.....

The first thing that unfolded for us related to the fact that I was already in California the week prior to vacation. I needed one night in a hotel before we could check in to our condo. In San Diego, the only hotel rooms that are less than $150 are the scary kind with bars on the windows. Mama don't play dat. So, I had found a little dorm-style "limited service" place that looked nice, but very tiny. Twin bed, one shared bathroom for each floor, no elevator, etc. But just for me, and just for one night, I thought it sounded like a fun adventure.... I emailed a friend of Neal's in San Diego to see if they could vouch for the neighborhood, and instead, they invited me to stay with them. So, rather than paying $150 for a decent room, or $89 for a tiny room, I paid nothing for a nice guest room in the home of some folks I can now call friends.

They have an adorable little Squidget named Lucas. He is almost 2, and I had so much fun hanging out with him - once he decided I wasn't going to be there forever and that his parents weren't leaving him. We played "stack and crash" - and he let me try out my camera with this cool color filtering feature. I set it to only pick up the blue of his eyes. It almost worked, except that his little toy cow-blanket-thing is also blue. Anyway, it is a cool feature.... Thanks, Lucas, for letting me hang out at your house!!

Lucas' parents are pretty cool too. Mark and Elizabeth went way out of their way to make sure we had a good time. They shared guest passes to some of the activities there, helped me get my bearings for when I needed to go get the rest of my family at the airport, and showed me a few fun sights for future reference - not to mention letting me stay in their home! And here's another cool little tid-bit. Their last name is Payne. (For those of you who may not know - Payne is my maiden name.) We are trying to figure out if we might be related. It's a small world after all..... Anyway, at the end of our trip, the Paynes met up with us for dinner and we had a waitress take this little group photo.... (Lucas was so over us!!) Why do I choose such tall friends?

So, on to the fun stuff! Our first adventure was to visit Sea World. We had not planned to go this year, since we went to Sea World in San Antonio last year, but Mark and Elizabeth had free tickets, so we couldn't pass that up!! The kids really liked the "Pets Rule!" show, but for some reason I don't have any pictures of that. They had trained a bunch of (allegedly) homeless cats and dogs to do some really cool tricks, and then set the stunts to music. Very cute!

William's main memory is from the Clydesdale horses.... Drummer thought that his finger was tasty, so he tried to eat it for a snack. Neal got William's hand loose, but there was still a nice little mark on his middle finger. Nothing big, except that it was a cool memory once it stopped hurting. I think they freaked out when the heard about it - the "team member" had his manager over there in no time!! Of course, I would have a hard time arguing anything since Drummer's stall was right next to the "Keep hands out - remember, these animals bite" sign. Oh, well......

We also got to see Shamu, of course!

Our next hoorah was the San Diego Zoo. Here are some of the photos - not all, by any means......

When I was a yoooooooouuuuuung waaaaaaaaaaaart hooooooooooooooog!

And this one's for harb.....

These two were in the Primate House:

Then, we went to Legoland. Wow. You have to go there at least once. It is set up to entertain 2-year-olds to grandparents, and everyone in between. We loved it!!! Miniland was awesome. Entire little worlds completely made out of Legos. Actual Legos - just glued together. They had the Las Vegas strip, Washington DC, the Sydney Opera House, everything you could imagine. They have 20 people on staff who spend every day playing with Legos until they come up with something new to build. They earn their keep, though - everything was amazing!!

(Oh, and this was another discount-scenario. The people in front of us had two free passes they didn't need, so they gave them to us. Saved $100.)

We also got to see, per William's repeated request, The King and I. It was very good. It was performed at the Lawrence Welk Resort where we stayed (Thank you, Mimi and Pa!!!) We didn't get any photos, though the kids did enjoy meeting both The King and Miss Anna after the show. Our villa was lovely.

For some reason, I didn't think to take any pictures of it, except this one just beyond our back door. The camera was sitting on our patio table, so you can see the same view we did every morning over breakfast – except for the weird family standing in the middle; they usually weren’t blocking the vista.

The Rec Center had a fun gameroom that the kids enjoyed. Naomi now loves Air Hockey, and William discovered the Nintendo room. The rec center was quickly forgotten, though, once they discovered the pool.... and water slide....

He shoots, he scores!!

I love this picture!!

We have a really nice neighborhood pool. Technically, not a "neighborhood" one in the sense that it is only for us, but it is just around the corner. If we didn't bring lounge chairs, we could bike over. It's relatively cheap too - at least cheaper than installing an in-ground pool in the back yard.... Anyway, we spend every weekend there that it isn't raining. (Plus one where it was - we had planned a pool party, and a storm blew in literally one hour before the party. Lasted until the very end of the party too. The pool is owned by the YWCA, so they let us use their party room at the main facility instead. See? They are great, but refer to the last post - events and me - not a good combo.)

Have Issues, Will Travel

So, it seems that I have a travel curse. Or maybe it is an "event" curse, but that is probably another post. If you have any travel plans, don't invite me. Your flight will be delayed, or the place you are going will flood, or break off into the ocean, or some combination thereof.

Recently, the midwestern US was largely underwater. I was there. I was in the air as the first rains fell, and I sat on a runway in Indianapolis for 4 hours while they waited (brilliantly) for the rain to pass. It didn't, but it let up enough, apparently, for them to let us at least land in the right city - eventually. With fuel prices what they are, the powers that be thought it logical to turn off the engines while we sat, which meant no A/C. The flight was completely full, and it was June. You would not have wanted to breathe near any of us by the time we actually got off the plane.

Anyway, this event got me thinking: this is beginning to seem "normal" for me. Another recent trip, I sat in the Houston airport for 8 hours because I missed a connecting flight by 10 minutes. My real flight left right-on-time, which it would not have done had I been on time. But since I was late, it was on time.

The trip before that, I sat on a runway for 2 hours while my plane waited for ... something. Not sure what. Not even sure I remember which city I was in.

And it isn't just air travel. Some friends allowed us to tag along on a camping trip - a destination they frequent. The wind was so strong, we could barely leave the camper without losing the door. They said it has never been above a breeze....

Ok, so now I am thinking: is this a recent thing? Or has it always been this way? I took a cruise for my honeymoon. Ridiculous weather. Even the waiters couldn't keep their balance. I flew to visit my sister in North Carolina. The flight was hours late and re-routed to a completely different town. I think we arrived at 2 am with a two-hour drive (or maybe it just felt like two hours) back to her place. Without our luggage.

sigh.

There are more stories, I am sure, but right now, I have to go pack for my trip to California. Maybe they will appreaciate me if it rains. (But you might want to head to Florida, just in case!!)

Lemmings

Well, I am jumping on the bandwagon, as it were - finally "blogging".... I hope no one plans to learn anything juicy here: my work is, by definition, confidential; my spare time is pretty much filled with church activities; and my best stories are almost always kid-related. The main purpose for even joining this public-view diary concept is so that I can finally make kid pictures and updates available to grandparents.... So, for the rest of you, keep on clicking. I am sure there are other much-more-gossip-worthy blogs out there.....