Home!

We’re back home, preparing for the work week.  While none of us are looking forward to our respective schools or places of work tomorrow, it’s nice to be home.  ESPECIALLY considering San Diego had the pleasure of enjoying a 7.2 magnitude earthquake 180 miles(ish) Southeast of town.  Crazy!

Somewhat of a hectic departure from San Diego…we got up a bit late on Saturday, around 7:30.  We thought we were OK because we had packed the night before and pretty much had to shower, grab breakfast and head out.  Of course it took longer then expected and we were on the road by 8:45….no problem, just had to drop off the car, get to the airport and check in for our 10:30 flight…we’d be fine!  Get to the car rental place…car checked in, great.  “Which Airline?” we were asked…”American” we answered as that is what our itinerary said.  “Great, that’s Terminal 2, we’ll get you there in 10 minutes.”  The driver drops us off…and even helps us unload our large haul of gear…9:20…cutting it close, but we’ll be OK.  We get our stuff assembled, cross the street to the terminal, ride the elevator up (we’re not lazy, we had a lot of stuff and our Bob Stroller with us)…and we’re greeted by a sign welcoming us to the American Airlines ticket counter…unless you’re flying to Seattle…because those flights are run by Alaska…out of Terminal 1.  Crap.  Back downstairs…to learn that you can’t just walk there…you have to catch a shuttle.  The Shuttle comes…we hope on…we get to the first stop, drop a guy off and wait…and wait.  KILLING US.  Finally we took off and got to Terminal 1…unloaded our gear, got situated again…and rushed to the ticket counter.  Checked in, realized that we hadn’t told the airline that we had a lap infant…and we were assigned to the rows in front of the exit row, which for some reason can’t have lap infants.  No problem they tell us, just tell the gate agent and they’ll get it straightened out.  It’s now 10:00 (yes our flight was to depart at 10:30)…and there is an ENORMOUS line at security…double CRAP!  We stood in line…and started to realize that we weren’t going to make it.  Then, out of nowhere, a security lady walks by, sees us with our large Bob stroller and asks us to come with her…she takes us to the very front of the line and lets us in the wheelchair assistance door which makes us next in line.  Just as we get our shoes off, we hear our name getting butchered over the loud speaker.  (You’d think that in San Diego, they might be able to say “dos Remedios”…not so much.)  Sarah takes off running with Maria to figure out the seat assignments and I stay behind to collect our stuff.  Of course I get pulled over to have our strolled swabbed for explosives…ugh.  I pack everything up thinking that I’m in for a nice long sprint…gate 17…that sounds like a good quarter mile away.  I pack up the bags and strolled and run up the escalator…THANKFULLY gate 17 was the first gate on my left…Sarah was at the counter getting everything squared away.  With tickets in hand, we walk to the gate agent…OH NO…they had assigned us Exit row seats as they still didn’t have Maria added as a lap infant.  The lady from the counter was very apologetic and just said, “Come with me!”…she marched us onto the plane and started directing people to move around to open up a couple non-exit, non-row in front of the exit seats for us.  Yes we made the plane…no we didn’t get the entire row to ourselves…but we didn’t care, just happy to be on the plane.  Ended up sharing a row with a very nice, petite, mother of three (7, 4 and 2)…Sarah and I talked about it, she was pretty much the best case scenario of a person to share a row with a lap infant.

Made it home no problem from there…got a wonderful report from our dog sitter, Sara, that THE Lucy had been perfect…no messes in the house…just a lot of snuggling.  Our puppy is FINALLY figuring things out…what a good doggie!  While we had a wonderful vacation…we were so happy to be back home and to see our doggie.

I’ll close with a few previously un-posted pictures from our trip…

@ Seaworld…

@ Old Town…

@ Random Park Maria loved playing at…

@ La Jolla Cove at Sunset…