San Diego

San Diego was wonderful. First. The Weather? Amazing. Seriously. Previously we've visited in April and late September. It was awesome to leave the hot, humid, stifling August weather in DC for the unbelievably clear, sunny and hot-with-a-cool-breeze weather in San Diego.

One of the things I hate most in life is sweating and in DC, in August, I sweat. A lot. In San Diego, we walked around all day in the hot sun and I had my hair down and I swear, not a bead of sweat. It was awesome. My sister says that the weather is what she'll miss most about San Diego when they eventually move on (which is pretty much a certainty with her hubby being a Marine and all). I completely understand why.

Other than enjoying my sweat-free days, we had some lovely adventures. It was a great mix of chilling out and relaxing (I refuse to use the word chillaxing!) at their house with the pool and the dogs and going on fun excursions. We spent a day at Balboa Park, a day at Legoland and a day a Torrey Pines State Park at the beach. We went into Old Town for the evening to walk around and have some amazing Mexican food and took Lucas to the local playgrounds a few times. Sarah even pushed Abel and me out the door for a date night on our last evening!

Because of the time change and the fact that Lucas woke up around 5am the first few days, Abel and I got to bed very early each night--usually hitting the sack by 9:30pm. It was awesome to get so much rest!

Overall, Lucas did a great job for the entire week. The one exception was the flight home. There were moments where I felt like I was dealing with an exorcist child. I had to physically hold his ankles to stop him from flailing around and hitting Abel and me as well as the poor passengers seated in front of us. He didn't sleep. He was hungry but refused the PB&J I had packed. He got bored with the movies. Didn't want to read books. Didn't want to do anything, it seemed, except yell and kick the seat in front of him.

It was rough.

We had a very short layover at JFK and practically ran from one gate to the next. We got there with a few minutes to spare and Lucas just broke down. Not yelling or crying but stomping his feet and generally being upset. There was a very nice grandmotherly lady next to us who looked at me and said, "That's exactly how I feel only I can't express it like he can." It really broke the tension for me. I think every mother knows how much a comment like that or an I've-been-there-smile can just lift the world off your shoulders.

In contrast was the the total richie rich couple pushing a stroller who passed us in La Jolla and gave Lucas (who was playing with a fountain and totally not doing anything bad at all) and me the most disgusted look ever. I interpreted it to mean, "OMG. Our child will never be like that!" And after they passed my sister said, "I think that was a dog in that stroller!"

I burst out laughing.

I'm sure it was a dog. And, I'm sure they were disgusted by Lucas. Let's all just hope they never have real kids!


Original post by Smiling Mama. Thanks for reading!