Gone Fishing

I don't know if this vacation was great because it actually was, or because we needed it to be.  Either way, this week has been exactly what the four of us needed to relax and recoup from the week before, and really recover from all that's gone on this summer, between loosing dog-brother Griz, and Grandma Dillier, to almost loosing our newborn son and the unexpected loss of John's mom and the anniversary of my own father's death which always makes me extra emotional this time of year.  It's been a rough summer and we desperately needed some happy.

We started out by staying in John's dad's St George condo and visited the dinosaur tracks museum, we traveled on to Baker and got some Alien Fresh Jerky, then had dinner at the scummiest McDonald's ever in Victorville.  We got lost on our way to our hotel  and after 14 hours of driving (split over two days) all the while our three month old was cutting his first two teeth, we ended up in San Diego where Alex's eczema miraculously disappeared and we proceeded to have a wonderful vacation.

We spent the first two days celebrating Alex's third birthday at Sea World and saw everything except the Aquarium Del Mar and the Sesame Street "4D" movie. We let Alex pick out any toys he wanted at the gift shops (he bought a squeaky Shamu, a toy car, a coloring book and two smooshed pennies; one Shamu and one Elmo, both of which got lost somewhere in the van on the ride back to the hotel), we let him buy popcorn in a collectible bucket and a frozen lemonade in a souvenir Shamu sports bottle. We ate caramel apple funnel cakes and Killer Whale shaped cookies.  We spent a lot of time watching Beluga Whales.  We fed stinky fish to dolphins and sea lions.  We played in the Sesame Street play land.  We rolled our eyes at the over the top production of the Shamu show, but ooh ed and aahed anyway.  We laughed at the big fat pink walrus that crawled out of the water at the sea lion show.  We were nice to a mime.  We clapped manically for the flying dolphins.  We did not get splashed, even though we sat in the "Soak zone" for each and every show.  Mommy got sick on the spinning star fish ride and Daddy got nauseous on the Oscar the Grouch boat ride, Alex wanted to go on all the rides "AGAIN! AGAIN!"  All in all, Sea World exceeded our expectations and, for us, was worth the hefty entrance fee.

On Saturday we spent most of the day lazing around the hotel room then got bored so we went out to purchase a navigation system for no good reason other than John happened to mention it and I agreed that it would be a good idea seeing as how neither of us seem to have a very good sense of direction.  We got a Garmin and she has become our new best friend.  We all get in the car and ask her how to get where we're going.  We trust her completely, even though the first night we had her she led us on a meandering route through a less than desirable neighborhood.  She made up for it yesterday though, by suggesting and leading us to a kick ass restaurant in Old Town called Rockin' Baja Lobster.  Saturday night we went to a Padres game and our team won, meaning that they will not loose 100 games this season!  They were also having a 25% off sale at the gift shop so naturally, we came home with lots more Padres swag.

Sunday we visited seal beach at La Jolla Cove and it was beautifully foggy and cool.  It was fun to show Alex the seals relaxing on the beach after having seen them at Sea World.  Since it was overcast and cool, we went out to Ocean Beach, scored a perfect parking spot right at the entrance to the public beach and Alex and I collected sea shells and waded in the surf.

Today we went up to Fallbrook to visit my grandma (we'll be bringing her home with us to stay for a few weeks), we went to our favorite place to eat in Fallbrook, The Garden, for lunch (I had the Monte Cristo because I only get to have it once a year and it is worth every single one of the five kajillion calories) then came back to the hotel and swam in the pool.

We're leaving tomorrow, and it really feels too soon.  A week ago, I couldn't wait to take my family away from home.  Leave all of our stress and grief at our house and get away for a while.  We spent a week happily in denial-ville.  Putting aside, for a few days, everything that had happened just before we left.  Tomorrow we're going back, real life will be waiting for us on our doorstep.  I just hope that we've filled up our reserves enough to deal with it again.