San Diego recap

Better late than never... if nothing else, it gets it in writing so I have half a chance to get it in the kids' journals!

Tuesday (April 1) we drove to Indianapolis and stayed in a hotel close to the airport. We used Priceline and got the Hyatt Place--it was very nice and the people were very friendly. Patrick stayed up all night working, which was a good thing because our wake-up call never came through (oops!). At 5:30, we got Henry up, and Patrick and Henry took the shuttle to the airport for their 7 am flight. I went back to bed, and Harmony and I slept too late--by the time we left the hotel, it was after 9:30, and we didn't get back in town until almost 11. I then realized that I had neither packed her lunch, nor did I have anything to pack at home...nor time to stop by home and make it to class on time! So instead we picked up McD's. Harmony was in heaven, the toy was a princess toy. Meanwhile, Patrick and Henry were bumped off of their MSP-->SD flight, so they had time to eat brunch at one of Patrick's favorite restaurants.

I went to class and tried to get a bunch of stuff done befor picking Harmony up. She had a special treat of Steak and Shake (fridge was empty!) before going to a friend's house while I had dinner with our big name biochem speaker.

Thursday morning I had class at 8 am--Harmony's not usually awake by 8 am; Patrick does drop off on Tuesday/Thursday. So I put her to bed in clean clothes for the morning, and I basically got her up, put her in her carseat, and brought breakfasat to school. I felt bad dropping her off that way, but there weren't a lot of options. Taught my class, ran home to pack, ran back to school to return the school credit card from the night before (which I forgot to actually return--more later), listened to the speaker, made sure things were set for lab, picked up Harmony and drove to the airport. We had the perfect amount of time before our flight, but man, I wanted a nap!

Meanwhile, Patrick to Henry to see the Midway, a retired aircraft carrier. Henry was in heaven, and wanted to go back every day we were there.

Harmony loved the airplane, and was tired--she gets boistrous when she's tired. But no go on a nap. We got to SD at 7:30 pm, and Patrick and Henry met us at the airport. We took the bus and trolley to the hotel and dropped our bags off, then went to a tapas place. Harmony's poor body was still on IN time, so it was after midnight on her body's clock, and she finally fell asleep at the table. I felt badly, but we needed to eat!

Friday we moved to our hotel for the next several days of the trip. Even though I got a great deal on HotWire for our hotel, we were still able to check in really early, which was wonderful.

Next destination: Balboa Park. Not only is it a great park, there are great museums and some restaurants. We explored some of the park, ate sushi and noodles for lunch, and visited several museums. The kids' favorite was the railroad one--and we liked it too. We bought the unlimited pass for Patrick, since he was planning to go back with the kids while I was a the meeting, but were just planning to pay for my entrance fees as we went. But as we were leaving the visitor's center, someone gave us their books, saying they were leaving town and couldn't use the remainder! While there were some that were gone, it was definitely a blessing!

That evening we met some internet friends that have kids the same age as Henry. Henry had a great time playing tic tac toe and straw fighting with Cole and Sami, while Harmony enjoyed Daddy's company. It was fun!

Saturday I took the kids swimming (brr!) before my meeting from 11:30 to 5 (I judged an undergraduate poster contest). Meanwhile, they went to Balboa Park. We met back at the Spanish restaurant for tapas for dinner.

Sunday I ran in a 5K, then we met my brother Mark at the zoo (he lives an hour north of SD). We took the bus tour, then went on foot. Henry really liked the takins (why, I have no idea) so we hiked to the top of the hill where they were and took the tram back down. It was a good day for the zoo--not too hot but not freezing either. Afterwards we went to Ra Sushi for dinner (can you tell DH's definition of vacation is eating good food?)

Monday I went to a session while they hung out at the hotel. Afterwards, we took the ferry to Coranado. Patrick really only wanted to take the ferry over and back, but there was a sandy area right by the ferry landing, and a little girl was playing in the sand and asked H&H to join her. The other mom was from WV and had brought a babysitter, so we compared notes on stuff to do. We took the ferry back and ate lunch at the Fish Market. Harmony and I headed back to the hotel to pack (we moved hotels) while Henry played in the trees. The guys ended up taking a very scenic tour home (walking under the flight path of the planes), so Harmony and I ended up moving four backpacks and three carry on suitcases ourselves. I'm not sure how we pulled that off, but we did.

The new hotel was the W, which was quite hip. Harmony loved the beach ball pillows on the bed, and they both enjoyed the chalkboard in the room. We ended up vegging/taking naps (me) before my dinner meeting. I don't know what they ended up doing for food, but I had dinner at Molly's in the Marriott.

Tuesday morning we went back down to the harbor for one last look at the Midway, then headed to the airport. The security line was scarily long, but we made it The plane rides were uneventful, other than that I desparately needed a nap and Harmony wouldn't let me, and then by the time I was awake, she pouted about leaving for most of the rest of the flight.

We got back to Indy at about 11:30 pm, dropped DH off at a hotel (I didn't want to lose all of Wed morning again), then I drove home. The kids eventually konked out in the car, but it was hard getting everyone up in the morning!

Well, that was a novel! I'm impressed if you read it all!