Ok so the morning of the 28th which was a Tuesday we had to be up bright and early, we needed to be at the airport by 5h50 to get a plane by 6h50 which meant being up at 3h50 to leave at 4h50 ... everyone showed and Amber got her bottle and off to the airport we went, so far so good.
Check in went ok and we took off on time, Amber did just fine, ate when she had to, slept when she had to and thankfully kept the pacifier in during both take off and landing so that she didn't experience any ear issues. Jade on the other hand has always had ear issues and she really was uncomfortable at times on the flight, no matter how much she chewed or tried to pop her ears, poor thing. The flight attendant actually told me about something to try next time which I must get for her to make it easier.
Anyway so we landed in Texas, had breakfast and then literally ran to get our next flight which at that point we were the last to board, golly, that is so not like me but you can tell that Dave worked out the timing right ? Take off and landing again went well, that was about 5 hours worth of flying time and yet we still landed in San Diego at somehere between 10 and 11 in the morning, the time difference really made for a long day.
Now what we had done to make things easier is we didn't check our stroller in but used it right to the door of the plane, then took Amber and well I held her in my arms for the duration of the trip ... now when we start leaving the plane the stroller is normally at the door for us to pick up but on leaving our last flight there was no stroller and no carseat which obviously totally freaked me out right ? To make matters worse I think Amber needed to get out of my arms, she was hot and bothered and well now so was I. The eventually told us to walk to where our baggage is picked up and hope to God it was there which is what we did, Amber of course screamed all the way which had me wanting to scream with her !!!
So we get to baggage and get all our suitcases on a cart but still no stroller and no carseat, so Dave went to chat to someone, better him than me coz at that stage I would just have been rude to whoever was there to help me. Eventually they found my stroller and my carseat but now there was another problem, the base that Ambers carseat clips into and Jades booster seat were nowhere to be found, they were check in with our baggage but had not come off the plane with the rest of our stuff, now what ? Poor Jade was in tears coz she thought we were going to have to live on the airport for a week !!!
Eventually the American Airlines guy ( Did I mention that now I totally hate all American Airlines !!! ) said we should hang out at the airport for another hour or so there would be another flight from Texas arriving and maybe our stuff was on there but he couldn't be sure of course, so thank God by this point Amber was asleep, and Jade was playing her DS, thank God for Ds's so Dave went off to get our rental car while I waited for the next plane to arrive, well when it finally did I could have shouted with joy to see our two missing pieces come around on the conveyer belt. By that stage we had all had enough of the airport and were very thankful that the hotel allowed us to check in early :-). Very nice hotel, I knew I was going to enjoy spending the week there :-) Thank you Family Dollar !!!
After getting settled, we knew with the three hour time difference that we were all going to be tired early that night so we decided just to go take a drive around and to pop by the store to pick up some essestials to last us the week. In the picture below you will see a big bridge that we could see from our hotel room, well we took a drive across there onto a beautiful island, it was really pretty there and the beach reminded David of Cape Town ... still not sure how come I got stuck in the car feeding Amber and Dave got to go on the beach with Jade, he hates the beach and I love it but oh well right ... Here's a pic of the beach, actually the only one he got really which I was sad about, you know me, I would have taken more pics but at least you can see how similar the beach is to Cape Town.
We got a very early start the next morning, Jade and Amber both were up at 4h30 which totally killed us but I guess with the time difference, that was their normal wake up time but as much as we tried to get them to go back to sleep, there was no go ... so on went the Tv at 5am, I couldn't believe it !!! Anyway this pic was taken later the morning before we headed out, Jade is feeding Amber on the window seat while checking out the view, looks scary right ???
Obviously I wanted the best view out but travelling with Amber I was more concerned about disturbing neighbors etc. so I didn't fight for the best view like I normally did, I asked if I could be put somewhere quiet which thankfully I got but in doing so I missed getting a room that looked over the marina which was so very pretty. Anyway we got a room that for one we could see the pool below which Jade loved coz she could see if there were lots of kids there and whether or not she wanted to go down whenever we had a chance, also we looked over the bay so watched ships go in and out, from passenger liners, to huge military boats that were amazing, lined with navy guys in their white uniforms like you see in the movies or even like below we watched submarines come and go which was totally amazing so the room wasn't too bad after all. Also Daves conference had their breaks on a deck just above the pool so we could look down and see when he took a break too which was nice, we could phone and say hi :-)
Ok so Jade and I went off to the world famous San Diego Zoo and all I can say is wow, wow, wow, what a huge, amazing zoo, just wish Dave was with us so he could help me with Amber, what I didn't give much thought to was that every ride you went on or every show you went to see, you had to park your stroller at the entrance and carry the carseat in, well Amber might only be about 13 odd pounds and with the weight of the carseat and carrying a hugely full diaper bag too, I really carried my ass off and took big time strain. Jade and I still tried to do as much as we could so we wouldn't miss out on anything but it was hot too and as I said I took strain but we spent the entire day there and I think we saw as much as we could. Again, what an amazing zool.
Obviously I took way way too many pics of animals which I won't bore you too much with but here are a few Zoo pics.
There was a huge kids area with a climbing thing and this spinning thing which Jade loved but it left her dizzy all the time, how can she like that feeling yuk !!! There was also a petting zoo here which Jade loved but there was also one at the Wild Animal Park that we went to on Friday so I will add those pics when I do that update.
There were lots of these all over the zoo so when we found one free, they were always busy coz everyone wanted pics on the, then I would quickly snap a pic of Jade.
I got Jades face painted. They actually did the most amazing work there, painted peoples entire faces to look like animals but not only did I think it was crazy to pay the fortune they were asking to have that done, although the work probably was well worth it but the kids were getting all sweaty and well kept on wiping off the paint so before long your face looked a mess so I decided just to go with this little one so that Jade didn't feel left out. It actually looked prettier than in this picture.
Then we did this areil ride above the entire zoo, we stood in a long line in the sun which killed me moving the car seat every few minutes but we eventually made it to the front and it was worth the wait ONLY what I didn't know is that the ride went from A - B and when getting to B you got off and if you wanted to go back to A you had to once again stand in a long line in the sun to get back on and go back to A where of course my stroller was parked ... oh well you live and learn, that took a long time for us and thankfully Amber only fussed at the end so we all survived it :-)
Funny monkey face pic :-)
Another one on the hippo ...
After the zoo we went back to the hotel and we went down to the pool to pass the time till Dave got out of the conference. Because it was soooooooo much cooler in San Diego than it is in North Carolina, Jade actually enjoyed the jacuzzi more than the pool, me of course got to sit on the sidelines with Amber in the shade, oh how much more fun I would have had this vacation if we didn't have a baby in tow, what a fun place, we will definitely have to go back again when Amber is older, so much to do there !!!
Remember I am doing these updates one day at a time so keep scrolling down as you go along ok :-)
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