California - Day 2 - Groundhogs Day

Ok, not quite Groundhogs day...only in a couple ways. In light of the previous days events we decided to get an earlier start to the day. This time we woke up 30 minutes earlier and arrived at the airport 30 minutes earlier. The fact that we were so early, it was a Tuesday, and we didn't have to check our luggage, made for a much smoother morning. We got to the airport at 5:30am and were sitting at our gate by 5:45am. Clearly there was no line at security. Again, we played and walked around until it was time to board. You better believe we were sitting at the gate ready to go this time.

Minor setback: when the women scanned our boarding pass she was alerted that the seats that were assigned to us had already been assigned to other people. No biggie, she gave us different seats. Seats NOT TOGETHER. I started to panic a little (on the inside) but she was quick to tell me that all we had to do was ask the person sitting in 38A if he'd like to switch with Kevin and sit in 8A. Luckily, he didn't mind at all (and the person in 8B had a child too, so the guy was screwed either way). Kevin and I took our seats in 38A and 38B and started to relax.

We originally wanted one aisle seat and one middle seat, but we were in no position to complain. Turns out, we preferred the window/middle seat. The woman who sat in 38C (right next to me) was very friendly (without being overly friendly). She had 5 grown kids of her own, all of whom had started flying when they were much younger than Trent. She was actually surprised this was his first flight. When Trent fussed, she didn't seem phased. I was so thankful.

One of the first things this woman asked me was if any of us were allergic to dogs. Of course I told her we were not and that we were very much dog-people. What are the chances we'd be seated next to a lady who has a 4 pound Chihuahua at her feet? That's right. Yoda his name was (get it?). She was afraid to let him out of his doggie carrier, because the flight attendant on her last flight threw a fit when she spotted the dog. Fortunately, about 3/4 of the way through the flight she let Yoda pop his head out and drink some water. Trent was elated! A little too excited for the dog perhaps. Yoda started shaking and the lady informed us that Yoda has always been skiddish around kids. Poor Yoda. But what a nice little surprise for Trent.

Trent also made friends with the nice ladies who sat behind us. They humored him every time he popped his head over our seat or peeked between our seats. It was great.

The poor young girl (probably in her early 20's) in front of Kevin didn't have as good of an experience with Trent as the others. At one point she was presumably napping and Trent caught sight of her long dangling hair. You guessed it. He grabbed a wad of hair and pulled. We both saw it happening, but we were a fraction of a second too late to stop him. Oopsy.

Overall the flight went alright. Trent was off and on fussy. Generally whenever he started whining I would give him food. That usually does the trick - but let's face it, food only gets you so far. We brought some toys with us (some new, some old) to keep him entertained as well, and we even brought the mini DVD player. All of these things were short-term solutions but combined they got us through the flight with our sanity intact. Luckily the take-off and landing didn't seem to bother Trent at all (I was worried about his ears adapting to the pressure changes). We actually hit a a good bit of turbulence, but I think if anything it just soothed Trent. He (and Kevin) napped for 90 minutes mid-flight - which was during the turbulence.
He liked looking out the window when we were taking off and landing, but during the flight he would shut it. He didn't like the brightness, lol.

He loves his Scout!

(Yes, we're all wearing the same exact outfits. Yes, I washed each article of clothing the night before. We aren't the cleanest people in the world but we aren't that dirty. It keeps with the whole groundhogs day thing at least...)

Another adventure we faced was a poopy diaper on the plane. We assumed it would happen, I was just kinda hoping against hope that it wouldn't. But it did. And since I had to pee anyway I volunteered to change it. We had asked US Airways previously if there were changing tables in the restrooms and the woman informed us that she was fairly certain there was not. Well, there was. Small, yes - but there. The worst part (not for me) was when I was waiting in line for the bathroom Trent's stinky butt was right about at nose-level of the passengers surrounding us. After a minute or two of waiting in line I realized the bathroom behind me was vacant. oops. Sorry passengers. You smelled all that for nothing. The actual task of changing the diaper wasn't bad at all. I had just enough room to maneuver. No sweat.

Coming out of the bathroom I heard the flight attendants talking about how many babies there were on board. Turns out they had counted 11, but missed Trent since he was in the bathroom. 12 babies total. Apparently that's a whole lot for any one flight.

The flight arrived right on time (almost to the minute) - at 10:40 local time. We went straight down to baggage claim and found our luggage, which was already set aside, having arrived the previous morning. We went outside, where it was a gorgeous San Diego day, and caught the shuttle to our rental car facility. We went with the cheapest compact car they had - a Hyundai accent.
Thanks to our handy GPS (and the fact that she is conveniently located near all the major roads) we got to Lauren's apartment with ease. She had lunch waiting for us - so sweet!

Again, more dogs. Lauren has a cute little mutt puppy named Charlie and her roommate has a puppy pittbull names Justice. Both were very well behaved, in my opinion, especially considering both are so young. They LOVED giving Trent kisses, and Trent loved it too, but something it was just too much for him. I think he's just used to Maggie - who HE has to approach when he wants loving. Charlie and Justice loved approaching him for face kisses!

We didn't hang at the apartment long - we quickly headed out the door to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. This park was very much like a zoo. It had all the main animals you would expect to see at a zoo, plus some others I had never heard of before. The one that sticks out in my mind the most were the little Dik Dik's.

Now tell me this isn't the cutest thing you've ever seen. They had this little hut where they take your hand print and turn it into a wild animal. Any animal you want. It was hard to pick one, but we settled on the adorable hippo. I just love it! I'm going to matte & frame it asap.

Trent took his first carousel ride....



....there was a small petting zoo area...

...and some really pretty birds. One actually landed on Kevin's head but i was too slow the bird was too quick for me to get a picture. We were even attacked by a rogue duck

>

Lauren had a heck of a time trying to feed Trent a snack while on the go... Trent's favorite part of the park was where they had these statue things set up for kids to play on, on a surface that was child friendly. We let Trent crawl from animal to animal and he just loved every second of it!! I hated taking him away from it. In fact, we went back to that spot a second time a little later in the day.

Of course we got pictures near the giraffes This was the first day Trent had been in a stroller in a long time (I cant even remember the last time he was in a stroller before San Diego) and he did not care for it at all. He's at a point now where he just wants to move around. He doesn't want a person or a stroller holding him back - and his squirming lets you know. So, that part was a little tough.

The park wasn't very crowded and the weather was great, so all in all we couldn't have asked for a better experience.

After the Wild Animal Park we hit up a Mexican joint called On The Border Mexican Grille. It was a very nice place and the food was delicious!! Originally I thought it was a location-specific establishment, but turns out it's a fairly popular chain restaurant. You should check it out if you ever come across one.

We were back at the apartment by 6:30 and in bed by 7 (Lauren excluded). Lauren was kind enough to give up her entire bedroom for our stay. We got the extremely comfortable bed ( i need to get us some flannel sheets like she had) while she was stuck on the couch. We brought Trent's pack-n-play with us but decided to just let Trent sleep in between us (something we don't do back home). It was quite nice!

Trent woke up at 3am, and we feared he was up for good (what with the time change and all) but he fell back asleep after having a small bottle of milk. PHEW! We got to sleep until 7am and it was glorious. It had been such a long day for Trent but he took it like a man.