For instance, the front passenger window on the Pacifica fell down all of a sudden on Monday morning. George thought that maybe someone had tried to break into the car- nice, huh? We were able to raise the window, but it kept slipping. Finally, on the way home, after its disappearing into the door while I was in the hills on the CA60 going approximately 60 mph, George had the good sense to purchase duct tape in Beaumont and secure the window's closure for the remainder of the trip. We finally got it fixed at the dealership yesterday for the bargain price of $609. Apparently, only $109 of that amount was for labor. The door part actually cost almost $500!
For those who don't know, our family makes an annual trek to San Diego in the summertime. At first it was motivated by my absolute love for La Jolla (which oddly, I haven't visited in four years), but since Alex has taken over our lives (as those of you with children understand), our trip has really been all about Legoland and visiting his friends, "the girls," who happen to live in Oceanside. "The girls" are three lovely young ladies whose mother happens to be a dear friend- she and I did Summerbridge together back in 2000! Every other year we go and stay by exchanging our timeshare week...and in between, we stay somewhere in Carlsbad by taking advantage of great rates on getawaytoday.com. Next year is a Carlsbad year...though honestly, we will likely not ever stay in Escondido again...so maybe every year will be a Carlsbad year!
As though a broken window was not enough excitement for an otherwise lovely trip, we had a surprise visitor on Monday night in our room....a mouse! We stayed at the Villas on the Green at the Lawrence Welk resort in Escondido. We stayed there two years ago, on Alex's first trip to San Diego, and I decided we'd stay there again because the suites are large and the resort always has availability in the summer...it was either Escondido or the Gaslamp Suites in downtown San Diego. If Alex hadn't been with us, I wouldn't have minded the Gaslamp...but anyway, I was in the bedroom, catching up on some e-mail and monitoring our finances when I heard a big thud in the living room. I thought George had fallen off of the couch, so I ran into the other room to see George crouched on top of the couch. Apparently, the sound I'd heard was not him falling off, but rather, jumping on to the couch because the mouse ran over his feet! Seeing as how it was already about 10 p.m., Housekeeping sent someone over with massive glue traps, and whoever was manning the front desk assured us that moving to a new room would be possible in the morning. Fast forward about ten hours- after eating breakfast, Alex and I parked ourselves in the resort lobby as the manager (amazingly young and blonde...I hadn't thought he was a manager, but George assured me he was) apologized to George and handed over the keys to a new suite. We packed and moved in about an hour. In retrospect, we should've known something was up when the crumbs from Alex's food (I was pretty sure there was some kind of vacuum fairy, but I guess it was the effect of too much sun) kept disappearing...
Here's a synopsis of our trip:
Friday, June 19th- left home and took Honey to Bow Wow (dog boarders). Alex cried as we left her and wanted to know why she couldn't sit on his lap all the way to San Diego. Arrived in Escondido right at 4pm check-in time (impressive, since we're always either significantly early or embarassingly late!) and I was overwhelmed by the humidity, but pleased with my hair's ability to hold off frizziness.
Saturday- beautiful day of laziness for me :) Turned out to be fun for Alex. George took him swimming and they saw Kung-Fu Panda by the pool when the sun went down. We also walked over to another part of the resort and went to the grocery store to stock up for the week (paper products, apple juice, peanut butter...necessities when living with Alex).
Sunday- went to the beach in Oceanside with our friends. I got to sit and talk with Lyndsey as George and Alex played in the water, built things out of sand, and got sunburned. It was an awesome day!
Monday- Legoland! (Need I say more?)
Tuesday- San Diego County Fair at Del Mar Fairgrounds. The highlights of the day were the Swift Swine Races (so cute!) and the Turkey Stampede (hilarious!!), though Alex would probably say he enjoyed all the kiddie rides...
Wednesday- Back to Legoland...
Thursday- relaxing morning followed by a visit to the San Diego Children's Museum and Little Italy with our favorite Oceanside family!
Friday- back home to the heat!
