These trips to San Diego are always such a whirlwind! I can’t believe we’re home already (yesterday was our travel day). As a side note, traveling is a royal pain. I don’t really understand people who love to do this on the regular, especially to far-flung locales. It’s crazy enough just flying to San Diego!
But once we were there, we had a ball and it was delightful to see Quinn and his parents. Quinn has changed a lot since we last saw him in July—walking, saying words (“Cat!”) [for just about every animal except “Duck!”]. He also carries on obvious conversations that he understands, but the rest of us don’t. He has inflection and hand gestures and even drama. Nate and Sandra have a lovely “Halloween Tree” and he approaches it, wags his pointer finger and says, “Hot!” Don’t touch!
My god he’s a sunny soul. We see him every 3 or 4 months, and I can’t say for sure that he recognizes us, but he ACTS like he does! I believe he does! He lights up around everyone, so who really knows? Sandra and Nate take him everywhere, and they are out and about all the time. He also has a great daycare lady and he’s learned some sign language from her, and also loves Mexican food! We ate out every day and it’s clear that he is fully accustomed to this and at least so far there isn’t anything he won’t eat (or try). Nate and Sandra eat very diverse foods, and so does Quinn. He never turned his nose up at anything. (Well, except some cold carrots once. But, you know, they were COLD. Ew).
Korean BBQ our first night and it’s probably our most favorite place! We are all meat lovers, and if you are a meat lover, this is heavenly!
What’s also cool is that the guys are the ones who tend to the grill. Here’s a quick and busy video:
We arrived later than we usually do on Thursday, so other than dinner that evening we didn’t really do anything except hang out for a while at our hotel. Quinn immediately zeroed in on BUTTONS. Electronic buttons. Like, the microwave, which was right at his height. And also the safe, which rewarded him with bright red numbers when he pushed the buttons. (And he remembered all of those buttons each time they were there throughout the weekend!)
Nate got a new truck! He traded in his ol’ Toyota Tacoma for a 2015 Ram short-bed dual-cab eco-diesel. We spent a fair amount of time in it and it was very comfortable for the five of us and has just about every bell and whistle you can imagine. It’s a very fine truck! However, none of us really know what color it is. It depends on the lighting—sometimes it’s charcoal, sometimes it’s purplish, sometimes it’s blue-ish. It’s a chameleon! (Click to embiggen!)
Aren’t they an adorable family?
We all went to the San Diego Zoo’s Safari Park in Escondido which is about an hour away, inland a bit and in a valley, and it was HOT! Pushing 90°! (Holy moly). We’d left Washington in rain and the 50s! Thankfully there were slightly cooling misters throughout the park, and some shade, but still. I don’t have a fit-bit or anything to count steps, but we walked for MILES. Lots and lots of walking over several hours, and I eventually wilted, lol. I have to say, quite honestly, that I felt a bit cynical about this place. The kids get in free with their military ID, but it was over $100 for John and I and that was just the basic admission. They had a board of different “safari experiences” that ranged up to $695 per person! Then, every 1,000 steps (or so it seemed…) were little oases selling high-priced touristy crap, high-priced beverages, high-priced ice cream and shaved iced. You spend a lot of bucks to go to places where you can spend MORE BUCKS. Okay, rant over, because aspects were pretty cool, too. Like this:
(Nate took this photo above through one of those $0.25 telescope thingies through his phone. Only a multi-hundred-dollar tram ride would allow us to get any closer…)
(“CAT!”)
Quinn was a trooper in the heat. He’s a southern California boy, after all.
Here are a few more to wrap up the trip:
Here’s Quinn’s Halloween costume. He’s a mouse. And he HATES his costume (opinions!)
Not a happy little mouse!
I’m feeling very blue because we won’t get to see them for Thanksgiving or Christmas this year. I understand, of course! But oh…