California Wrap-Up

Okay, before the vacation completely fades from memory, I want to share a few more things about our trip.

Church: 
I really wanted to go to church on Easter Sunday.  So I did some web searching before our trip and found a church having their service at an arena.  I’ve always wanted to try a service like that… such a larger scale than what we’re used to.  And we liked the idea of going somewhere that we wouldn’t stand out as the “new people”.  So we went to The Rock Church at Cox Arena. It was incredible. SO many people (the stadium was completely filled, plus they had an overflow crowd in the college gym) and concert-quality worship music; the “special guest” was 2006 NFL MVP, LaDainian Tomlinson… which would have wowed me if I’d ever heard of him before, but apparently he’s very popular in San Diego. And the message was really great too. All in all, a very cool experience.

Our Hotel:
We stayed at The Homewood Suites in San Diego. It was perfect for our family — two bedrooms, with a living room/eating area/kitchen in between. (and two bathrooms…kind of good to have with 6 people!) Free breakfast buffet every day and free buffet dinner on weeknights. Oh and a pool. Which is like a total requirement for my kids. They went swimming every day, even on the cloudy 60ish days when the last thing I wanted to do was jump in a pool. We usually stay in Embassy Suites but there wasn’t one in a good location (or maybe the didn’t have a room available? I don’t remember) but I’m glad we did the Homewood Suites… I liked it even better.

The flights:
It is just pathetic how airline service has gone downhill in the last 5 years. First they charged you for the food – now they don’t serve it at all! Not even a teeny bag of peanuts. At least on United, that is. Alaska airlines gave us pretzels. And United didn’t pre-board families with young kids either, which was rather annoying. They’ve got a special little red carpeted area for their 1st class passengers but those of us who shelled out major bucks for 6 tickets have to wait at the back of a huge line. Thanks, that’s real nice.

Other great things about San Diego:
Sunshine. Seriously never got sick of that. Although I burn way too easily. Guess it’s good I live in the land of clouds. Sigh.
And the people were very nice, every where we went. Not just service people, but random strangers too. It used to be like that here but lately it seems like everyone is stressed and grumpy. Too much coffee maybe?
Oh and Strawberries! On our way out of LegoLand we saw a huge strawberry field with a stand selling fresh strawberries. Not your average strawberries – these puppies were HUGE. I bought 3 baskets (pints?) and we ate them in like 2 days. So good.

Odd Things People Say:
We got the “wow, 4 kids?!” thing a LOT. Really I don’t think 4 kids is so very much… I know a lot of people who have three kids, what’s one more?

At the airport on the way home there was a single (white) mom with two (biological, biracial) kids. These kids were very interested in my kids, especially R~ and Zeeb. Talking to them, touching them, totally in their personal space. But they were nice kids, and my kids didn’t seem too annoyed so I didn’t say anything. When we got in line to board, the boy said to his mom, “They have brown kids and white kids!” His mom whispered something in his ear and then he says, “oh I bet you adopted them!” and I said, “Ya think?” in a friendly way. (I never know the “right” way to respond to that kind of thing. I don’t really want to share our private lives with the world at large but it’s pretty obvious the kids were adopted and I’m not ashamed or embarrassed about that at all but I don’t know how they feel having people say stuff like that.) Well then the mom says to her son, “Should I put you up for adoption? Nah, I love you too much.” I was stunned. Did it not even occur to her how that would sound to R~ and Zeeb?! Obviously not. Obviously it just popped out of her mouth before she thought it through. But it still really bugged me. Of course they were on our next flight too so we saw them again at the airport in San Francisco. And while we were in the boarding line there, the kids were actually asking if they could come sleep over at our house! Weird. Really really weird.

Okay, I think that’s it. It’s been a crazy few days trying to get life back in order. And I am SO behind on my blog reading. And my emails. And pretty much everything else. So anyway please forgive the lack of comments and replies. I will catch up as quick as I can!

Now I have 15 minutes to clean the bathroom before getting the kids from school and getting everyone home in time for K~’s guitar lesson. 90 minutes of blogging, 15 minutes of cleaning. Yep, my priorities are in order!