I think I had heard about slug bugs on this vacation more than any other time in my life. Both Chris and I were sick of it. We instituted a no slug bugging rule and even tried to get the girls to switch to "love" or "hug" bugs...still annoying. We tried to ban it all together, but believe me, even as a parent, every time you see a VW bug, you'll still say it in your mind. That's more annoying.
Amy snoozing in the car.
We arrived back in Phoenix with its 100+ degrees. Not sure that I could handle that heat for three months straight. Chris stopped to fill the Traverse with gas and you could just feel the heat rush in to the car as he opened the door. After refueling, we returned our car, grabbed our luggage and hopped the bus back to Sky Harbor airport.
My kids are great travelers. I am pretty sure we could drop Amy off at the curb and she could check herself in and make it to her flight if we let her. (We don't). There's no question that each child has a suitcase to be responsible for and heads off in the right direction. Kristen still needs to master getting on and off an escalator by herself, but that'll come. If I am standing right beside her, she has no problem getting on and off, but if I happen to step on first, she freezes. We've had to rely on kind strangers to help her as I slowly move farther and farther away from her.
We boarded our Southwest flight for San Diego, and one short hour later, we were enjoying temperatures 30* to 40* cooler. So nice. We were back on a Hertz bus in no time to transport to the rental car facility. No roomy Chevy Traverse this time, instead we had a Jeep. Chris declared it the worst car he has ever driven.
It was a little early, around two in the afternoon, but we took the chance that the Homewood Suites would accommodate our request to check-in early. They did, so we dropped off our luggage and then drove not too far to tour the Midway, one of America’s longest-serving aircraft carriers.
We only had two hours to see as much as possible; really you could spend up to three to four hours to get everything in. I enjoyed observing the Admiral's and Captain's quarters--much nicer than a little bunk area for most of the crew. I happened to notice that the Admiral had a phone in his bathroom, the Captain, as far as I could tell, did not. But the Captain also had a much smaller room off the bridge where he slept as well.
We toured some of the 27 restored aircraft on board the carrier.
We wished at times that we could leave our children in the Brig.
We looked across the harbor to the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, having just returned to San Diego the day previous. Wouldn't that have been a sight to see?
The U.S. aircraft carrier Carl Vinson returns to its home port in San Diego after a seven-month deployment that included the burial at sea of Osama bin Laden and other missions.
We planned to meet Great Grandpa Len, the special reason for our trip to San Diego, at 6 pm. Our girls were excited for the opportunity to meet and get to know him. We arrived at his house in Solana Beach a little after six (the GPS took forever to load so we missed our turn) and made our introductions. He was in the process of having new flooring installed in his living room, so knick knacks were scattered about. Grandpa Len was especially happy to have us meet Suzie, his little dog. Since we had neglected to feed our children since breakfast, they were anxious to get to the restaurant. Grandpa had picked Chevy's. If we had still had our Traverse, we could have taken him with us, but the Jeep only offered seating for five. He drove in his new Hyundai to the restaurant and met us there. Yeah, he's 89. In fact, he has two cars, the Hyundai and a Toyota Corolla. We asked him about them later, and he said that he drove one vehicle for two weeks and traded off for two weeks with the other. Pretty cool.
Dinner was great. He told about his work with the phone company and being sent to Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. We learned about his younger years and life with his dear wife Jean. So neat. Following dinner, we returned to his home where we looked at pictures, Kristen and Misha played with Suzie, and Kristen and Grandpa took Suzie for a walk. Kristen would now like a dog to walk. She'll have to be happy visiting those who have a dog.
With full stomachs, the girls were beginning to tire from a long day of travel. Kristen fell asleep on the half hour drive back to the hotel and Chris carried her up to our room. Since we hadn't had a chance to make up a bed for her, we put her in our bed until all three girls were ready to settle. We actually had a bedroom at the Homewood Suites and could close the doors and watch tv without keeping the girls awake. Lovely.