Abby Lee

My sister, Sue( the one trying to drink the very large margherita in the picture below) lives in San Diego. She has actually lived in California for almost 4 years now. Up until this August I had only been out to visit once, for her graduation. It was definitely time to visit just for fun.

So Abby and I packed our bags and got ready to go. We were to fly out to San Diego, leaving from Raleigh at 6:00 in the morning. So our first leg of the trip was the drive to my good friend, Emily Sheridan's (who will be called Sher for the rest of the blog). Sher lives in Raleigh. So as opposed to having to get up an extra hour early and drive from Henderson to Raleigh, Abby and I spent the night at Sher's. Plus, Sher was coming with us to CA!! The next morning we got up at 3:00. We wanted to be at the airport super early because of the airport difficulties that had been occurring. We got to the airport and had little difficulties with our flights out to CA. Although I have to tell you that it is really tough to have been up since 3:00 in the morning and fly across country and arrive at your destination and it is still on 9:00 in the morning. All in All, Abby did quite well. She only started crying when we were waiting for people to get off of the plane. People weren't too annoyed which is good thing. After meeting up with Sue at the airport, we went and crashed at her apartment. At least Sher did. Abigail was wide awake, and thus so was I. It was a good time for some Sue/Abby bonding. And also a good time for Sue and I to catch up.

As we passed the afternoon talking and just resting, I grew more and more sleepy. BUT not Abby. Sue was planning on going to a concert. She reminded us (Sher & I), that Kim, another good friend(here she is below, also drinking a very large margherita), was coming in at 11, and we needed to let her into the apartment when she called. I delegated responsibility to Sher because she had gotten a nap. The last thing that I remember from that night was that it was only 7PM when I closed my eyes. Then next morning I awoke, I had some how moved from the living room to the back bedroom and Kim and Sue were on the air mattress on the floor by my bed. It was 4AM and Abigail was awake and my cell phone had a message. Sue and I tried to entertain but Abby was not satisfied to be stuck up on the bed. Since Abby is now a crawler, she needs to be able to move. Or else. We stuck it out until about 5 before realizing that it was a lost cause. We found our walking shoes and the Snugli and headed out for a walk. Before leaving I checked my messages and discovered that both Sher and I had slept through Kim's phone calls and she had been hanging out in the front of Sue's apartment for about 30 minutes at 11:30 PM in an unknown city, until Sue got home. Oops. (I am really sorry Kim!)

Sue, Abby, and I went for a walk for through the neighborhood. It was a good walk, although I realized that Henderson is really flat compared to San Diego. After our vigorous morning exercise, we headed to Starbucks for some coffee and then back to the apartment to plan our morning. Sue wanted us to see her office and co-workers and then thought that perhaps we should go to the Zoo. Sounded good to us...And off we went. We met Sue's Co-workers. (Hi everyone!). And then went to the Zoo, it was awesome.

It was set up really well. I would recommend going to the San Diego Zoo. Although expensive, you actually get to see the animals, instead of searching a spot that supposedly contains animals. My personal favorites were the Pandas, the giraffes and the scary looking pigs. The best part of the zoo was trying to navigate the map, the hike up to see the giraffes (it felt like it was straight up), and then the giant giraffe whose head peaked up over the rock outcropping.

Other fun things that we did while in San Diego included going to Mexico. Abigail has now been to two other countries besides America. She is going to be a well traveled baby. Mexico was interesting. The highlights include the fact that you don't have to stop when entering the country. You just drive in. No customs, nothing. Of course the return from Mexico is much more strict. Also it takes a much longer time. In fact, some Mexicans make their living by selling goods to people who are waiting in line to return to the United States. People stand in the middle of the road and are gophers to the stands on the side of the road. Some people are selling ice cream or drinks and will chase the cars down if they start moving before the transaction is completed. This is one of the stands by the side of the road.

While in Mexico, among other things we picked up a dress for Abigail.
Another highlight of Mexico occurred when we were walking down a side street and observed an individual throw a soda can at a car (he was in conflict with the driver) and the soda can went in through the passenger's side window and came out the driver's window.

The weekend was great. We got to see so many things. We went to the beach, we went to an aquarium, we met up with some of Sue's friends. We met up with Vanessa Horne,( although I don't think she is a Horne anymore, I know she is married, I just don't know if she changed her name) a South Hero native. We ate lots of good food. Mostly Mexican...Go figure. Although the picture below shows our parting breakfast. Sher's pancake was the largest thing that I have ever seen in my entire life. And it was cooked the entire way through (I say this because every time I make a large pancake it always has the gooey middle. It wasn't so in this case).

Thank You Sue!! We had a great time.