First stop: Mississippi
Some sweet sweet family and friends threw a shower for baby Neil. It was so exciting to go home. Matt and I were in MS in March and had not been since. Unfortunately, Matt didn't get to go with me, which I hated, but we made the best of the trip. I got to spend several days with both of our families and capped it off with the shower.
The hostesses did a great job on the decor and food. Personally, I think that the food is just about the most important part of any kind of shower. Yes, people come to see you and "shower" you, but what they really want is food and cake.
It was an awesome shower! I was so surprised by how many people came, ranging from people I see all the time to people I haven't seen in ages, regardless they were all special to me. Let me tell you, after this shower, I know that baby Neil will want for nothing and is going to be so spoiled!
My mom and I also through an "after" baby shower for my cousin Amy. Her little boy Smith is now 3 months old, and my mom wanted to do something special for Amy.
And like I mentioned above, food was a must!
By the time I got home, it was wash your clothes, and pack your bag again. It was good by joe, we gotta go to San Diego! I was really excited about this trip. Matt isn't getting a lot of vacation time so we wanted to take full advantage of it. The sunny shores of SoCal were about 7 hours away and calling our name.
What we didn't realize is that between Sierra Vista and San Diego an approx 500 mile trip were 2 places to stop and this creepy RV park/gas station/run down roach motel was our gas oasis in the desert. I was even willing to over look the signs in the bathroom that read:
"Please do NOT flush any toilet paper in the toilet, please put all paper in the waste basket."
Um, gross, I will let you imagine for yourself what that smelled like.
Our hotel was only about 4 blocks for the Metro Transit System of SD, so we decided to park the car for the weekend and make good use of it. We thought it would take is really close to Balboa Park and the Zoo. Apparently it only gets us about 2.5 miles away. The said 2.5 mile walk was more like a 2.5 mile climb up a sheer face of Mt. Everest. I. Was. Dying. All the walking was followed by more walking once we got to the Zoo. Apparently the San Diego Zoo did not get my memo about mandatory a Segway for all pregnant women and those with them.
The Elephants and Orangutans were the most entertaining to watch. This orangutan hammed it up, rolled all over, scratched himself, and then made faces at all the children through the glass.
The flamingos were so pretty and all of their chicks had just hatched about 4 weeks prior. See those little gray birds, turns out baby flamingos are gray and actually don't turn their bright coral color for several years. Another interesting fact, the smaller giraffe in this picture was just born as well, Imara, and when she was born she had to fall 6 feet to the ground. Good Lord, you would have thought her mom had to lay down, but nope, BAM and SPLAT. I don't think Neil will have to worry about that.
Lesson I learned about San Diego: The Langfords cannot pick a decent restaurant to save their life.
Notice the smiles? Well that is before we got our food. The Fish Market was recommended to us over and over again, but after dinner we would have to sadly disagree. It was sub-par food for a premium price. We should have known better, it seems that all big name touristy spots seem to have the same problem.
Yes, that is a bloody mary. No, it does not have vodka. Yes, I wish it did. Yes, I realize it is basically spicy tomato juice. Thanks for busting my bubble.
We loved visiting the Midway Museum. So big and full of history, and Asian tourist. We went on a harbor cruise before this, but you can't see any pictures of that because there were literally 2000 pushy and rude Asian tourists pushing, shoving, and stepping on my toes. Matt and I were forced to seek shelter in the bottom of the boat where the camera would not take good pictures.
We finished up the weekend with an afternoon at SeaWorld.
This is what SeaWorld looks like on a holiday weekend. 30,000 people once again pushing and shoving at the Sea Lion Show (amazing). Fortunately I snapped this photo BEFORE the little boy sitting next to Matt and I ralphed his BBQ chips all over the man in front of him and everywhere else. The worst part, the little boy's parents just sat there and did nothing, no apology or anything. Um, how about taking your sick kid out of the sea lion show? I think BBQ chips are off the menu for me.
And my sweet husband won me this teddy bear. Despite all of the people and all of the walking ( Matt figured it up and said we walked probably 15 miles the whole weekend), we had a really good time. We are good road trip partners!
