Janalynn's First Trip to California

At the end of January, I was going to a seminar in San Diego for work and since I can't be away for Janalynn for very long yet, I took her with me. I flew my sister in from Utah to watch Janalynn while I was at the meetings. Janalynn had a lot of fun adventures with Aunt Megan while she was there.

We flew in on Wednesday morning. (Janalynn and I left Texas at 8:30 a.m. and arrived in San Diego at 9:30 a.m.--gotta love time zone changes.) We met Megan at the airport and took a shuttle to our hotel--The Westin in downtown San Diego. Here is the view from the elevator.


Janalynn and Megan on the elevator.


We had some nice accommodations. Janalynn even had a "Heavenly Crib." At least that is what the hotel called it. She was happy to be in this picture.


After we got settled in our hotel, we got some lunch at a sandwich place, then I went to my meetings while Janalynn took a nap and Megan did homework in the dark hotel room. When I was finished, we took a walk along the ocean. We saw this Harbor Excursion place and had to take a picture for the flashback.

Six years ago when J.D. was one, he and Jim went to San Diego with me for this same seminar and we stayed for part of the weekend. We decided to go on a whale watching excursion. However, when we got out of the harbor, the water was really choppy and J.D. threw up all over me. We used up all of our wipes to clean the boat and clean me and J.D. as best we could, then the boat captain decided to turn back because it was too choppy, but gave us a one-hour harbor tour instead. Fortunately, J.D. fell asleep shortly after he threw up, but, unfortunately, he and I smelled like vomit for the rest of the boat ride and it was making me nauseous (even though I normally don't get motion sick) since I had to smell it. Anyway, on this trip, when I saw the Harbor Excursion booth, I had to take a picture to remember that "wonderful" excursion with J.D. and Jim.

We also took a picture with the "popcorn" chicken.


Gotta love the self-taken shots.

Here are Janalynn and I with a cool boat in the background.

We fed Janalynn some dinner in the hotel room, then we took a cab to a restaurant called Oceanaire with some of my work colleagues. We had some really yummy seafood and desserts. Poor Janalynn was a trooper, but since we didn't get to the restaurant until 7:30 p.m. Pacific time (9:30 p.m. Texas time--way after her bedtime), I had to rock her to sleep and she slept in my arms for most of dinner. Then we took her home to bed.

The next day (Thursday), I had meetings all day. Megan and Janalynn went to the mall and went shopping, hung out in the hotel, took naps, and played. Since Janalynn had been out so late the night before, we decided to just stay in and order room service. Megan got ready to go to the hot tub while we waited for our food. Here she is enjoying her yummy chicken.

The dessert was really good too.

The next morning (Friday), Janalynn and Megan went to the pool hotel and Janalynn took a nap. After we checked out of the hotel, Megan and Janalynn took the ferry to Coronado island and had some lunch. Here's Janalynn on the ferry.

Here's Megan with Janalynn.

Here they are on the island looking across the harbor at downtown San Diego.

Megan and Janalynn got back to the hotel just in time to get on the shuttle to the airport. Janalynn had a bit of a rough trip back on the plane because she was off her schedule and tired, but we made it home. Janalynn had a great first trip to California and hopes to go back again. Thanks, Aunt Megan, for showing her around.