Last weekend Grace and I took a quick trip down to San Marino to visit Nana. Steve was on call all weekend (again) so we decided it was a good chance to visit Nana and have a little girl time. Grace and I left after school/work on Friday and despite sitting on the runway for a while before takeoff and it being well past bedtime by time we got to the hotel, she was a champ. There was a fair amount of running around like a wild child at the airport, but she got her energy out at least. I had forgotten how exhilarating it is to drive on LA freeways - man, the 210!
How did parents travel with kids before all this gadgetry?!
Saturday morning, Grace was confused and woke up at 4:15. I could not convince her to go back ot sleep. Granted, I'm pretty lucky that this so rare, but I was pretty wrecked because I didn't get the three hour nap midmorning. Once Grace was up for the second time, we picked up Nana and headed over to Julienne's, our favorite lunch spot. We did a little shopping and met up with "Aunt" Peggy, Nana's friend. Back at Nana's we played with Peggy and the kitty cats, read books and had some outrageously fabulous desserts for dinner.
Sunday, we just spent more mellow time with Nana - hit the carousel, had lunch and spent more time looking for the kitties. "Where Siam go? Where Kwala go?" As soon as she would find the cats, she would come running back to me to hide and then take off to find them again. And again and again. It was such a nice, mellow weekend. Thank you, Nana - so good to see you!
King sized bed and a stack of books. The life.
At the airport on the way home, I invented the greatest travel game ever. Grace loves to run around and wander away and climb on everything in sight (I was just waiting for her to go running out past security). So, to keep her burning energy and more or less moving in the direction I wanted her to go, I bought a pack of M&Ms and would send her to touch a wall and come back or walk past the next set of chairs, etc., and then she would get an M&M. Try it, my friends with young travelers. It kept her entertained and moving for at least half an hour and would have continued if I let her have a full package of chocolate.
Sadly, we lost the camera on the trip down so all I have are a few not stellar shots from my phone. The good, and very surprising, news is that they found the camera and actually made an effort to contact me and return it. They sent the camera up on a flight on Monday (ha - an unaccompanied electronic; that one's for my dad) and I got it back. I'm still shocked. Shout out to SkyWest/United Express.
Oh, and can I say one more thing? I was amazed at how kind strangers were, going out of their way to ask if I needed help and grabbing Grace when she tried to run off. I have traveled alone with Grace several times, but I guess there's something about a two year old taking off on the tarmac that makes strangers lend a hand. You always hear stories of people who are so annoyed to see kids travelling, but people were genuinely kind and concerned. Maybe because it was such a short trip... hope this doesn't jinx our cross country trip next week!
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