San Diego Pt. 2

When I last left you, it was Wednesday and our trip was ending the following day. Or so we thought. Wednesday night, Julien and I went out to dinner with a couple of his coworkers. Then we came back to the hotel and had a drink with them. A very nice evening. I started to pack for our return trip home and was really looking forward to seeing the kids. I was done with being on vacation at this point and wanted to hug my babies. Thursday we checked out and headed to Mission Beach for our last morning in California. We parked the car, turned around and saw a big flag on a bar that said "Home of the Iowa Hawkeyes." We looked at each other and decided we must have a drink there. (Apparently the GM is an alum. They even sell a mug with their logo and the Hawkeye logo on it, which we now own. :) ) After that, we walked down Mission Beach, collecting shells for Aidan and putting our feet in the water to say we were in the ocean. We finally found Aidan a little surf board on a magnet at a little shop. About that time, my phone rang. It was an automated message from the airline telling me my flight had been cancelled and I had been re-booked for a 6:15a flight the following day. This is where I start to freak out. Julien and I had booked separately and he didn't get a call. So we thought I had been bumped from the flight and Julien had not. We took off to the airport to figure out what was going on. The whole time I'm worrying that I will get left in San Diego or that we will both get stuck and that I really want to go home and see my kids. By the time we get to the ticket counter, I'm a mess. The agent felt so bad for me she went and got me kleenexes. Turns out, there was a maintenance issue with the plane so it was cancelled. They put us up in a hotel for the night since it was their fault. (And since we hadn't turned in the rental we still had a car for the night.) The agent told us we were confirmed for the flight tomorrow so we'd be on for sure and that she would try to seat us together. There was no way to get to St. Louis that night. So we had one more night in San Diego, which we spent at Old Town for more Mexican food and Margaritas. The next morning we were up at 3am. It was the first time I had been at the airport before the ticket counter or security were open. Never been first in line for either before. At the gate they printed out our seat assignments, all except Julien's for the ATL to STL flight. (Yeah we went to Atlanta before coming back to St. Louis.) We were able to get that in Atlanta, all though we weren't able to sit us together. I had been upgraded to first class, another first. Julien was a little jealous but considering how upset I was, he thought I deserved it. All I have to say is that was a much more comfortable flight. And I had no idea first class got a drink before they even took off. But the best part of the flight was landing in St. Louis. The hug Aidan gave me when we got home was the best hug ever. It was fun to show him all the things we got for him too. I think I hugged Olivia for about two minutes straight. There were lots of hugs and kisses all around. No matter how great a vacation is, it always awesome to come home.