P scheduled our return flight for 7:00 a.m. to make sure SS would have time to rest, because she had school the next day. We arrived on time at the gate, but they had closed the cabin door, and we were not allowed to board. The first flight we could take would depart in five hours. Freaking great, there goes SS's time to unwind and nap. She napped for quite a while, but airport seats are not comfortable. Alaska Airlines gave us lunch vouchers, at least we had lunch covered. Our bodies were feeling all the fun and mishaps of the previous week, and we were not taking it well.
No A-A family vacation is complete without some annoying and/or painful incident. P returned from Maui with a bruised rib, and I had a busted ankle. In New Orleans SS and I had serious vomiting, cramps and 9SS) diarrhea after eating Taco Bell. It will be a long time before we have that again. During our spring break road trip last year, a suicidal deer took out the left side of our van.
This time P was bitten by we do not know what. There were bites on the other side of his hand also. It's weird because SS and I went wherever he went, and we do not have a single bite. They are uncomfortable, buy not painful.
Shortly after we arrived in Victoria P twisted his ankle, and ended up with a very swollen and bruised foot. As usual SS was very worried about her Baba, and demanded he ice and elevate his foot. That took care of our two day tour of Victoria in Vancouver Island. But P got us a very nice room with a view of the bay. SS amused herself watching the water taxis, and the take offs and landings of the seaplanes
Now it's my turn, first I took a nasty spill at Capilano Bridge. There are signs all over the place cautioning about the slippery wet floor. Just as we were close to ending our tour I tripped. Unfortunately I was carrying a heavy backpack, which propelled me forward, I could not stop or break the fall. P was a few steps behind me, could not get to me, and watched me bite it really hard. I was so glad I was wearing my binder on my torso, otherwise the incision would have hurt so much more.
On the ferry from Victoria to Vancouver I managed to hurt my head when closing the SUV's door. The cut is very small, hardly a big deal. Except head cuts bleed like mother truckers. I knew I bumped my head, but did not realize I had a tiny cut. When SS saw the side of my head covered in blood, she completely freaked out. It's amazing how much a little cut can gush. I must have put a lot of force closing that door, because it happened Sunday morning, and while the bump is gone, the area still hurts.
We are understandably relieved that we managed to bring SS home in one piece. But the girl is still exhausted, waking her up has been upsetting. At least she was not bored senseless during spring break.
I was fixing SS's lunch and had a good laugh. Crunchy California rolls, cilantro and jalapeno hummus, with pita chips. Whatever happened to peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a bag of chips? I have no idea, but that is one thing SS has never had in her lunch box. SS is not the only one walking around like a zombie. I have never done such a lousy job arranging SS's sushi, but I was in zombie mode.
Exhausted but she managed a smile. We are hoping we all get over our tiredness, and colds soon. Then I can go over the pictures and post about our little adventure.
Yesterday we visited Seattle Aquarium, and we are very proud of SS. SS and Mama have been battling a silly cold for a while. It hit us hard last night but there was fun, water life fun to be had.
SS and Baba ready to get their water creature geek knowledge on.
Like yesterday, SS walked in to an exciting event, the diver was talking to the kids. SS has snorkeled, being in the water AND talking was just really cool.
SS loves jellyfish, it should be noted she has never been stung by one.
SS and the giant octopus. I was aware of the creature while booking our trip. It was still very impressive up close, just like in the pictures. I do not have an interest in octopi other than a childhood memory. Abuela eats what I consider to be odd things. I recall her eating beef liver and washing it down with a V8. Maybe I'm wrong, but I have a memory of Abuela and one of my older bio brothers eating canned octopus. I could not stand the smell, let alone contemplate placing it in my mouth. Silly thought, but texted the picture to Abuela. I wonder if she made the connection.
SS was very happy with her dolphin hand painting.
Dory
We love SSs' expression, she really loves animals, especially water creatures.
SS liked this otter, and does not remember she first saw otters at Monterey Bay Aquarium, for her third birthday.
Two cute otters.
The aquarium is small, a great fit for the preschool, early school crowd. We were done in two hours and were able to walk around the pier a little. SS tried her pirate expression.
We had fish and chips at Ivar's for lunch, and SS learned a lesson.There is sweet tea, and there is iced tea. SS first had sweet tea in New Orleans last year, she was hooked. When she was asked what she wanted to drink she chose iced tea. The lesson was the dozen packets of sugar, if not more, that made the iced tea barely acceptable. SS took a lot of sips, like half the worth of my soda. She polished her fried fish, you can't go wrong with fish for SS.
We were not surprised our lunch was so tasty, Ivar's has been around since 1938.
I need to post about yesterday in Seattle, but we waited twelve years to get our baby to BC. SS loved everything BCuntil we had to run an errand, SS was not impressed.
In the summer of 2005 P and I took a just for the hell of it trip to British Columbia. While in Vancouver we made the decision to bring SS home. When we returned home we began the paperwork, talked fondly about our BC trip, and decided we would return with our baby as soon as we brought her home.
Life has a way of ruining your plans. Besides, SS was busy meeting her great grandmother in New York, the Abus in Puerto Rico, and her grandpa in Maui. Then SS made return trips to Maui and Puerto Rico. Life got in the way.
Knott's Berry Farm, Soak City and Disneyland passes did not help either. Just when we said enough, we are going to BC, our passports expired.
We kept our promise, and today we finally realized the purpose of this little trip. SS crossed the Canadian border, sang her butt off, and was completely excited. She has heard the story so many times. SS has heard (and seen pictures) where we went, what we ate (we were camping, and made the best food ever), and how much we looked forward to return to BC with our daughter. Looks like SS is very pleased, mission accomplished.
We woke up Sula before the crack of dawn for a very good reason. It's spring break and we had a special treat for our hard working girl. SS has been looking forward to this trip for months, but waking up early still sucks. She was a champ on the flight, and even got her eye patching out of the way while watching Netflix on her tablet.
The original plan was to flight to Seattle, visit the Space Needle, and move on to our second destination. SS's principal asked me what we were doing for Spring Break this year, and told me we should get a CityPASS. It's a discount booklet to five attractions in the city, the savings when buying the pass is 45%. P thought it was too good a deal to pass up.. That is when our very simple plan for an easy, slow paced week turned into what we are doing now. But back to the Pacific Science Center.
As we walked in the door an exhibition was taking place. The young lady asked the audience if they wanted to see an explosion. Before we had the time to decide what to do and when, SS yelled "OH YEAH," and took a seat to watch something blow up. She definitely takes after P with a penchant for destruction. The instructor was filling balloons with different gases and asking if they would produce a flame, or a loud boom.
SS was rewarded with not only a loud boom but also FIRE. What better way to start a visit to a science museum.
Look out world it's me!
SS enjoyed playing with the solar system.
Playing in a Gemini Capsule Model
SS found out how much she would weight in every planet. I was quite fond of Pluto, I would will from now on list my Pluto weight.
Bugs and insects are not SS's things, and here is where another of her quirks made us laugh. She would not pose, let alone look at this lovable, talking bug. P found him quite charming and kept him company.
But a praying mantis? Now that is completely different. What? Well there is a Praying Mantis super hero, and in SS's world that is good enough.
A big chair for a little girl. SS loves all things oversize, we are surprised she did not ask for one to take home.
We think this would make a great desk for SS.
SS loves turtles, especially sea turtles, and if she is in Maui looking at them. And snorkeling alongside them, and really just being in Maui. SS saw enough turtles in our former home because we had season passes to Turtle Bay Aquarium, where we used to finish our morning walks.
We then enjoyed the butterflies, another SS favorite. Turtle Bay Aquarium had a butterfly habitat, and we spent a lot of time there. Here it was better, because in our previous home going from 100 degrees to such a humid enclosure was not the least comfortable. As soon as we walked in, this one decided to take a rest on my finger.
SS had a guide and was able to identified a lot of the butterflies. To me they are just pretty ones, varying degrees of pretty ones.
We just look thrilled to be there. We were waiting for P to set up a family picture. I was wearing a dress due to my recent surgery on March 13. I foolishly thought I would recover in three days, or at least by the time we took this little trip. I am in a lot of pain, and still wearing a binder around my torso. It was easier to endure the flight wearing a dress, rather than having pants pressing on the incision (about 5 inches) ending on my belly button.
This is the first time I've seen this picture, good to know SS was all smiles. Or maybe she was inspired to do her pirate impression.
Just a minute later on a much better mood, because Puget Sound Orcas.
I don't know why but SS REALLY wanted to do this, and have a picture for posterity.
SS and her Baba had a blast on what we called the water hamster wheel. I really wished I could have done it, but stupid surgery once again gets in the way of my enjoyment. That and the fact that P would absolutely not let me.
The picture looks OK but look how much fun this is.
SS moved on to the water cannons. Should we be worried she loves to shoot so much? Her accuracy is pretty decent.
As soon as the second cannon became available, P joined SS. Who cares if there were kids waiting to play? Water cannon shooting is a very important bonding experience between a father and a daughter. P was not about to let some whiny kid get in the way of bonding time. SS had such a great time that we had to drag her away from the cannon. It looks like she misses her water park days.
We don't know how SS did so well on the balance test, as this has been an issue for her for a long time. And not only is she standing on one foot, her eyes are closed. I would not have lasted longer than twenty seconds.
SS wanted to make sure I recorded how long she was able to balance.
PSC is HUGE, we were not close to see nearly as much as we wanted, but it had been a long day. We still had to go to Costco to pick up a few essentials, and get something to eat.
We also enjoyed two special exhibits while at PSC. SS saw her first laser show and loved it. We were disappointed when we learned Griffith Observatory in LA discontinued the laser shows. I took P to his first one there, and we always wanted to return with SS. The show was to the music of Michael Jackson, including Thriller (we have played that song for SS since we met). I cried a few times during the show due to SS's reactions. It is such an amazing thing to watch one's child have such unadulterated joy. SS danced her butt off on that chair, and we hope she remembers the experience for many years.
SS never wastes the opportunity to be carried around somehow. We can't blame her because by the time we made it to the hotel, P and I did not want to take one more step than absolutely necessary. He purposely found a hotel with an indoor swimming pool, but we did not make it. We crashed and burned rather shamelessly. This is only the first day, we are going to be beat by next Sunday.
I am K, married to P, and mother to JJ. We are a family of three, impatiently waiting to become a family of four, via adoption from China. Of course it is a girl, what else could we want. We are creating this blog to keep our family and friends updated on our lives, then our journey to China. We should be united with S in January 2007, and right now it seems like an eternity.
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