Beach, Family, and Heading Home
We got up this morning and packed (no small task b/c we had Christmas gifts along with all our other stuff!). We checked out and mosied to Balboa Peninsula where we ate breakfast at (gag) McDonald’s. Zaiden isn’t feeling so well and he was a little lethargic. He didn’t eat much breakfast. :\
We mosied over to Newport Beach (the beach, now, not the city) and hung out on the pier and down on the beach. Two trips to the beach/ocean in as many days for Zaiden. Sweet! Again, he didn’t like the water but was just happy as a clam in the sand. Click on the photo to the right for more pictures.
From there, we visited Nikki’s Uncle Ron and Aunt Evie as they live in Newport Beach. We hadn’t seen them since the wedding and it was excellent to introduce them to Zaiden and spend some time — even if it was quite short as we had to get to the airport.
We drove to the airport, drove to the rental car drop-off, then drove away from the airport to the gas station — OOPS. $5 / gallon if we don’t return it full? To phrase it like my pops would, they can shove that “where the sun doesn’t shine.” We filled up, returned to the airport, and still had plenty of time before we had to board.
We asked in advance if the flight was full. It wasn’t so we grabbed a row (we flew Southwest where you don’t have seat assignments; rather, it’s first-come-first-served) for the three of us despite the fact that we didn’t have a ticket for Zaiden (he was a “lap baby” — you can do that until the child is two years old). Again, he was wonderful on the plane. Despite being sick and not getting enough sleep, he didn’t sleep. He fell asleep in his stroller on the bus back to the car and slept all the way home including a short stop at a grocery store. We got home about 10pm and we all fell asleep for then next 11 hours. It was a FABULOUS trip.