23 October 2006

Return Home

We're back home! We never made it to the beach yesterday, but that was okay because some of us snuck in visits to The Black Sheep and Common Threads in Encinitas. Both nice, both open on Sundays. Here are a few pix from our trip:





This is one of those giant spiders. This one was nearly 3 inches in diameter when her legs were fully extended. Very pretty.





And here are the Things at Legoland. I don't normally dress them in matching outfits; it just worked out that way. If they both look drenched, it's because they were. Legoland has a fun new pirate-themed waterplay area, but Bad Mommy had neglected to bring swimwear. Obviously, that didn't deter them. Fortunately, it was warm out.



And here are the pumpkins again. Thing 1 dried out fairly quickly, but Thing 2 got chilled, so she acquired a Legoland t-shirt. And a wand, so she could "make things disappear." We've been reading a lot of Abiyoyo.

Here are the Things yesterday, deep in an art project with their grandmother and great aunt. Don't they have a beautiful deck?

So today we drove home, which normally tales 6 to 7 hours. We made reasonably good time through LA, and then, just as we came down off the Grapevine into the valley, our tire suddenly went flat. We were 20 miles from Bakersfield, aka the Middle of Nowhere. So we waited for a tow truck (Hubby could've put on the spare, but with traffic whizzing by at 80mph, decided someone else could do the honors). Then we drove on the spare to Bakersfield, where we had a truly obnoxious experience at Sears. End result: we are $200 poorer and we wasted three hours. (The flat, btw, was caused by some road debris that punctured the tire.) We finally got home 9 hours after we'd left San Diego.

And there were packages waiting for me!

All of these wonderful things were from Alvina, my GYS swap partner from Singapore. Fabric! Yarn! Treats! Two pairs of fabulous earrings! And so much more. What a wonderful swap, and I owe Alvina such a big thank you.

As if Alvina's package wasn't enough, this sweet bunny came from Myriam in the Netherlands. She made it herself. It's just plain adorable. A great big thank you to Myriam!

Now, on top of all that, apparently another package awaits me at the post office because it needs a signature. What fun!

4 comments:

Nic said...

I love that area of California! I especially love Solana Beach.

Anonymous said...

Oooh, I bet I know what's in that package :-). I realize that I forgot to give you my real email address in the note I included, but I did put my blog address. Please let me know when you receive the parcel I sent. You can get my email address from my blogger profile on my blog.

Have a great day :-)

Knatolee said...

I am jealous of all the loot you are getting in the mail!

And I love the Lego pumpkin. The Things are getting really big. Such cuties!

Anonymous said...

Wow that's a big spider. It's kind of making me feel all creepy crawly just looking at it!

Looks you had a great time. That lego pumpkin is pretty cool!