San Diego Part 1

A post I wrote on Saturday morning, while we were in San Diego without internet:

Nicholas and I have been having a great time touring San Diego while Joe has been pretty busy with the conference. On Thursday afternoon we went for a long walk in search of lunch and stumbled upon a local place where I was able to get real carne asada, just like I remembered. Yum!

Then we went on a tour of the USS Midway, which is a huge aircraft carrier that is now a museum. The audio tours sometimes annoy me, but it was great with Nicholas because it meant I could keep moving while listening rather than needing to stand still and read signs. It was a great museum, with lots of sections set up as though people were there, which seemed to keep Nicholas’ attention. I couldn’t see his expression because he was in the Baby Bjorn, but since we were there for close to 2 hours and he didn’t fuss at all, I’m assuming he was enjoying it.

Then yesterday we spent the afternoon at Balboa Park. Nicholas wasn’t very interested in the gardens, but he was entranced by the various fountains and couldn’t get enough of playing with the grass. Luckily this grass was a kind that somehow he wasn’t able to pull out, so it was safe to just let him sit and play with it. It must have left some sort of residue on his fingers, though, because he then spent a good 3 minutes staring intently at his fingers, putting them up to his mouth, staring at them again, etc.

From 2010 January

There are a bunch of museums within the park, but the only one we made it to was the Model Train Museum. And it was a hit! You can tell when Nicholas is really interested in something because he gets incredibly serious and focused. And man did he stare intently at those trains for a long time. I think he actually liked these trains much more than the full-sized ones at the B&O Museum because these small ones moved and he could watch them move. He is too young to understand yet how cool big trains are, but he thinks things that move and make noise are inherently interesting. By far his favorite part of the museum, though, was the small playroom where they had some toy trains and tracks set up for kids to play with.

From 2010 January

The tables were just the right height for Nicholas to stand at and play and he had a great time. He didn’t understand moving the trains (although he enjoyed it when I pushed trains down the hills), but he though the trains were cool to pick up and play with the wheels and, of course, try to shove in his mouth.

Also on this trip we have been reminded how much Nicholas loves people. Our hotel has this cool glass elevator that faces out into the atrium, so you can watch what is going on. But if there are other people in the elevator, he just wants to smile at them. He seems to make it a personal mission to try to get each person he sees to smile at him. Go for it, little boy.

We also introduced Nicholas to the swimming pool on this trip.

From 2010 January

He smiled and laughed when Daddy threw him in the air or jumped with him, but most of the time he was pretty non-expressive. I was hoping he would have fun, but I think it will take another couple times to get there. First he has to get through his stages of figuring out the new environment. While the serious face isn’t as rewarding to watch as the smiles, it is when he is learning a lot, I think.

Overall we have had a very good trip so far. He did much better on the flight out than we had feared and we have spent the past few days in glorious 70 degree weather. Today Nicholas and I are spending the afternoon with one of my high school friends and his wife while Joe has work commitments and then tomorrow we head home. I don’t want to leave—and not only because I’m dreading the flight back with a little boy who has had a lot asked of him in the last few weeks.