{california vacation, day 1 & 2}

DAY 1 - december 20th

sienna and i left on an earlier plane with jay's mom. due to school issues, jay had to come a bit later on a different flight.

quick change of planes in denver, colorado. (no luck with getting a direct flight)

we arrived in los angeles. jay's dad was waiting for us at the airport (he drove there).

we waited for our luggage.

and waited. and waited. and waited...

turns out the luggage never made it to our connecting flight = had to wait for hours for them.

we decided to go get something to eat.

we get a phone call that someone had found one of my carry on bags at the airport parkade. what? we didn't even know it was missing. somehow we missed putting it in the van. lots of confusion about where to pick it up. by this time we were tired. eventually got my carry on bag.

waiting for our luggage again.

we found out that jay's flight was cancelled. he was stuck in calgary.

we didn't have a clue how he'd be able to get in a flight as all flights were full. lots of worrying. jay had the worst time at the airport (only two hours of sleep that night, for example).

we finally got our luggage.

our plans had been to drive straight to san diego to our hotel but since we had to wait for jay still, we decided to stay at jay's grandparents place close to los angeles.

DAY 2 - december 21st

worrying about jay still. finally found out he'll be able to fly to san diego. very grateful that he was able to arrange that as many people were still stuck at the airport in calgary trying to find a flight.

helped jay's grandpa rake leaves. yep, from winter to very nice fall. the temperature was between +15C and +25C while we were there. nice during the day, chillier in the morning and in the evening. during the day we were fine with just t-shirts on.

went for a walk with sienna. jay's grandparents live outside los angeles in a nice, old neighborhood. picked up "treasure" - acorns, porcupine seed balls...

drove to san diego.

checked in at our resort which was actually in carlsbad, just north of san diego.

picked up jay from san diego airport. so reliefed that jay was there finally.

jay's grandparents came to the resort as well. jay's parents got us a two bedroom/two bathroom/kitchen/living room/dining area type of place to stay at. it was nice and comfortable. except the pillows, they were way too big and bulky. we had to go buy smaller ones later so we could get some sleep. the beds were super comfy though and we were very happy with the resort.

that evening we walked to eat at a restaurant adjacent to our resort. nice place. jay's mom and i had the best caesar salad we have ever had in our lives. it tasted so different from any caesar salad i have ever had. spicier. so yummy! i still crave that salad.

i can so handle a christmas without snow :D

jay's grandma grows beautiful roses. they reminded me of dublin, ireland. everyone there had gorgeous rose gardens too.

avocados, citrus fruit, peppers... wish we had a year round growing season up here in canada. *sigh* :)

find the humming bird. there were lots of them. jay's grandparents have nectar feeders for them and we got to watch them closely. good luck getting a picture of them though. they're so fast.

i took lots of pictures of jay's grandparents' home. personal pictures will be at our family blog though.

flocked christmas trees on sale. spotted on our way to san diego.

gorgeous sunsets. you could see the ocean from our hotel. it was couple minutes drive away from us.

next: let the fun begin. :D