Out with the Old, In with the New

Shea Stadium is no more.  Neither is the little baby I brought to Shea for his first game back in September '08.  But when one door closes another one opens, and Jackson, Mommy and Daddy had a wonderful time enjoying our shared first experience of CitiFeild.  It didn't hurt that the Mets won 8-2!  

Jackson has grown so much over the last half a year.  Although I will miss the little baby who fell asleep in my arms, I am so in love with the little boy who still falls asleep in our arms.

Journal Entry Eight: Is this trip over yet?

I want to be home. At the end of vacations, I usually just want to board a beaming transporter that sends me right to my couch in good ol’ Brooklyn, New York. On this particular trip, I don’t even want to finish my last day. Sea World could collapse in an earthquake tonight leaving a plentiful bounty for local sushi restaurants, and I could get in my beaming machine and just be home, and I would be thrilled.

I am so thankful that I am able to take a California trip, and see the major parts of the State with my family. I’m just tired. California is large, and this trip has been long, and it has been a tourist trip, not a relaxing vacation. Nothing was vacated. My regular life is more of a vacation, and I can’t wait to get back to it. Being on vacation with a baby isn’t easy, and next time I do it, I think I just want to lie on a beach. I don’t even want to rent a car. Maybe I’ll just go to Coney Island.

Journal Entry Seven: I Hate Vacation

I’m getting tired of “vacation.” I’m actually looking forward to this upcoming weekend, as some relaxing time off. My next vacation is going to be either to Florida to sit on a beach, or some other beach locations where I plan nothing.

Yesterday was our first full day in San Diego. We went to the Zoo, which is Latin for “animal toilet.” The Zoo was nice, but I could have gone to the Bronx and been just as dazzled. I could have done without the birds. There are plenty of birds in NYC. Sure, they are pigeons mostly, but birds are birds. I feel the same about fish and dogs. I own one of each and don’t need to pay admission fee to see them. When I go to the Zoo I want to see animals that I don’t see every day, like giraffes, and elephants, and white trash tourists.

We did get to see some Mormons, which I mistakenly took for Amish until Nicole reminded me that it would take months for the Amish to get to San Diego via horse and buggy. I also found it interesting that the Zoo restaurants serve Cow, Pig and Chicken. This seems a bit hypocritical to me. I guess we have to wait for the farm animals to become endangered before we care enough about them to lock them up and let Asians snap photos.

Jackson had fun…I think.

Today is a nice relaxing beach day, in the 63 degree weather. I don’t mean to complain, but I was severely disillusioned when I booked this trip. I thought the climate of southern California was similar to the climate of southern Florida. Maybe it has been a weird week, but it feels like it has been cold from San Francisco to San Diego. Oh well, I’ll just keep reminding myself that it is colder in NY, until I get back home on Thursday morning and realize how good I had it in California. I hate vacation.

Journal Entry Six: The Beginning of The End

Goodbye LA, for now. Hello San Diego. The ride down was nothing compared to the trek from San Fran to LA. We took a detour to drive through Laguna Beach, and no matter how many times I look at the Pacific Ocean, it always amazes me. The views from Laguna are all from the mountain so the ocean looks huge.

Before we left LA, we met with Briana and her boyfriend, Josh. It was great to see her, and introduce Jackson, but too short of a visit. We arrived at the new hotel around 5:45pm, and headed out for dinner. The clocks were set forward today, so the sun set later and Jackson went to sleep at 8pm, instead of 7pm. We have to get him back on track over the next two days.

Tomorrow we are off to the San Diego Zoo. We will then take a nice relaxing beach day on Tuesday and Sea World on Sunday before we fly back to New York Sunday night at 9pm.

Journal Entry Five: Beach Bums

Today was beach day. We started at the Santa Monica Pier, where we walked right past Marcia Cross of Desperate Housewives. We strolled down the beach for a bit, but Jackson was a crab so we went back to the car and drove down the coast from beach to beach. We made it about eight and a half miles south of Venice Beach to Redondo Beach. We walked on the pier, stopped for lunch (early dinner), and played with Jackson in the sand for the first time ever. If an image of Jackson eating sand jumps into your head, then you know my son. The ocean was cold, but magnificent as the waves crashed and the sun set. We got chilly and took a drive back and forth along Esperande, a road overlooking the beach, and parked for the last 5 minutes before the sun’s last dot of light passed below the horizon. Jackson slept as we drove back to the hotel for dinner, bath, bottle and bed. Tomorrow, we are off to San Diego. Before we get down there we hope to have lunch with our friend Briana, and take a stroll along Venice Beach.

Journal Entry Four: LA, Days 1 and 2

I am already at the end of my second day in LA, and I am just now writing, because the last 48 hours have been full and busy.

Yesterday: We woke up, and needed desperately to go to Babies ‘r Us. The Garmin is an amazing GPS device…when it works. When it doesn’t work, I want to beat it like a possessed child. We finally found our haven of shit catchers and baby fuel, and headed off to TouristVille, U.S.A. – Hollywood Blvd.

Chinese Theatre, Walk of Fame, black dudes trying to sell me their rap CD…ah, ltake a deep breath of all that culture. After we took our obligatory pictures of the Hollywood sign, it was time to go look at the homes that we can’t afford. We could have taken a bus tour, but something about that made me want to puke. Next, it was off to the La Brea Tar Pits. Prehistoric animals trying with all their might to claw themselves out of tar makes me chuckle. After the museum, we went to tour the outside grounds. Jackson experienced sitting in grass for the first time. No big surprise that he likes to eat the grass and dirt. After a drive down Rodeo, and an early dinner in Beverly Hills we were pooped, as Nicole and I are now two old farts. We went back to the hotel and passed out.

Today: Up and out early to Disneyland. Jackson’s first Amusement Park, and therefore, first Disney Park experience. He had a ball. First ride: It’s a small world. Other Rides: Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh, Jungle Cruise, Enchanted Tiki Room, Donald’s Boat, Mickey’s House, Mad Tea Party. The little guy’s newest thing on this trip is that he now waves “Hi.” This made for quite an adorable day on constant lines.

We are all shot, and looking forward to a good night of sleep before we head out to the beaches tomorrow.

Journal Entry Three: Driving Mrs. Winchester

We arrived in Los Angeles last night at around 7:25pm after a day of driving down from San Francisco. We had left San Fran at around 10am, and took the inland route, opting to skip the scenic 10-hour costal journey for the shorter, baby friendly trek of 6 hours.

We made a detour in San Jose to go to a tourist trap that Nicole learned of on some “Haunted Places” television program on the Travel Channel. It’s called the Winchester Mystery House, and it was actually pretty cool. It’s a mansion, formerly owned by Sarah Winchester, the heir to the Winchester rifle fortune. She had lost her husband and child, both at young ages. So, she went to a psychic who told her that the spirits were angry with her and that she could only appease them by building a house forever, always building new additional. So that’s what she did. For over thirty years, she spent over 5 million dollars building this mansion. No doubt the psychic also happened to be related to the contractors that assisted in the construction. The weird part is that building the home wasn’t enough for her. She had to make the place twisted and nonsensical as hell to confuse the spirits. There are staircases that lead to the ceiling, and doors that open to two story drops. Oh yeah, bitches be crazy indeed!

The tour took a little over an hour, and since this whack job had tons of stairs we weren’t allowed to bring in Jackson’s stroller. Nicole and I traded off holding the little booger, until he fell asleep in my arms. Cute as can be, but heavy like a rock. We headed out, and the Garmin informed us that the remainder of our trip would still be about 6 hours. A hike, but better than the ten+ hours we would have wrestled with on the coast. Besides, the path we took, though not laden with oceanic views, was gorgeous just the same. Beautiful mountain ranges, bodies of water, and dancing rain in passing weather patterns gave us more than enough to look at during the drive. Best of all, Jackson slept almost the whole way.

The Beverly Hills Plaza Hotel is a steal. The combination of the off season, hotel renovations, shitty economy, and competition in the area equals $100 per night for what feels like a $400 per night suite. The room is probably 600-800 square feet. We have a full kitchen, full bathroom, distinct living room and bedroom, flat screen TV, and a desk with our own computer and fax machine. The hotel service is also very nice. We took it easy last night, and just watched some episodes of LOST and called it a day. Today we will venture out to see the sights of LA, and tomorrow we will be heading off to Disney Land.

Over the weekend we will hit the beaches, and any other attractions that we feel like seeing before we head off on Sunday to San Diego for the final leg of our California trip.