There, And Back Again

The puppy is comfortably sleeping at the top of the stairs now, but he sure got excited when Mom and I got back! And it's his 7-year-old birthday... Unfortunately, to him a birthday cookie is just a cookie. lol! It sure is nice to get back in the afternoon and just relax...

We got up very early, Friday morning... so early that I laid myself back in bed for a minute or two before we left at 4 am for the airport. The Fun Couple dropped us off and we went right through to security as I checked in online and we only had carry-ons. So at about quarter to five, Mom and I stopped at Ivar's for breakfast inside the airport... holy cow!... and we had breakfast sandwiches with smoked salmon... bizarre, but good! By the time we were done it was time to catch the subway tram for the S gates. We didn't have to wait long to board at all! I slept almost the entire first flight to Salt Lake City, and the second flight was so uneventful, I don't remember anything about it. No turbulence, no nothing. I suppose we did take off and land though. We got to San Diego at around 11:30 am and we went directly to the car rental place and hopped on the freeway and didn't stop until we pulled up to the stoplight at the off-ramp in Yuma, Arizona, 180 miles later. Our car was a white Chevy "Cobalt", and besides the CD player not working, it was a comfortable little ride. At least that way, Mom and I had lots of time to enjoy talking. There were two border patrol checkpoints that we went through, an awesome mountain pass (4,000 ft. elevation) with mountains that looked like they were made of gigantic rock piles (with rocks the size of cars and trucks), an enormous, white sand desert, a large, orange submersible being hauled on a semi-truck trailer flatbed, a sign saying "Next Exit, Mexico" (LOL), and 16 miles out of Yuma, the Imperial Sand Dunes (where they filmed part of Return of the Jedi (on Tatooine)... and Road to Zanzibar, among others) that Interstate 8 goes through. It was a neat drive!

We got to the Days Inn in Yuma around 2 pm and the proprietor said it was an unseasonably cold 77 degrees. Heh. We had just come from 40 degrees Seattle. We settled in, and soon Zac came driving up in his new maroon pick-up truck. It was a very pleasant meeting. But as Mom and I had not eaten since 4:45, we were slightly hungry, so we went out to eat a snack at Carl's Jr., which Zac didn't know they had. Outside of Walmart, this was his first time around town in the month that he's been there. He had just gotten the truck 2 days before this trip. Back at the motel, we piled into his pickup and got a look at his base. He drove all around, but we stopped to look in the PX (well, more than look - they had his unit patch and a navy t-shirt :) and then we took a quick tour through his barracks. I was shocked by the bleakness, but it was a nice little room. One roommate, two beds on the floor, plenty of storage space and an adjoining bathroom with the next room over. He's had wireless Internet in there for about a week now. We weren't hungry enough for dinner yet, and there was nothing worth watching at the local theater (gee, Halloween was the next day, no wonder) so he brought Transformers 2 back to the motel to watch on his gigantic laptop/blu-ray player. He's very much into movies. What an intense thing that is to watch! It's nearly all computer-generated machines slashing each other to pieces... with a storyline and disgusting stuff along with it! I hadn't realized that Spielberg was one of the producers, so that's why I was surprised. I was interested in watching it... I was, I promise. And I did enjoy watching it. I did. :) Right afterwards, we went out to Zac's favorite food place on Earth: Outback Steakhouse! I had my favorite: Tilapia with crab. And oh, boy! was that good! It's pretty needless to say we were wiped out when we got back to the hotel, so we all crashed and fell to bed.

For Halloween on Saturday the 30th, we slept in 'til 9. Lovely breakfast at Denny's right afterwards (right nearby) and then we stopped by the gigantic mall right across the street. He needed to pick up new frames for his glasses, and then I wanted a external hard drive so I could bring home a copy of all of the Kim:Possible seasons that he had on one of his. There was a Best Buy, so we were set. They have pretty much everything you can think of in Yuma. It's rather large and has a growing retirement community along with the very large Marine Corps Air Station. We then did our local sightseeing at the Yuma Territorial Prison State Park. We did quite a bit of driving around the historical district (I can be directionally challenged sometimes), but we did find the entrance after all. This place was neat to visit (as a tourist)! They had a little museum, a short movie about the place, and a walk-though cell. Not only that, but they filmed scenes from Beau Geste there! Wow! After a lunch break at Cold Stone Ice Creme (in the mall) where I had a medium cup of half pumpkin, half chocolate, (yum!) we went back to the motel and watched "Sleepless in Seattle" in the same fashion as the night before. I really did like it a lot... they filmed in the same "S" concourse that we had taken off from the previous day! After the film, we were hungry enough for dinner, so we went out to the Olive Garden (also across the street from the motel). It was one of the loveliest dinners I can remember. Cheese stuffed pasta with shrimp... and the company was good too :) To finish the evening before he had to go back to base for the night and next morning, we watched "The Prince & Me". I have to mention here that these are all Zac's own movies and also ones that I had never seen before! I love his wide taste in movies... most of the time :) I suppose I could do without Rambo 1 through 4... eeek. So he had to take off to do his duty the next morning, so Mom and I were alone for a little while. Sleep came quickly.

Sunday morning, the first of November: We got to sleep in 'til about 9 again, but Zac had to get up and to his work by 8 or so, and when he got there, they told him they didn't need him. That stuff can be hard to swallow sometimes. He also had to get a haircut for an upcoming inspection, so by the time he got back to the motel, it was about 10:30 or so. Mom and I spent the meantime reading more in the New Testament together. We've finished Romans and moved on to Corinthians. Instead of breakfast, we went to Carl's Jr. again, this time being more than just a snack. Their burgers are huge! I had one with guacamole and bacon. By this time we had checked out of the hotel, so watching movies was out. He did need some things at Walmart, so we went there first and left his truck there when we were done. There were a few museums we wanted to check out, but they were all closed. So while we were out there, we decided to go look at the Sand Dunes from the car. Zac was interested and we wanted to show him... he had been flown in to Yuma when he arrived, so he hadn't seen anything out there. We took a couple of back roads once we got to the dunes and we saw a lot of sand! It was very pretty, in its own way. By the time we drove back to Yuma, it was getting to be later afternoon and we were without an idea as to what to do, so we decided to part ways a little earlier than planned. We dropped him off at his truck and hugged him goodbye and we both took off in opposite ways. Mom and I then filled up our tank near the freeway and then drove to our pit-stop motel in El Cajon (EL CAW-HONE) just outside San Diego (where I stayed in July - the very same room!). Because it was so early (we even gained an hour on the way back to SD - AZ doesn't participate) we went to Balboa Park in San Diego and had dinner at my favorite place. There was a play going on that night, but we weren't really interested for the price it was at. So we enjoyed a long dinner and desert by the window and watched the sun set. It was a glorious time, just my mom and I.

I drove the route I discovered in July and got us back to the motel in a matter of minutes. We didn't stay awake very long... we hit the sack at about 8:30.

This morning, we didn't have to leave for the airport until 5 am! I sorta knew where to return the car... it took my third time around the block to get it right though! The car rental shuttle got us to the terminal in plenty of time, so after getting through security, we had really good breakfast sandwiches at the California Pizza Kitchen. The weather was perfect for flying, so I got lots of great pictures all the way from San Diego to Salt Lake City. I spent nearly the whole flight looking out the window. The next flight from Salt Lake to Seattle, I spent reading in Mere Christianity. I am thoroughly convinced that C.S. Lewis knew what he was talking about. :)

When we flew by, Mt. Rainier was covered with clouds to the north, but as we looked at it right out our window from the south it was just magnificent. The pilot surprised me by not landing right away. Instead we kept flying high past Seatac and circled around Lake Washington, flying over Kirkland and the U District before landing from the North. It was bright clear sunshine out and I got lots of nice shots of the cities and lakes.

So here we are again, back home. Zac seems a little disillusioned with his day-to-day in the Marines, and he spoke of getting out... It was good for me to hear him and see where he's at, so I can think of what I will do when I get bored when I get to that point. Gosh, it was good to see him! We all had a great time!

Jp