Rainy Day

I'm in San Diego right now and it's anything but sunny. In fact, today resembled a rainy day in Seattle. The rain came down in sheets, the wind was blowing and the clouds were hovering below the tops of the surrounding mountains. It looked pretty cool, but kept us inside for the day.

I'm here visiting my brother, sister-in-law and niece right now. My brother is leaving for Iraq in a few days and we are helping my sister-in-law move back to Michigan with her family. It will be nice to have my niece within driving distance, but I wish my brother didn't have to go.

Here's the recap of the trip so far:

Friday
Wonderful 'new boy' (also known as Joe) dropped me off at the Madison airport around 815am. I have to give the personal shout out to him as he drove through rush-hour traffic and snowy roads to get me there. Thanks Joe!

I barely cruised through security and am greeted by the 'boarding' process at the Madison airport. We were all set to go on the plane when the de-icing process began. This took 30 minutes and delayed our take-off by 40 minutes. That cut my layover down to about 35 minutes. Lucky for me, Joe had given me a book to read called 'Into Thin Air'. (True story, excellent read, check it out!) I read all the way to Minneapolis.

Once in Minneapolis, I walked straight to my San Diego flight and boarded. Again, I settled in quickly and got right back into the book. I had nearly 4 hours of flying ahead of me and it was time to get cracking. I did manage to finish the book just in time for landing. I hurried off the plane to get to baggage claim. We were already 25 minutes late and my parents were waiting. Unfortunately for them my bags took an additional 35 minutes to get off the plane.

We ate lunch on the pier and then checked into our condo in Escondido. The weather was cooler than last time, but still better than back home. A cool 59 degrees and cloudy - I'll take that over snowy and cold. Don't get me wrong, I love the snow and cold, but I'm ready for spring. Anyways....

The rest of the evening went as follows:
1) Help Brother move out of apartment
2) Play with my cute little niece
3) Try to calm my cute little niece down in the parking lot at the grocery store
4) Return and have dinner with the family

Saturday
Saturday kicked off early. I was up at 530am! Darn time change....I gave Joe a call and spoke with him for about 20 minutes. Then I laid down again for a bit and tried to fall back asleep. I just couldn't get to sleep. So, I logged onto the internet, checked emailed, surfed, shopped, etc...

Finally, the rest of the family got up and go moving. I spent most of the morning and early afternoon playing with my niece. She is sitting up (or trying to anyways) and making lots of funny noises. Very, very cute. Check out the pictures below!


I did go for a run yesterday as well. It was great to get outside and run in shorts and a T-shirt and be comfortable. This area is very hilly and I ended up running 'uphill' for about 30 minutes before turning around and coming back down. It was nice to get out of the condo, as that was my only time outside all day.

The rest of the day was spent with family - eating, relaxing, talking and watching movies. It was great, but I still wish I had more outside time.

Sunday
And today....today is the rainy day. Today is the day the New York Giants won the Superbowl against all the odds! Today is another day spent at the condo the whole day.

I love my family and I'm really happy I got to see my brother before he leaves. But I'm ready to go home and get back to the rest of my life - training, friends, work, Joe....all of it. I'm looking forward to making the most of each of those things.

I'm not really sure what tomorrow will bring yet. I know we will get out a bit more tomorrow and I will get a run in there somewhere. I'm sure there will be more play time with my niece as well :)