Old Stomping Grounds: San Diego

Back in July, Wayne had the opportunity to attend an AP conference in San Diego (so whimsically named "AP by the Sea"), and so we tacked on a few extra days and made a family vacation out of it! I've already alluded to some of the horrors of traveling with a toddler, but as a whole, and even in individual parts, it was a very fun time! Because even a spirited two-year-old can't (completely) spoil our time seeing dear friends and visiting old stomping grounds in a city which Wayne and I hold so, so dear to our hearts.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was bringing Caedmon to the beach for the first time. He LOVED the sand and was AMAZED when I showed him how to make "sand castles" by flipping over a bucket filled with damp sand. AH-mazed. He also had his first taste of genuine SoCal fish tacos from South Beach in Ocean Beach (a mouthful, I know), but the best was when Caedmon met the ocean. I can still hear his shrieks and giggles... (mostly because Caedmon loves replaying the video clip over and over and over... and over again).

Wait, what?! How did you do that?

He's enjoying himself so much that you can kind of see some drool glistening from his lips.

Taking a bite of South Beach's incredible fish tacos... NOT a meal for the napkin-less.

Hm... I shall write it up as... inventive yet unpresumptuous.

We had just suggested that we walk into the waves. I love his look of concerned anticipation.

Here it comes!

And then he loved it...

... until he got some water up his nose, and then he didn't want to go in anymore.

Another highlight was visiting UCSD again. Oh, my goodness—how it has changed! And how we have, too, made especially apparent by our little guy running around our old campus.

Our block on Library Walk! This shot took about a gajillion takes. Caedmon's zombie-gaze is due to the video we're holding up as a carrot next to the camera lens.

This kid is forever climbing...

forever running...

dancing...

... and sometimes pontificating.

Peterson Hall is where Wayne and I met that fateful night of the Harvest scavenger hunt. Who knew that out of that night would emerge an enduring friendship, and then many years later, this rambunctious little boy! (Though if someone had told me this that evening, I would have FREAKED. OUT.)

In the Muir Quad. My Freshman dorm window was the fourth one down from the top, facing the quad (right above Wayne's little fluffy hairs). 7th floor Tioga!

Geisel Library

 And here are two last pictures of us in the Gaslamp...

... running, as usual.

... and wreaking havoc on the traffic signals. That's my boy!