thespeck

I woke up early and knocked out the last couple of days worth of travelogues before the sun came up. About 7:30 Abcde awoke and the 2 of us headed to breakfast. Caroline continued her imitation of sleeping beauty but would have been more convincing if she had not had one eye open and her phone lit up in her hand. We had pancakes, grabbed some milk (which she carried) and headed back to the room. Caroline got up soon after we returned (no choice, "get up mommy") and went for breakfast while Abs watched Elena of Avalor. I showered and then wife was back and she ran through the other shower. We Ubered to Navy Pier and mission number one was getting Abcde's bunny stitched back up. Its seams had split. That done, we wandered ... read more

I was up earlyish and took Abcde for breakfast shortly after they opened at 6am on the Executive Level. (Side note, if you like to travel and stay at Hilton properties, pay for the Hilton Credit Card to get automatic gold status,it is totally worth it for the free light breakfast, evening snacks and Wifi) Scrambled eggs and oatmeal and lots of fresh fruit. The woman working the lounge was quite taken with Abcde and would remember her name all weekend. Back to the room we got Maitu moving. Our room has 2 double beds and 2 full bathrooms. One for me to fart in and one for Caroline to make smell like roses. Ha. Like the undying, Caroline rose and made her way upstairs for breakfast while I showered and Abcde enjoyed the truest perk ... read more

We awoke for the last time in California. I took Abcde down to breakfast but decided not to eat downstairs after I noticed that the furniture was leaving paint on my hands. The breakfast area had been roped off when we checked in yesterday but I didn't know why until I found paint on my hands. It looked nice with a fresh coat of paint, wish they had given it enough time to dry before putting it back in service. I reloaded the car and at about 11:15 we were off to return it. We dropped it off and were in the Enterprise shuttle to the terminal by noon. Our boarding passes said terminal 2 but when I went to check our bag and car seat, I was directed to terminal 3. No biggie just a ... read more

I woke at 5, tried to sleep until 5:30, and then went to the only other room available to me, the bathroom. It wasn't too bad though, I had dragged the office chair in there the night before and had a comfortable place to read, type yesterdays journal entry and play my games on my phone. Up and moving we had finished breakfast by 9 and were out the door by 10:30am. Again we stopped at Subway for lunch supplies and were through the gates just about 11am. Abcde and I raced to the dolphin stadium and saw 90% of the same show we had seen twice the day before. What can I say, we love watching dolphins perform. We then went to the penguin exhibit followed by the arctic circle where we saw beluga whales, ... read more

It is time to leave Los Angeles, if only for a few days. Karina and Joel have been wonderful hosts but they do need to go to work and I would like to see Orcas before the state of California forces Sea World to release them to the wild or put them down or something. So we are going to San Diego, its only 2 hours away and justifies having rented a car. We arise at a reasonable hour and while Abcde and I make it to the breakfast area first, Wife is seated before us. I think it was because I went and re-installed the carseat before Abs and I joined the line for omlets. Abcde nibbled random bits, I had a delicious omlet and Caroline ate anything she could find without eggs in it. ... read more