Upon returning from Tucson in July, which was to my surprise 113 degrees, I had enough time to FINALLY have American Airlines (with whom I will never fly again) deliver my bag two days late, do laundry and repack for two weeks at my parents. With a 5 year old.
While the JW Marriott Starr Pass was beautiful and could have been relaxing I spent my time there in sessions and did not get rest or relaxation. So, clearly it makes sense to run off pregnant on a two week trip with your little one.
I was determined to spend some quality time with Hunter over the two week period doing great fun things and have one last hoorah with him as he will no longer be an only child in a few months. I must say that I was quite impressed with Delta on the way up. We were EARLY by 20 minutes into both Atlanta AND Philly. Both legs! Impressive!
A few days after arriving home to see my family I took Hunter to the Baltimore Zoo. I had been about 7 years earlier with my family to take my grandmother. It seemed much smaller than when I was younger, likely because everything seems huge when you are a child. WELL. Let me tell you how large that place is when it's 98 degrees out and you are pregnant. We met a great friend of mine from high school there with his wife and their daughter and had a blast it just so happens that the world was about to melt. I'm completely used to 98 degree weather. I live in Mobile for the love of all that is good and holy but there is just something so wrong about triple digits in Baltimore. Snow I can handle. Ridiculous hell like heat up there I cannot. He made sure to wear his Alabama hat so that when we saw "Big Al" (the elephants) then he would be recognized as an Alabama fan.
A few days after battling the heat of the Baltimore Zoo I thought it would be a wonderful idea to take Hunter to Washington, DC for the day. After all, the train picks up not far from my parents so it's just a quick ride down there. Hunter had never had the pleasure of riding on a commuter train. We stopped at Dunkin' Donuts to get breakfast for the train ride then boarded and we were off. He loved it. Once we arrived at Union Station we took the metro out to Woodley Park/ Zoo. Another zoo! In 90 something degree heat. YAY! The walk from the metro to the zoo is all uphill. It was delightful. We spent about 2 hours there. We saw cats and snakes and elephants and pandas. It was awesome. Especially all the walking. GREAT exercise. Let me tell ya. After the zoo we met a childhood friend of mine for lunch then walked over to the mall to visit a couple of the Smithsonian museums. Next stop- The Air and Space Museum. By this point I should have mentioned that my child is ALL ABOUT a gift shop. It's all he wants to do. His trips revolve around what trinket he can bring home. At the zoo we picked up a giraffe mask. At Air and Space it was our first stop. He grabbed a "top gun" flight helmet. That he did not take off. Until bed that night. He wore that thing all over the museum. He then proceeded to walk up to some Asian people and speak "Chinese" to them. Wearing a helmet. I was the mom with the kid wearing a helmet in public. He did think the rockets were cool. Next stop was the Museum of Natural History. We got there at the end of our day and I was half way to dead. We ran in and saw the dinosaurs, the hope diamond and quickly I offered up ice cream to get him to agree to head back to the Metro- DURING RUSH HOUR ON A FRIDAY to catch the train home. There were traffic issues, of course, with the metro. One train broke down, yada yada. We ran to catch the train home. Literally. Belly and all. And had to stand through the first two stops. Not one of those people offered a seat to a pregnant woman with a small lap child. SHOCKER. I love the south. Had we been in Alabama about 90% of the people on that train would have offered up their seat. Anyway, back to DC. Then for the two hour ride home we had to listen to a crabby disgruntled couple complain about a girl who was talking on her cell phone. We were not in a quiet car. They just didn't like people talking in their car. The whole while Hunter was asleep on my lap. In his helmet. This could quite possibly rank as one of the longest days of my life. Got GREAT exercise running around our nations capital in the heat. Not the best idea I have ever had. He loved every minute. Made everything worth it.
A couple of days later it was off to the ball park. I grew up going to Orioles games. My dad and one of my Uncles took my sister and me to our first game when I was about 6. I still remember what I wore. That was back in the day when the Orioles played at Memorial Stadium. Great ball park. For years after that my aunt and uncle took me for my birthday to a game. My favorite player was Cal Ripken Jr. forever. I even went as Cal for halloween one or two years. Cal with pigtails, of course. Even the night before our wedding we had our out of town guests to an Orioles game. They had a really hot first half of the season this year so I thought for fathers day I would treat my dad to an Os game and we could take little man. The ONLY thing that child wanted was a "foam #1 finger". We had hot dogs, popcorn, walked around the stadium, got him a t shirt to wear to the game and he even wore the floppy hat that was the promo from the July 23, 2004 game. We had seats right up the first base line and in the shade- THANK GOD- because it was 100 degrees out. In case it hasn't been made clear yet we were visiting during the massive heat wave that took over the mid atlantic, north east and mid west the first part of July. Thought I would throw that in. Anyway, he didn't complain and we stayed the entire game. Detroit won but the day could not have been better. Even without Cal Ripken Jr. on the field.
We ended our trip with a visit to my Uncle Hooper and Aunt Kris' house. My cousin has a daughter just a few days older than Hunter. They both have red hair and are adorable together. He had been talking about "Cousin Zoe" for a while so this just made the entire trip for him. It was great for me to get to see my family but for him to get to play with the only little cousin he knows was special and oh so cute! Uncle Hoop picked out a play bow and arrow for him as a gift. He refers to it as his awesome "bone and arrow" and slept with it that night. BTW, my cousins daughter is not named Zoe according to Hunter. It's Cousin Zoe. Get it right. Duh. All things considered we had a wonderful visit home. It will be my last until at least spring or next summer and it was an enjoyable two weeks. I accomplished everything that I set out to do. We took day trips. We had crabs, a great Philly cheese steak, a real sub (no- Lennys, subway and that place in spring hill do not count as real) saw some good baseball and most importantly spent quality time with family and old friends.
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