Last Adventures

The summer is officially over -- we've broken out some long sleeves and jackets, the school schedule has got us firmly in its grip, and we're watching the first leaves turn.  But we did manage to squeeze out a few more fun days in the last month, including a Labor Day spent at the beach and a trip for me to my brother's wedding.

The beach trip was last-minute, but very rewarding.  We had planned to just go to the pool on Labor Day since it was the last day it was open, but the forecast called for some scattered thunder which means we would have been sitting by the pool waiting for the lifeguards to call it clear or not.  So, we braved the masses on Labor Day.  Luckily, we have a great trump card for beating beach traffic, which is that we are early risers even on a holiday.  We usually hit the road around 7 am and have the place all to ourselves when we get there.

We hadn't really been to the beach all summer, and definitely not since our kids became proficient swimmers during their swim team experience, so we were looking forward to the hours of fun and relaxation.  We didn't even get burned...

 As for my trip -- my brother decided to get married in San Diego, and since S. and I have some wonderful friends posted with the State Department in Tijuana, I got to cross the border and stay with them for a day or two before the wedding itself.  They treated me like royalty, and I got to try out my Spantuguese, which was a blast all round.  I also got to eat as much delicious Mexican food as I could stand.  In one particular case, possibly a little more emphasis on the "as much as I could stand", since I wasn't quite sure what I thought of nopale, but it was still fun to try and eat as much as possible.

I don't actually have any personal pictures of the wedding since I literally crossed the border and went straight to the temple, leaving my camera in a quick heap in my sister's motel room, but here's a shot of my good-lookin' family in Balboa Park afterwards.

It was a fairly low-key wedding and none of us had spouses or children along (except for one little one), but though I missed my significant others, it was a new and unusual experience to just be "us" again.  My brother, sister, and I traveled together in his rental car, and were laughing and telling stories the whole time.  I think that may be the most wonderfully enduring memory of that wedding trip for me, laughing so hard with my grown-up siblings.  Love 'em.