San Diego Vacation – Day 5 – Heading Home

The last day of a vacation is always bittersweet. You want to cherish the remaining hours, but know that the vacation will soon be over.

We had just a couple of hours in the morning before we would need to head to the airport.

We returned to the Mission to have breakfast. That is the restaurant that Dave and Iris took us to the day we arrived. My wife enjoyed her large delicious espresso while Kai once again contented himself on the iPad while we waited for breakfast to be served.



After breakfast, we walked along the ocean, enjoying the sunshine and scenery for one last time.

And then we were off to the airport.

Kai was nervous about flying, but perhaps not quite as much as before our flight coming to San Diego.

“We’re not going to crash?”

I think he knew what I would say, and just wanted to be reassured. No, Kai, we are not going to crash.

On the plane, as we neared takeoff, he chewed gum and put on his earplugs. I don’t know if the earplugs really help, but I do know that psychologically he thinks it helps, and that’s all that matters, I guess.

The flight was relatively uneventful. Kai was well behaved, for the most part.

Every now and then he would talk loudly. My wife and I tried to get him to speak more softly.

“Don’t shush me!” he would say even more loudly.

We landed about a half hour ahead of schedule.

That meant that we had to wait several minutes for our gate to become available.

By the time the doors to our plane opened, Kai was ready to get off.

Unfortunately, sitting back in row 31, we were not going to be moving anytime soon. We would be among the last to get off the plane.

The boy who waited patiently at the restaurant the night before was not present on this morning.

“WHAT”S TAKING SO LONG?”

“COME ON! LET’S MOVE!”

There was a large man standing directly in front of us. He could not move, of course, until everyone in front of him did. But Kai did not understand.

“THIS GUY IS LIKE A STONE!”

The man turned around and looked to see who was calling him a stone. I believe he had a smile on his face, though I was a bit afraid to look.

My wife took hold of Kai’s hands to make sure he did not push or strike anyone.

And we sighed with relief when it was finally our turn to move.

It was cold and gray outside as we waited for our cab. Yep, we were not in California anymore. We were back in the Midwest.

When we arrived home, my wife and I may have had a bit of the post-vacation blues. We were back to reality.

But Kai was upbeat.

After all, he had a brand new Lego set to work on.

And seeing him so happy made it impossible for my wife and I to stay down. We were tired, but we felt good.

We had been a wonderful vacation. And the memories from that will stay with us for a long time. Ah yes!


To catch up on the rest of our vacation:
San Diego Vacation – Day 1
San Diego Vacation – Day 2 – SeaWorld
San Diego Vacation – Day 3 – Legoland
San Diego Vacation – Day 4 – Safari Park