DAY ONE PT3:

What a day! I finally got to see my Mother! 

After that nice and easy flight I called my parents from the airport to let them know that we had made it safely into San Diego. My Father told me that they had some errands to run and that we should come by at around 5pm. After the phone call Dan and I secured our rental car and were off to our favorite Mexican taco stand, LaPosta for rolled tacos. Afterwards we walked over to where Judy used to work for 15 years to deliver greetings and to let her talk to some of her old friends. This is Doctor Stanton, a very dear friend of our family and Judy's former employer.

                              He actually gave Dan his first computer back in 1999 because he thought our Son was so "brilliant". That was a great job for Judy and for our family. Dr. Stanton and his group of dedicated physicians truly cared about their patients health as well as their employees security, both financial and emotional. After that we went back to our room and just "chilled". I blogged and he chatted on line with his friends. From there we decided to go down to Mission Beach, the home of one of the last "original" wooden roller coasters in California and in America, The Giant Dipper. Dan wanted to ride it but alas it is only open Fri-Sun. Needless to say he will be riding it tomorrow, but not I. For as long as I can remember, riding that roller coaster always gave me a tremendous headache from the shaking. So no dipping for Red, but I will show you video of Dan getting his brains rattled on it! What a beautiful day it was along the shoreline. Partly cloudy and highs in the low 60's, so No Jacket Needed!

After strolling the boardwalk for a little while we headed over to my parents apartment for a couple of hours. My Mother was SO excited to see her "Big Son" and equally excited about seeing her Grand Son. My Father looked pretty good and said that his high blood pressure medicine still makes him unsteady, but he's pluggin along. It was a nice evening talking to my Mother, who naturally kept repeating herself due to the Altzheimers, but for the most part she was lucid, happy, and genuinely happy to have her Son home. I sat next to her and kissed her repeatedly, put my arm around her, joked with her (she joked back too!), talked about relatives and friends who have passed and enjoyed her company. An NBA game was on so in between breaks from talking to my Mom, my Dad and I would talk basketball and of course KOBE BRYANT came up! But we had a very nice visit and will stop by their place late tomorrow morning to go and visit my Aunt Faye who lives in a nursing home, my brother and his Son Cameron, and watch some basketball with my Dad later that night.

So far so good on my February Trip. I will leave you tonight with this picture which sums up the reason why I had to come home and how blessed I am to have been given this opportunity. Good night until tomorrow...