Vacation in Los Angeles

We survived our first week-long vacation away from home. More importantly, we survived baby K's first flight! It wasn't easy, but we made it through, and I would do it all over again if I had to. It was worth all the stress, packing, heavy lifting, and frustration dealing with a crying baby on a packed plane just to see the smiles on my grandparent's faces when they saw baby K. Too bad I didn't know, otherwise I could've coordinated the trip better and made it there in time for my grandma's 90th birthday celebration the week before.

We did not visit any of the theme parks this time around since baby K is too young to appreciate them. Here are some of the places we went to instead:

• California Science Center
• La Brea Tar Pits
• Griffith Observatory
• LA Farmers Market
• San Diego Zoo
• Old Town San Diego
• Gaslamp Quarters
• Coronado
• Santa Monica Pier

Throughout the week, M and I were worried about the rental car we were driving. I rented it at Hertz through Priceline, and got a Pontiac G6 with over 40,000 miles on it. The first day, it drove fine from the airport back to my uncle's place, but soon after that, the car started making funny noises upon initial acceleration, and we suddenly heard squeaks on the brakes. M called up all the neighboring Hertz locations in the area (there must've been at least six of them), but none of them had any full-size cars we could exchange it for, and the drive back to LAX would've been too far. The closest vehicle they had was a compact car, which would've been too small. Fortunately, we got through the week without any extreme car trouble (just had to add some air to one of the tires). I don't know if we'll rent from Hertz again given all the problems we had, but I guess if we do it through Priceline, we won't really have a choice. It almost isn't worth the hassle just to save on a few bucks, but we'll see.

Baby K didn't seem to suffer from much jetlag on the trip there or back... she was just more tired than usual, but at least she was up during the day (aside from nap time) and slept through the night. She did get very fussy on our way back and was crying halfway through the red-eye flight. It seemed as if her gums were bothering her b/c she kept trying to eat my hair and put anything she can into her mouth (except she didn't want her toys). We're used to her putting things into her mouth, but constantly trying to eat my hair was something new. We just kept stuffing her with the Graduate puffs. She'd quiet down for about two seconds, and when the puff was depleted, she'd start crying again. There were quite a number of babies on the flight (I saw at least four strollers parked on the walkway before the plane), and ours was the only one I heard crying on the plane. Ah well. At least we didn't hear anyone verbally cursing us out (even though they were probably doing it under their breaths).

Hmm... our next trip... I wonder if it's too ambitious to shoot for Asia. =P Maybe so, but before I get ahead of myself, I have to renew my passport and get one for baby K.