Lazy Days Campground, Service and PreWedding in San Diego

March 1st - 3rd, 2014

We are staying at Lazy Days campground, near Tampa.  They will be working on the motorhome while we are in San Diego.

We spent our time cleaning and sorting out the motorhome and making sure we had everything ready for our trip.  This park is expensive, you get a "free" newspaper and "free" breakfast and lunch but we would really prefer that they reduced their prices and we got our own meals.  The lunches weren't bad, we had Hamburgers one day and Chicken sandwiches the next.  There's something about "free" that seems to bring out the worst in people.  Manners go out of the window and people seem to forget that this is "free" food so you get what you get!!!  There is nothing worse than a bunch of old people trying to rush and push to get in front of you in the line.  Heaven forbid they might run out of the free food, ha!!, ha!!! Oh and remember these are NOT "homeless" people in the true sense of the word!!!

The sites are small but well maintained.  We had this visitor who was very interested in us and kept flying by our window.

March 4th, 2014

We were up early so we could drive across the street for our appointment at 8:30am.  We arrived and met Samantha (Sam) our service coordinator.  We went over what we needed to have done and she got a copy of our warranty paperwork.  We were out of her office before 9am and decided to try the free breakfast.  We shouldn't have bothered, it was terrible.
We were a little concerned as we had left the keys in Lily as instructed and when we went back past her she was still just sitting there.  Bryan got the keys, locked her up and took the keys into Sam.  We had explained already that this is our home and has all of our belongings in, so we didn't feel comfortable letting it sit in the car park unlocked.  Sam hadn't left her office.  Now, we had seen the other service coordinators going around the motorhomes with their owners to go over what was wrong but this didn't happen with us.  Feeling neglected, ha!! ha!! and homeless!!  It was a very strange feeling as we left our home in the hands of someone else!!!  Anyway, we headed to Orlando and the  Best Western, Airport Inn, Orlando.  We were a little early and so stopped at a rest area on the way and relaxed for a while.  The rest areas in the States are usually nice, although we have found it depends which state you are in.  Some states don't have that many and they are just laybys.  Florida's are usually very good.  I tried to have a nap in the car but it was not to be as people were coming and going and car doors were closing.  Bryan was sitting at a picnic table on his laptop so I joined him.  After about an hour we decided to resume our journey.  As we got closer to the hotel we stopped for lunch before checking in.  The hotel was clean although undergoing renovations.  The room was good.

March 5th, 2014

We had asked if we could stay in the room longer as our flight wasn't until 4:30pm but they were fully booked so we had to leave by 11:00am.  We got to the airport early, it was an easy drive and we used airport parking and they provided a shuttle to the terminal.  I had researched various parking around the airport but the airport parking was comparable as they didn't add tax or any fees to the daily charge of $10.  The shuttle service was excellent.  The lines at Southwest were long and when we got to the check in we were 4 hours and ten minutes before our flights and couldn't check our luggage earlier than 4 hours so we had to start all over again in the line!!!
Eventually we made it through and headed toward the gate, got sandwiches for the flight and settled in for the wait.  The time went quite quickly and we were soon on the plane and on our way.  The flight landed in Atlanta and as we were staying on the same plane to San Diego we didn't get off.  We tried to change seats to an emergency exit row as Bryan could stretch his leg out there but the stewardess wouldn't let us because of Bryan's knee.  It had a knee brace on and he was using his stick.  She realised that he needed to be able to stretch his leg out for the 4 hour journey to San Diego and so arranged for us to sit in the seats at the front of the plane.  These were much better although I miss having a table.  She told us that we should get a blue folder for preboarding for future flights which would enable us to board first and hopefully get these front seats.  There was an older man sitting next to me who was a little scary but I admired the fact that he was flying on his own.  The stewardess and I tried to get him to have some water during the flight but he was adamant he didn't need any.  She was worried because he hadn't had anything and had been on the flight from Orlando as well.
We arrived in San Diego about 8:45pm their time which was 3 hours behind eastern time, so it was really 11.45pm to us.  We got the shuttle to the rental car agency, got our car and drove to the Best Western Continental, El Cajon.  We sent a message to Ryan who was bringing Brenda to the hotel.  She had arrived earlier in the day.
We all got to the hotel about the same time and it was good seeing everyone again.  We quickly said our hellos, checked in and arranged to see them tomorrow as we were all tired.

March 6th, 2014

We went to breakfast with Brenda, Ryan & Christina at Country Waffles.  After breakfast we went back to their house.  We girls decided to go and have our nails done for the wedding tomorrow.  We met Ashley and Kami, her daughter, there and had fun having our nails done.  The girls all had anchors put on one of their nails, but I decided the polish was enough for me.  Christina had the words "I do" on her ring finger nail as well. Cute.  Kami is 3 years old and was very good and sat still for a long while having her nails done.  So adorable.
After our nails we went to see the hairdresser who is doing Christina and my hair tomorrow.   I wanted to see if she would be able to do anything with it and so we discussed it and decided what I would get done.
We got back to the house to find the boys relaxing on the front porch, having some boy time!!!
We sat and talked for a while and then Craig, Ryan's friend from high school arrived.  Brenda, Ryan, Christina and Craig decided to go to the mall and Bryan and I went back to our room for a while.
We are going to have a tour of Ryan's ship later but couldn't get there until after 4pm.
Patrick, Ryan's long time friend and our "adopted" son was flying in tonight as well and Ryan was picking him up at the airport at 7:30pm.
We took two cars to the base and didn't get there until about 5:30pm.  Ryan took us around the ship, we have toured it before but Brenda and Craig wanted to see it.  It was getting late, we had planned to have dinner and it was getting close to Patrick's flight landing so we went to Chili's.  Bryan & Ryan went to get Patrick and Brenda, Christina, Craig and I had dinner.  We ordered take out for the others and they arrived just as we were finishing our meal.
We were all tired so we headed home and went back to the hotel so we could get some rest before the "big day".