On Thursday, we needed to go to San Diego to the pharmacy to pick up some medicines and then to a lab in La Jolla for a blood draw. Neither appointment was expected to take long at all, just quickies but they were very important. And, we had to be at the lab at 4pm but had to pick up the meds before going to the lab. Ok, we can do that (maybe). The timing was going to be tight with school letting out at 2:30 and mucking through after-school traffic always takes a while. There would be no time for Starbucks.
Fenna wasn't feeling well on Wednesday night, she looked like she was at the low point of her miserable cold. It was just after midnight when I suggested that instead of going to school from 7am - 2:30 feeling cruddy and sleep deprived and then heading out to San Diego again how about this idea: Stay home and sleep and eat some soup and sleep some more and then we'll go to San Diego. She didn't have to think very long about that one. I figured she would either miss Thursday at school or Friday. Either way, she needed to take care of her cold. She did just that, stayed home on Thursday to take care of her cold and it really helped a lot.
Since we were racing the clock, we loaded up the little kids and went to Gracie's school to take her out ten minutes early. That turned out to be a very good decision. We hit the road and made it to San Diego in an hour! Fenna opened the door to the pharmacy and rang the bell for service right at 3:35 exactly.
As soon as she pushed the button, the power went out. Poof! Fenna broke it!
Fenna picked up her prescription and we started across town to the lab. The traffic light that we had just gone through was now dead. Not even flashing red. So was the next one. Fenna, being funny, said "I hope I didn't do that!". Stoplight after stoplight was dead. The streets were becoming more and more clogged because of the four way stops. We were realizing the magnitude of the power outage the further we went. People were pouring out of buildings and everyone had a cell phone in hand. I couldn't get any cell service though. Traffic was going from clogged to pure mayhem. Emergency vehicles were trying to get through but every street was a sea of vehicles. I started to wonder if we were caught in a terrorist attack.
When we finally got to the lab, we found out that the hospital was closing down. Emergencies only. The lab was closed and the people working there were all sent home. People were all on their cell phones trying to get service, and talking together. We found out that they thought the power might be out all across the county. How can that be? San Diego County is huge! I asked if the power comes back on, would they like us to come back? They said no, they were calling the day over and it would be best if we just come back tomorrow. Ohhhh, no. My brain started spinning trying to figure out the logistics of a Friday trip.
The people in these San Diego medical offices never cease to amaze me with their friendliness. They were so nice! Gracie had to use the bathroom and a lady said she'd check first to make sure there was a light on in there, and there was. (Backup emergency lighting) This lady also gave Libby a little book and Libby was thrilled. They were very nice and apologized for cancelling the lab appointment. No apologies necessary, it's a freak thing that happened. At least we didn't have to pay for parking this time, the parking permit machine wasn't working.
Before we left the house, we had decided that our fun thing to do today would be to spend some time at the beach. The kids could play and we could put our feet in the water and watch the sunset over the Pacific. Luckily, the power outage didn't spoil our beach plans although it did make getting there quite a challenge due to the traffic. Instead of going further into San Diego, we called Katie and told her not to meet us and we went to Oceanside.
Finally, we arrived at the beach just after 6pm. The kids had so much fun playing in the water and sand. Fenna and I played lifeguards. The sea was angry. Waves were pounding into the shore and the water was loud. It even threw rocks at us. Libby didn't want anything to do with the angry ocean, but Charlie and Gracie were fearless and they didn't care if the water had a bad attitude; they ran in anyway. Luckily, I brought lifejackets for Libby and Charlie and I had a leash, er, child harness, for Charlie. We put the lifejacket and leash combo to good use!
We took lots of pictures. The kids were adorable and Fenna too, the waves were huge and the sunset was beautiful.
After twilight, we started to go for a walk down the pier, but the lights weren't coming on. Power was still out! We decided to head for home. My friend called, her husband works for the electric company, she said that the power will be out for hours if not a couple of days. She was concerned about Katie and Henry. I told her I would pass along her concerns. Katie called too, and I told her what my friend said and Katie decided to drive up to our place for the night.
Jokingly, I said "I'll race ya!". Darned if that didn't jinx me! We took the 76 home and it took forever! I didn't realize how many stoplights were on that road. But none of them were working. It took us 90 minutes to get from Oceanside to the 15. From there, it took us 15 minutes to get home. We got home after 9pm Katie beat us!
Murphy's Law continued to be the strongest force of the day. If something can go wrong, it will. All of the photos we took mysteriously disappeared off the camera!
Luckily, the power was back on in San Diego on Friday so Katie was able to get home. I called the lab and they didn't want us on Friday because the power outage caused chaos and they had to catch up from that. They suggested Saturday or Sunday. Sunday it is!
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