Grandma visits

Grandma Alexander came to visit for a week in October. Our plans had to be modified due the fires & not being able to spend too much time outdoors. The first day we went to Mexico & thankfully we escaped without getting a speeding ticket or getting ripped off.

Of course we also went to the San Diego zoo (you can't come to San Diego w/o going). Ismael loves seeing all of the animals, especially the bears.

Probably the highlight for Ismael was going to Disneyland for the first time ever (it was my first time too). It was all decked out for Halloween. His favorite thing was probably seeing Mickey & the parade. He wasn't a big fan of a lot of the rides, but he did enjoy the trains.

Ismael turns 2!!!

It's hard to believe, but Ismael turned 2 on October 24th. It just so happened that none of the interns were on call that day, so I invited everyone over for pizza & cake, so that Ismael could play with the other kids. Grandma Alexander was in town as well, so he had lots of fun.

Fires...

There were several fires close by to the north, south & west. Of course, as an intern, I don't ever have time to watch tv, so I didn't really know what was going on until I saw the smoke & it started to affect the hospital (we got a lot of evacuees from other hospitals that had to close). The day they started, I was on call at the hospital & was sitting outside to eat dinner. I could smell smoke & thought someone was barbecuing nearby, but was informed otherwise.

The first picture is taken from my bedroom balcony at the start of the fires. The smoke line was obvious that day. By the next morning, however, the smoke was everywhere, so you couldn't see any blue sky. Ismael & I had gone outside to play, but the smell of smoke & the ash falling like snow from the sky kept us indoors for the next week or so. Afterwards, I had to spray down the patio with water to get rid of the layer of ash.

This is taken about a block from my house. The smoke is arising about a mile from where they store the weapons on base at Camp Pendleton. Luckily, that's as close as it got. There were 2 fires on base, one of which closed down the I-5 (a major highway between LA & San Diego) & the other was near the back gate (where I go in & out of base).

This picture is about a week after they started. Most fires were out by this time & the skies were starting to clear.