Updates from my trip

Flight story - I got an 'A' boarding pass on my Southwest flight, so I was probably the 20th person on the plane. There was a bulkhead window seat available in the front row, so I took it (Woohoo!). As all of the passengers boarded, the middle seat next to me remained open. Behind me, a 2 year old who liked to kick the seat....lovely. I remained positive that it would all turn out okay and that I would have the patience to endure the constant seat pounding or that I would move over and sit in the middle seat. Well, as it turns out, every seat on the plane needed to be filled. The flight attendant whispered loudly about a 'panic anxiety' woman who couldn't find a seat and who needed to be at the front. 'Great', I thought. She's going to freak out sitting next to me and I'm going to have 'thumper' behind me. As it turned out, she sat next to me and her husband sat in the middle seat across the aisle (also in the bulkhead front row). There was a woman with a small child on the other side of the aisle who had her child in the middle seat instead of her lap. She had to put the little one in her lap so that the husband would have a seat.

Like the nice, thoughtful person I stive to be, I volunteered to give up my window seat to let the husband sit next to the 'panic anxiety woman'. I took the middle seat on the other side next to the woman and the child. Was I nice? Yes. Did I get something out of it? You bet! I got rid of 'thumper' behind me and had the constant entertainment of a 15 month old in the seat next to me. The cute smiles and waves were much better than the kicks in the back. And, I looked like a hero for helping the anxious woman sit by her husband.

Hotel details - It's all about the little things. Sometimes the small details make all the difference in the comfort for travelers. The hotel we are staying at has taken care of a few things that make life easier -

• fast elevators
• drawers in the bathroom next to the sink (no products on the counter, yay!)
• pleasant smelling soaps and lotion
• easy to program alarm clock
• accessible power outlets for charging phones/ipods/etc so that I don't have to hunt behind furniture
• Full service Starbucks at the hotel (any decent coffee shop with coffee, tea, and multiple breakfast items other than simply pastries would be fine with me...this one happens to be a Starbucks)
• Towels that are almost as big as the ones we have at home (bath sheet size)
• Full size hair dryer (not the weenie ones attached to the wall)

Running Details - San Diego has proven to be a great city to run in. There is a multi-use path along the bayfront that has bathrooms and water fountains every few miles. The views of the water are beautiful. The path is well patrolled by police and as the hotel desk clerk said 'It's like The Strip in Vegas...there is absolutely no crime because the police patrol it that way.' San Diego has made an effort to keep the area that I'm in safe for pedestrian traffic, even at 5am. Ten miles was easy to obtain this morning. If I had to run more than that, I'd have no trouble finding places to get in more miles. Oh, and the weather is perfect. If you are curious, look up the forecast for the next few days here...I know you'll be jealous.