There's nothing as good as a day with the girls!

On Friday, July 11, Chelsea and I arose around 3:30 am, that is 3:30 am, to drive to the airport to catch a plane to San Diego. The big day had finally arrived to celebrate Chelsea's 16th birthday and developmental passage into womanhood with her Aunt Tere and Caralyn, her Grandma, and cousin Kendall. Since taking her Driver's Education class, Chelsea spent the bulk of our drive down to the airport, critiquing my adherence to the laws of the road and I'm sorry to say that I cut more corners and downright ignored some of the laws. I realize that I'm supposed to be a good driver role model, but it was 4 am, with virtually no one on the road, so who cares if I don't follow every rule....like driving 20 mph over the speed limit. Suffice it to say as evidenced by the following pictures, we arrived at the airport in one piece, with plenty of time to wait in the terminal until it was time for our plane to leave. We apparently caught a tailwind because our plane arrived 10 minutes early. So as we head toward the pick up area I placeda call to Lynnie (Caralyn) to let her know that we were already here and it turns out that at that moment they were approaching the pickup area. We spent approximately 15 seconds waiting to be picked up. After hugs and kisses "hello" we headed for our first stop, a little french bakery called Bread and Cie where we were to meet my older sister Tere. I decided to throw caution to the wind yet again and order the lemon bread, which I haven't eaten in 3 years. Soon Tere arrived and the hugs and kisses were liberally distributed once again. We settled in to catching up with one another and Tere and Lynnie had planned a rather touching ceremony to celebrate Chelsea's coming into womanhood. Lynnie had purchased some henna and Tere who is an actively practicing Buddhist began to chant, who know what, but it sounded good over Chelsea as Lynnie proceeded to draw henna designs on Chelseas hands and forearm.

Lynnie began with Chelsea's fingers and worked her way down.
It looks like things are off to a good start. Unfortunately I failed to take a picture of the final product, but Tere contributed to the henna drawing process by drawing a very small "happy face" on the palm of one hand and a very small "sad face" on the other palm. It was quite funny, but you had to be there.
Chelsea was quite happy with the end product. Notice that we are wearing matching colors. This was not planned. When we arrived at the airport and entered the security checkpoint area, one of the security guards commented about our matching tops; we both looked at each other with horror and then broke out laughing.
Here she is with Lynnie on the left and Tere on the right after the sweet ritual that signaled Chelsea's passage into womanhood. She loves her aunts so much and it was clear that this was going to be a wonderful day! Our next stop was the San Diego Zoo. Chelsea really wanted to try out her new Nikon P80 that she got for her birthday present from me and her dad. Chelsea and Kendall rode with Aunt Tere to the zoo in her new Austin Mini Cooper, Chelsea's favorite car and heart's desire for her first car. Tere generously shared her zoo passes with Chelsea and I, so we got into the zoo free.
Chelsea took copious amounts of pictures and was excited to go to the petting zoo even though this is usually an area that the little kids only want to go to. Here she is getting to know one of the precious baby goats.
After the zoo we went to the Museum of Natural History in Balboa Park, but about 4:30 pm we all hit a very big wall that required relaxing with a view of the ocean and alcoholic beverages. So we piled into our cars, crossed the Coronado Bridge and went to a restaurant, that I don't remember the name of now. I think it was Peone's. We got a lovely seat that overlooked the bay, ordered our drinks, and enjoyed each other's company a little bit more. There was a musician there who was playing kettle drums. He could see how much Lynnie was enjoying the music and so he came over and asked if she or any of us had any requests. Lynnie chose anything from Bob Marley. A great choice if I do say so myself. Time flew and before we knew it they were calling our name for our 6 pm reservation. We hadn't met up with mom yet. She was scheduled to arrive at 6 pm and as she usually is, she was right on time.
Chelsea and Kendall ran over to meet her and as you can see, Grandma was quite thrilled to have such a welcoming and loving reception from two of her granddaughters. Mom looked terrific and was so happy to join us for the rest of our time in town.

Chelsea and Grandma had some time to catch up since her visit with us last Christmas. See the necklace around Chelsea's neck. Tere and Lynnie gave her that necklace. It is a silver bar that has inscribed on it, "believe in yourself." The silver bar is held on by a leather necklace. She loves it and hasn't taken it off yet. We had a great dinner of steak and seafood and Lynnie order ahead of time the dessert, "the volcano."
Here's the volcano, sporting a candle. We sang a rather pathetic version of "Happy Birthday to You." I think Chelsea's covering of her mouth is an expression of joy rather than repulsion at our singing.
You can tell that she's considering very carefully her wish before blowing out the candles. See the bay over Chelsea's right shoulder. It looks like ther are windows there, but from that metal bar in the background up is open.
I think she made her wish and the expression on her face indicates that she's fairly sure that her wish will come true. I certainly hope so as I want all my precious daughter's wishes to come true.
What a perfect way to end the perfect day. There is nothing like having sisters. We are all so different, while at the same time we share so much. We don't always agree with each other and that's okay, because underneath it all, we love each other; we support each other; we believe in each other. While the focus of the day was on celebrating another year in the life of my daughter, the day ended up to be so much more. It was a joining of women, who share blood and experiences that are uniquely and intimately ours. We toasted this bond and reveled in this bond. I pray that we will have more of these special days. This one will remain in my memory until the day I take my last breath.

We left for the airport at 8:30 pm. We got on the plane at 9:55 pm. Arrived back at Sacramento Airport at 11:15 pm and began the 1 hour and 15 minute drive home. We arrived home at about 12:30 pm exhausted, but sated.