Tuesday, July 29, 2008

We made it to California and are having a grand time. Here are highlights (and lowlights) from the first day (other days to be posted later):

Day 1 (Saturday): We got to the airport right on time and waited a short time to check our bags. Turns out I’m a heavy packer, because my bag was 56 lbs, which meant $50 to be paid. So the return trip will have some adjusted packing between the three suitcases.

We then made it through the security check easily - only a cursory check of the baby food and liquids was done. But because the carseat wouldn’t go through the scanner, they did the swab check. But that was no problem and it gave us a chance to get shoes back on and to redo the diaper bag that had been rifled through.

We got to our gate with about 90 minutes to wait until our flight. Jesse charmed all around the gate. And then I heard our names called at the counter. I went up to be told that we were being bumped from our seats because there was a disabled person on our flight, so we ended up moving from the first row to the last row. Poor Beau hauled the carseat and two bags while I carried Jesse and another bag all the way to the back of the plane. Oh, Jesse and I did get stopped by the pilot to get a tour of the cockpit.

Our flight was uneventful for the most part. Jesse konked out as we taxied to take off, so he missed that. He slept for about 90 minutes and then stayed awake for the bulk of the flight. He had two meltdowns where he just wanted to run around and couldn’t. Then he finally fell asleep about 30 minutes before we landed, so he missed that, too.

Then it was the adventure to get our bags and then to the car rental place, but that went well and about an hour after landing we were on the road. A short detour to get In & Out burgers (which were delicious, but I contend that Five Guys are way better) and then a stop at Target to buy the things we needed for Jesse and we were on our way to Beau’s uncle’s.

It was a lovely drive north on Hwy 101 up to the Santa Barbara area. We got to his uncle’s at about 5:30pm and had a quiet couple of hours before we crashed for sleep. Jesse’s sleep tent is very cool, but he was not happy about it that first night at all. There was much screaming until he finally passed out in exhaustion.