California Dreamin'

The BIG bummer about California is that it's just so darn far away from Maryland! 6 hrs. on a plane is no picnic, but that won't slow me down... I'm already dreaming about a trip for the whole family next year. I'm not sure the budget will permit but my son simply states that it just HAS to happen.

At one point my son said that he couldn't wait to go home... I surmized by that comment that he wasn't having a particularly good time... But when he said, "I miss Dad and Sis so much, we have to bring them out with us next year and stay twice as long!" I knew then that he was just wishing the whole family was together... I was too!

I look back on this trip as an experience of great personal growth for me. I booked the entire trip myself... Choosing the hotel and rental car by price and gut instinct... Choices that turned out to be very good ones (despite my post about the view from our room, our hotel was really very nice!) I navigated through airports, security, rental car options and the LA Freeways with little or no glitches... And let me tell you, airport security is one heck of a stress test.... Take off your shoes? Leave your shoes on? Empty your pockets of cell phones? Lay your back-pack on the conveyor belt standing up?... On it's side?... In a bin?... Not in a bin? Remove your laptop from your back-pack?... Put it on the conveyor belt?... In a bin?... Not in a bin?... Hand it to the security officer? Walk through the monitor? Don't walk through the monitor yet?.... Stand up, sit down, touch your head, bend over?... BEND OVER?????.... Okay, maybe it wasn't THAT bad but my son offered that it would be a good idea to read up on security regulations before we fly again because we just seemed to do everything incorrectly, which resulted in some rather perturbed looking security personnel. If any of you are out there reading this.... I'm sorry, we haven't flown in 5 yrs. so please be patient with us. (:-
In a nutshell, everything was managed without too much worry and the trip turned out perfectly... Leaving me enough fodder to blog about for weeks to come... LUCKY YOU! I'm aware of the fact that there are people who are completely adept at travel and don't think twice about the choices that need to be made... I envy those folks... But after this trip, maybe... just maybe... I'm closer to being one of them.