We barely got settled in Long Boat Key and it was time to pack our bags for a flight to California. Our daughter, Jennifer, and her family moved from St Louis to San Diego. Three days after they arrived her husband, Ian, had to leave for a month of training on the plane he will be flying in California. We were the reinforcements to help unpack boxes, arrange belongings, do various repairs and watch the kids when Jennifer had to work.
We fly standby, which is great 99% of the time. Our flight choices are carefully chosen to avoid peak times and overcrowded flights. Flying two days before a major holiday like Thanksgiving is a BIG no no! We drove to Tampa the night before our flight and stayed in a hotel until our alarms went off at 2:30 AM. Our goal was a 5:10 flight. We were numbers 21 and 22 on the standby list and there were only 11 seats available. Still, we went to the gate and waited, thinking it was hopeless. Our only chance was -- alarms not going off and people with confirmed seats oversleeping. The gate was closing and the gate agents did one last count. Miracle moment: our names are called and we are hustled down the jetway to the last two seats on the plane!
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| Looking down on their house from a hiking trail. You can see the ocean in the distance IF you know where it is! |
Thanks to a three hour time change we landed in San Diego at 10 AM feeling exhausted. We were slightly revived by the exuberant greeting of our daughter and two grandchildren. And, finally we would see their new house. They were professionally packed and moved, but not unpacked. We toured the interior of the home, but it was difficult not to focus on the 100's of boxes that obscured our view. Yikes, our work is cut out for us!
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| A couple of the beautiful G650's Jennifer will be flying all over the world. |
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| We had to sample the 'other' beach. JAC is like her Grandma -- we can't get enough of that salt water and sand! |
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| We did manage an afternoon off to drive through the mountains to Julian for their famous apple pie. |
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| Admiring the fish at Scripps Aquarium kelp tank in La Jolla. |
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| Don't plan on getting anywhere quickly. All 20 lanes of traffic doing the crawl from La Jolla to San Marcos! |
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| It began to feel like Christmas when JAC and I trimed the tree to surprise Jennifer. |
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| Everyone together before the kids run off to school. |
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| One wrong turn and we would have been in Mexico! And, as the sign says, "No USA Return". That seems a little harsh for making a wrong turn. |
After three weeks in California, it was time for our Minnesota Christmas with Steve and his family. We arrived to warm -- Minnesota temperatures in the 30's with only a dusting of snow. Although we were delighted; the true Minnesotans were feeling very deprived. Besides our Christmas celebrations, we made our annual trip to Rochester's Mayo Clinic for our check-ups. The doctor's kept telling us, "you are in great shape ---- for your age!" Brian just celebrated his 70th and mine is only a few weeks away.
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| Greeting the congregation as they arrived for church, was this big hairy guy! A pre-Christmas surprise. |
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| We felt very fortunate that Santa came to Steve's house after Andy brought this reindeer leg home as a trophy on Christmas eve! |
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| Does everyone's Christmas morning look like this? No matter how many pictures I take they ALL look like this -- total chaos! |
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| Everyone sit and take a deep breath so I can take a family photo..... |
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| Addison couldn't wait to take her American Girl doll sledding. And, Niko had to get busy building with his Lego sets! A successful Christmas -- everyone's happy. |
Gotta smile -- we're lovin the ride!
After a month of travel we were really looking forward to getting home and falling into our own bed! December 26th we were on a plane headed for Tampa, Florida then we retrieved our car and drove to Longboat Key. My oh my, I'm clicking my heels together, "there's no place like home!"
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