Randy and Mariann hit the road

Nearly halfway through our journey!

It’s difficult to believe that we’ve been gone a month, but then again, we’ve driven a lot of miles and seen a lot of country. The only tough part of the journey is the people that we left behind….all of you! It’s been particularly difficult missing our kids and grandkids. Remi, our two year old hadn’t figured out where we were. She’d ask if she could come to our house? Papa, Gramma – where you at? So sweet! Mia and Chase are totally old enough to understand that we are away and were super awesome about greeting us at the airport in San Diego. A few minutes after Ben, Julia and kids landed, Rebecca landed and her fandom continues to soar with the three kids!

It’s funny, and we are not sure when it happened, but Randy and I have become the parents that climb into the backseat, and chill while the adult kids made all the plans and reservations! We used to be the planners, but now we have become the passengers, just like the three kids! How lucky are we that we have such capable kids…..we just hope they don’t think that we are no longer capable of being the planners because I think we are doing just fine on our journey!

I have to give Julia and Ben – mostly Julia, a ton of credit in planning some fun adventures in southern California. Ben organized our housing – which was pretty awesome! We had great tacos and other awesome food, lots of fun beaches to visit and swim at, a terrific visit to the San Diego Zoo – where we saw 2 of the 4 pandas residing in this country, and a very special visit to the USS Midway – where her father served on for 8 years during his military service. It’s a hands on museum and they encourage kids to touch buttons and switches and ask questions to any of the volunteers stationed around the ship. Rebecca took a hilarious video of Mia at the helm, briefing us all of the imminent attack by China- who then called her to tell her that they had arrived and were climbing over the fence! Older brother Chase definetly used the eye roll at a few of her orders!

They arrived just in time to celebrate Easter together. The Easter Bunny made an early delivery to Timmons Lane due to their travel taking them away. We had been picking up a few small things along our travel to give to the kids for Easter and the day they were arriving, after hunting around San Diego in a panic, we were able to find a few chocolate rabbits, some peeps and jelly beans. Apparently, I should not have left them in the car for 4 hours because when I went to put their gifts in their Easter pails, the Lindt chocolate rabbits had become a gold foil glob! The foil and chocolate somehow became one so there was no salvaging any candy – probably for the better! We all had a pretty good laugh!

California has some beautiful beaches but I’m not sure that the water ever really warms up. The first beach we visited was in La Jolla. – Rocks, cliffs, smelly seals and seagulls. It didn’t keep Mia from sitting on a rock in the water, doing her best Ariel portrayal or Ben and kids swimming out and having seals swim up to them. The next day, we went to Coronado resort. It’s like a giant Sagamore resort with lots of restaurants, bars and people! The beach is beautiful! Ben and Chase immediately went out to where the waves start to break. A few minutes later, they come in and Ben has blood on his foot. He thought a crab got him but he was complaining that it really hurt. This is a guy who has broken many bones, had emergency gall bladder surgery – handles pain pretty well, but here he is complaining about a little cut. Half an hour passes and I look back at where we are stationed on the beach and the life guard ambulance is there. Apparently, Ben was actually stung by a stingray – along with about 40 other people! Perhaps they should have posted some warnings? He had to go get treatment for about an hour. The funny thing is that he recognized that he had stepped on something two times before being stung….. I guess the stingray was like three strikes and you’re out!

Julia and Ben had made special surprise plans to have everyone go to Disneyland – which was a first for all of us. Chase, being 11 knew about the surprise for a month but did a great job keeping the secret from his little sisters. On the way there, we stopped by Crystal Cove State Park – highly recommend a visit! Just under 3,000 acres, it served as a 1920’s Hollywood filming location with 40 historic cottages built in the 1930’s! It houses a few small shops, a bar, public restrooms and a beach restaurant. You have to take a shuttle to it because no cars are allowed. The beach and the tidal pools were enjoyed by all but the biggest surprise was the incredible meal we were served in the open air restaurant. I know I live in a food desert, but by now, I’ve had 6 weeks of eating out and this was truly a great meal! It was a terrific day and no one was bitten, stung or burned! Success!

Disney….. what can I say. The days of just arriving at Disney without a battle plan, charged electronic devices, and good walking shoes are long gone. Its all about managing the lightening pass, time management and communicating with your group. That said, the place is magic to so many! I had no idea that there were so many different styles of mouse ears! Men, Women and kids of all ages wore their best Disney attire. Randy and I had the true privilege of taking Remi on It’s a small World….a ride that brought back memories of us taking Rebecca as a toddler -which made her fall asleep every single time. She was so good for us and super about waiting in line because even though we had the lightening pass, It only helped with one ride appropriate for Remi.

We often had three different groups because we had three different kids age/height groups. It was on the train that Remi’s eyes finally blinked for the last time and she was not going to wake anytime soon. We discovered that the train we were on made 4 different stops where people entered and departed the ride. No one was keeping track of our coming and going, so we just stayed on for an hour and let her sleep! Later in the day, we joined Chase and Rebecca and rode on the new Star Wars rides. Amazing!

We went to the California Experience the following day. It was a bit smaller and certainly less crowded and we all had a great time enjoying the park and seeing the characters before it was time to depart. I think we can say without a doubt that we all had a great week together! Everyone made it back safe and sound and thank goodness, they had a few days to recoup before Monday came along. We had a zoom call Saturday morning from Remi……….. PapaGramma (all one word) Where you at? And the journey continues……