The Trip in Words, Part One

During and after a trip like this, I'm always left grasping for an effective way to capture the moments we enjoyed together and the memories we made.  I can't seem to do it.  There is so much that is left unwritten, unrecorded, lost in the abyss of human experience.  Here, then, is my weak attempt to hold onto some of what we did and saw and lived during the past week.

Monday, May 11

This was a busy day of preparation for the trip.  I had thought I would have plenty of time at the end of the previous week to get most of the packing done; but the cold that the boys and I passed around took up most of my time, between caring for little ones who weren't feeling well and being exhausted myself.  On Saturday morning, two days before the trip, I literally couldn't stand up without feeling like I was going to fall over.  There went my grand ideas of being ready far ahead of time!

On Monday, my mother helped a lot, with folding laundry, watching the boys, etc.  I was so grateful for her help that made it possible for me to be basically ready to go when Jeff got home from work.  

We loaded the van, grabbed some fast food for supper on the way, headed up to Baltimore, and traveled through rain off and on (mostly on).  It reminded me that the last time we made that trek to BWI to fly to California (in February 2007), it was snowing and we had that weather issue to deal with.

I was so concerned that, due to our colds, the boys and I would have a terrible time on the airplane with painful ear pressure and possible burst eardrums.  As we drove closer to Baltimore, I felt worse and worse.  My ears were so clogged that I felt like I was hearing everything with that head-under-water feeling--not very comforting with a flight in less than 12 hours.  I just knew that, apart from a miracle, my left eardrum would burst on the flight.  Needless to say, I was doing a lot of praying!

When we finally got to the hotel, Jeff suggested that I take a nice hot shower to try to loosen up some of the pressure.  The shower was nice, but it didn't open my ears very much!  I was grateful, however, that we had not driven directly to the airport and taken off on our flight; at least, there was a little time that night to lie down and rest and let my ears adjust.

By 11:00 PM, we were all asleep, Josiah and David in one bed (they sleep in the same bed so rarely that I always have to pause and watch them when they're together because they're so cute!) and Tobin in a pack-and-play from the hotel.

Tuesday, May 12

We got up around 3:15 AM to catch a shuttle from the hotel to the airport.  Josiah and David were excited, and I was thankful to have had at least a few hours of sleep that night.  I was still quite nervous about the flights and our ears though.

Everything went smoothly with checking-in, the security check, etc...and even the waiting to board the plane was manageable, despite the lack of sleep.  When we boarded, we realized that we were in the very back row of the plane; and by one window, we put Tobin in his car seat/plane seat/stroller combo, I sat next to him, with Josiah next to me, then Jeff across the aisle, and David in the middle seat next to him.  At this point, Tobin was desperate for some sleep and needed me to entertain him so he could stay happy and quiet.  I was sure he would fall asleep when we took off; and sure enough, he did.  The only problem was that our flight was delayed for 45 minutes or an hour because of an electrical problem with the battery overcharging, according to our pilot who did a fairly good job of letting us know what was delaying our departure.  After maintenance came and checked it and gave us the all-clear, we were off, Tobin to the land of Nod, and me to the land of pain as, not surprisingly, my ears began to hurt quite a bit.  I kept praying, for relief for myself certainly, but even more I prayed that the boys would not be affected and that if some pain was coming their way, God would give it to me instead.  I found out later that Jeff was praying that same prayer.  :)  Apparently, though, God decided to answer my prayer, not Jeff's, because his ears didn't hurt him a bit the whole day, and mine certainly did.  :)  But, most importantly, none of the boys had a hard time with their ears, and that was a huge relief to me.

The flight from BWI to Houston was about 3 hours long--enough time for Tobin to sleep some and eat some, Josiah to eat some and look at books some (especially a new Where's Waldo? book that I had gotten for this trip), and David to eat some, look at books some, and sleep some.  Towards the end of the flight, Jeff and I traded seats; and he did the more-demanding task of keeping Tobin entertained until the end of the flight while I had the easier job of letting David rest his sleeping head on my lap.  :)  Actually, my real task during that time was dealing with ear pain and praying for God's protection...and--amazingly--my eardrums didn't burst!  The pain during descent was worse than when we took off, but at just the right time, my ears popped (in a good way), relieving some pressure and reassuring me that there was a blanket of protection over my ears.

Because of our late departure from Baltimore, we got into Houston with very little time to make our connecting flight.  However, as soon as we got off the first plane, Jeff talked to the driver of one of those carts that zips around the airport, taking slow movers to their flights, and we were able to catch a ride right away to our next gate.  Without that, I'm not sure we would have made it.  However, the worst was to come...

The seats we had been assigned for this next flight were--crazily--all middle seats, all in different rows, all five of us scattered throughout the plane from front to back.  Well, as freeing as it might have been for us to make the strangers who happened to get Tobin (or David or Josiah) in their row look after him for the flight, we knew it just wouldn't work out!  ;)  Something had to be done, and one of the flight attendants got the unhappy job of asking people to switch seats so that we could be together.  Frankly, I was shocked by how apathetic and unhelpful most of the passengers were.  I know how it is to be sitting on a plane, settled in, ready to leave, when more people show up and delay things even more...that's frustrating for everyone, and I realize that.  But we couldn't help the fact that our first flight was delayed, and we certainly weren't trying to cause problems for anyone.  I am convinced that if I am ever in the situation where I can help someone out by switching seats, I will hastily volunteer.  So what if I wanted a window seat and have to move to a middle seat!  So what if I have to make myself a little bit uncomfortable for a few hours so that I can make someone else's life easier!  Especially if they're traveling with children!!!

Anyway...my rant is over...eventually, the flight attendant arranged it so that Tobin and I could sit together, Josiah and David could sit together two rows behind us, and Jeff had to sit by himself in the very back row of the plane (20+ rows behind us).  Fortunately, the lady who was sitting in the row with Josiah and David warmed up to them and turned out to be immensely helpful all during the flight.  It could have been so much worse if Josiah and David had been in a row with a less-nurturing person, especially because I couldn't get out to check on them very much because crawling over the person in the aisle seat next to me wasn't the easy thing in the world.  

Air travel!  What a headache sometimes!  But what a marvelous thing to be able to cross an entire continent in a matter of hours!  If the pioneers who travelled west by covered wagons could see us now, what would they think?!

On this second flight, Tobin did even better than the first.  He did have some times of needing to be entertained, but that's to be expected when you're 16 months old and not able to comprehend the need to be cooped up for so long.  When he got tired, I told him it was time to go to sleep; but he kept looking at me to see if I was awake so I had to pretend to be asleep so he would go to sleep and...you guessed it...I really did fall asleep.  :)  I woke up with increased pain in my ears, knowing even before the flight attendant announced it, that we had begun our descent into San Diego.  That descent sure lasted a long time!  But again, God took care of my ears and they didn't burst!  

Since Tobin was still asleep, I tried to distract myself by looking out the window.  I was reminded of how incredibly different the terrain of southern California is compared to Virginia's scenery.  Both beautiful, but vastly different.  Compared to the lush green growth that covers my home area, the deserts of California look to my eyes like they belong on another planet.  I was also reminded of how much I grew to love Southern California and how good it is to be back and to remember our years here.  In a way, it represents a triumph in my life: country girl survives and thrives in the city...from passing horse & buggies on back roads to driving on 10-lane highways...from feeling completely lost and homesick the first time we drove into San Diego to truly reaching the point of calling it home.  I'm so grateful for each stage of our life, and this California one holds particularly special memories for me.  I guess that's true of all of them though...  ;)

I thought this post would include a quick summary of each day's activities, but I forgot how very difficult I find to be concise!  Oh, well, someday I'll be glad I took the time to record all of this.  :)

After we landed, we got our luggage with no problem and took a shuttle to the rental car office where we picked up our rental minivan...except they didn't have a minivan for us so they upgraded us to something else.  I'm not sure what it is, but it's white and it's big and it's nice.  :)

We headed east to Alpine, up 2,000 feet in elevation from the coast, and my ears bothered me more.  I won't write about it any more (I think), but for the first four or five days of our vacation, every single time we went up and down the "mountain" (from Alpine to anywhere else we traveled), my ears hurt a little and felt all plugged.  Oh, well, it wasn't really a big deal.

Then came the best part: arriving!  There's always a huge sense of relief that comes from finally pulling into the driveway at Mike & Kim's house (Jeff's sister and brother-in-law), knowing that Jeff's mom was there to greet us warmly and the cousins were there to get started playing!

The rest of Tuesday, we spent relaxing around the house.  There's nothing like a long plane ride to make taking a shower, putting on clean clothes, and napping in a horizontal position feel like indescribable luxury!  ;)

I didn't get very far into my record of our vacation, but I'll go ahead and post this now.  We fly home tomorrow; and as always, it's wonderful to go somewhere and it's wonderful to come home again.  I'm looking forward to pulling into our very own Sylvan Drive tomorrow night.  :)