trip to California

I have to get some travel things down before I explain how John and I were defeated by California Highway 36 again.  First, we got a late start for the hotel in Grand Rapids on Monday night because John forgot about some work that he had to get done as we pulled out of the driveway.  Try to explain to a toddler that we’re only coming home for a second and we’re still going on the trip that we’ve been talking up to him for weeks.  So, we finally get off and decide to stop at Cedar Springs Brewery for dinner.  We’re going on vacation right?  It’s time to start the party, but I probably should have checked out the alcohol content of my marzen.  I had to get water halfway through dinner to be sure that I could drive to Grand Rapids.  My chicken sandwich was pretty good, but I asked them to keep the jalapeno jam off and they 

forgot.  The manager came and made it right though by giving me a free sandwich on the next visit.  Which, their beers are so good and the flannel fries are so awesome that it won’t be a hardship to return.  Their “flannel fries” are like hollowed out canoe fries and would be awesome covered in stuff, which you could have ordered, but I didn’t know that they were made  like that when I was looking at the menu.  We headed to the Econolodge that is going to let us keep the car there for 2+weeks and spent time getting Oscar ready for bed, getting things ready for a  5:30am wake up call.  Oscar finally went to sleep and then John coughed and woke him up.  There then proceeded to be a time frame when both of my men were in danger of dying in a hotel in Grand Rapids.  Oscar finally went to sleep at midnight with John sleeping on a sofa bed with him most likely for his own safety.  The 5:30am wake up call came waaaayyyyy too early, but Oscar was 

 game as soon as he realized that the plane ride was in the near future.  We got shuttled to the airport and Oscar was a pro at check in and TSA precheck was so worth it.  This was the first time that I have seen the precheck line longer than the standard screening line, but we still got through faster and there was no fuss with Oscar’s milk and no shoes off, no belt off and John got added to my precheck case.  Even John admitted when we got to the gate that he was wrong about that option and that this was a good investment.  We got to watch a couple of planes take off and then board.  Oscar picked the seats and was awake the whole way to Chicago.  He ate his way through this flight and was the only one that got to eat really.  John and I were too tired at first and Midway didn’t really have anything that we wanted off in the no man’s land that our gate was at.  Oscar made friends with fellow passengers and ran up and down the concourse, so we were expecting a big 

 nap on the flight to Sacramento.  Didn’t happen.  Oscar was awake and alert for the entire 4 hours.  He made a nest out of his seat and played with his cars, read books, drew some and ate some more.  At the end of the flight, he started to get fussy, wanted to get out, but I drew out the little pack of skittles I had and that bought us enough time to deplane.  Then the tram in the Sacramento airport and the glass elevators, escalators were too much of a distraction.  He was a charmer on this trip too.  Several people on the plane congratulated him on his quiet trip and he had the whole tram laughing when he started going “choo-choo” while on the train.  I do have to admit that his childish enthusiasm for all of this makes a trip go faster and reminds me that is amazing when our huge plane lifts

into the sky.  We rented our car and headed north on I-5.  It was all easier than I thought it would be and Oscar fell asleep in the carseat as soon as he was buckled in.