Cali 2013, Day 1 of 15

Not sure topping off a crazy work week by flying across country was the best way to kick off a vacation, but in fact that's what we planned to do.  Amy and I left work a hair early, got the kids out of camp, took care of some chores, finished packing, and then rushed off to the airport.  The kids and I flew out last night, and Amy will join us a few days, so she dropped us off with hugs and kisses and we three breezed through security.

I had gotten an alert that our flight was delayed an hour but wanted to get to the gate just in case that changed.  It didn't.  In fact, it ended up being delayed two hours.  By the time we actually lifted off, it was past the kids' bedtime and pretty much my bedtime.  I braced for a long flight.

It wasn't so bad.  This time, I decided to pack two bags: one of all our stuff (which went in the overhead bin), and one of all the stuff we needed on the flight.  The second bag ended up almost as big as the first bag, since it contained two Pillow Pets, two stuffed animals, a portable DVD player, two sweatshirts, dinner and snacks, and six books.

Because of the delay, the captain gave everyone free DirecTV, and the kids gloried in being able to select from hundreds of channels.  Jada settled on Madagascar 2 and Aaron toggled between Ice Age and Kung Fu Panda.  I put my nose in a book and fell asleep right away.

Less than halfway through the flight, the kids were asleep too, and they slept for pretty much the rest of the flight.  I alternated between peeking at baseball highlights, reading a book, and dozing off.

Finally, mercifully, we touched down at SFO, and my dad perfectly timed his arrival with ours, as we didn't wait more than five minutes outside baggage claim before he arrived.  Aaron fell asleep on the car ride home, and the kids easily went to sleep once we got to my parents' house past midnight local time (3am our time).  It was a little bump, but here we are, Cali.