Two short weeks in California 3.28.2010

We flew out of Mexico on the 15th, bound for Palm Springs. This year we flew instead of driving as we were meeting our friends in Guadalajara so leaving here was very different! And with our decision to sell the boat, we packed as much into our luggage as humanly possible. Between Michael and I we had 4 bags that all weighed in at 49.5 lbs and 4 carry-ons that were about as heavy! The bags were so stuffed I prayed that they wouldn’t be sent to the secondary screening because once the bags were opened up I feared it would look a lot like a jack in the box with clothes flying out of the bags! Not only that but I doubt very seriously if they would be able to get them closed again! Luckily, at the airport they did open up every bag but only moved a couple of items around and we were there to help them re-close them. And we had one absolutely wonderful flight attendant who helped us in rearranging the items so they would fit in the upper storage area and put the remaining items under an empty seat. Whew!! :-)

We breezed through immigration & customs in Phoenix and hopped on the small plane bound for Palm Springs. I drew the lucky seat on the Palm Springs flight and sat beside a young mother with her young baby. Let me preface this by saying the kid was very cute an I have no problem with kids. We talked for a while about how the baby had not eaten since the morning since TSA had taken all of the baby’s food and she had only drank water & juice since the morning. We were about 10 minutes into the flight and she turned to me and said ‘I think I’m going to throw up, what do I do?’ Holy Crap!! I told her she should go into the bathroom. ‘Would you mind holding my baby?’ she asked….Sure, no problem. She gave me the kid and went into the bathroom. The baby was soaked and was soaking through the blankets she was wrapped in. The mom came back to her seat and said she was feeling better but 5 minutes later, she was not well again. I couldn’t get the vomit bag out of my seat back any faster and gave to her. She was holding the baby and vomiting into the bag….ugh. I went up to the steward and asked for some paper towels & a bag and he gave me a large, 25gal plastic bag & a bunch of paper towels and his condolences! Haha.. The poor girl got sick about 5 more times. Michael was sitting in the seat behind me and had to help as we were juggling the baby, a large trash bag, smaller vomit bags, & drinks. He said the guy to his left even pulled out his vomit bag ready to give it to her. It was a long 54 minute flight!

We've had a monkey hanging in the boat that Michael couldn't leave...and it didn't fit in any of our bags so onto Michael's back it went! It turned out to be quite the conversation starter, smiles from all of the security guards & TSA agents, and even the Mexican military!



We flew into Palm Springs and spent a couple days visiting with Michael's Mom, Dad, & Sister's family. Michael's step-dad, Pete, who has Alzheimer's has been slowly declining and we visited him on Thursday, knowing this was possibly the last time we would be seeing him.

We left Friday morning to go to San Diego to visit with Mike & Julie and pick up our 'tubs' of stuff they brought up from Mexico from us. On the drive to San Diego, Michael's mom called. Pete passed away Friday morning.



We visited with Mike & Julie and had a BLAST playing the Wii, hiking a nice path near their house, enjoying an incredible Thai dinner in town, & chatting away!

We left early Saturday morning and zipped up to Ventura to spend a few days with Sue & Dennis. We had made several appointments - Tax, Doctor, Van Repair, etc for that week and didn't have a lot of time to visit as we were running around like a chicken with our head cut off!

We left Ventura on Thursday and went back out to Palm Springs for Pete's services on both Thursday & Friday.

I don't think there's anything that makes you appreciate life & want to say "I Love You" to your friends & family quite like a funeral. So in case I haven't said it lately, I appreciate each and every one of you and am so glad to have you in my life.

We left on Saturday - headed North!
More to follow...
Rene