here we come

We're going out to California soon.

It's sort of a vacation. But mostly the reason we decided to go now is that Manny's grandpa is not doing great. He had surgery recently, has heart problems, is pretty weak physically, and is 95 years old. So we really need to go see him and let him meet Elijah while we can. Plus, the rest of the family needs to meet Elijah.

Our other motivating factor is that until he turns 2, Elijah can fly for free on a lap. So, now's as good a time as any.

We leave a week from Monday for 7 days. I'm excited to do something fun. And hopefully it will be fun. We have so many things to do, so many places to go (and eat!) in such a short time. We are planing a little day-trip out to State Line casino (CA/NV line). I am ok with this because I am told they have a pool. And since its in the desert it should be warm -- oh I so hope it's warm there! The down-side is that we're going the day after we arrive there, after having traveled for 7 hours to get there. Toddlers are not known to travel well, so we'll just hope he's not too cranky. If not, everyone will probably hate us.

Stop #1 : IN-N-OUT baby. yeah!

Preparing to travel this time is a bit more stressful than before. For one, we cannot check any bags (stupid airlines charging an arm and a leg for everything these days!). So I'm trying to work out the packing scenario -- we have to pack very light, but still take everything we need (p.s. toddlers also require lots of stuff), be mindful of the liquids we take, bring enough snacks and toys to occupy Elijah for many hours on planes and in airports, and don't take anything we aren't prepared to carry for a long way. A challenging balance.

But anyway...

California... California... Here we come... dahh da da dahhh.
[insert theme song from THE O.C. here]