California Day 1

Our friend, Katie, drove us to the airport at 1:30 to catch our delayed flight at 5:30. We took our time, having a late lunch at McDonalds and walking slowly to our gate. Delta charges $25 per checked bag so when they announced that the flight would be very full and that they would be checking bags for free, we jumped at the opportunity.


Our first trip was to St. Paul, MN. I ended up talking to a waterpump engineer for the entire flight while the kids worked in their journals and Kris slept. Flying over St. Paul, we could see a vast expanse of snow and ice. And I thought Indiana was bad! We landed and hiked to our next gate. Once there, the whole waiting area was super crowded so I went in search of food while Kris stayed with the kids. The best I could come up with was $20 worth of Starbucks (read that as 3 drinks, 1 sandwich) so we snacked before boarding our flight.


The flight to LA was pretty uneventful. We watched a green-tinted version of The King's Speech with no sound while the beverage cart came through offering tiny pretzels and ginger ale. Jacob was the first to fall asleep, followed by Ella. This made getting off the plane a little difficult, but we managed. Thank goodness for that double stroller!


It took 30 minutes to get our checked bags, 15 minutes to get a shuttle bus to the rental cars, and another 30 minutes to get the rental car. By the time we were on the road, it was after midnight and we still had the 45 minute drive to Newport Beach ahead of us. We used our trusty Garmin (thanks mom!) and made it to the hotel, threw the kids in bed, and at 1:45 Pacific Time (4:45 Indiana time!) Kris and I finally went to sleep.