Trip Diary, Day 1

It's fair to say I'm (we're) pretty exhausted tonight. We left this morning for a four day tour of Anaheim and Santa Barbara California. The kids did great. I was so proud of both of them on the long five-hour flight, and for being patient with all of the waiting (rental car lines, delayed flights, hotel room not ready, etc). They both get gold stars. And Ali gets a platinum star. Or whatever's worth more than gold these days.

We're staying at a cute hotel across the street from the Disneyland complex. It's Spanish villa-style, which the kids really appreciate, and it has a pool, which we've already checked out. In fact, Jake (after literally demanding) jumped into the pool without me catching him. He was pretty proud of himself.

For dinner, Jake said he wanted hot dogs and coconuts, so we obliged at the hotel restaurant with their finest hot dog and coconut shrimp. His favorite part was the bread. And lemons. Sadie ate the hot dog.

Here we are on the plane, shortly before takeoff. We had the row to ourselves, and no one was in front of Jake so Ali didn't get any heartburn about him kicking the seat.


Here we are about 4 hours into the flight. Yes, it looks like Jake is screaming, but we had everything under control. Who's that extra kid? Oh, that's Helen. She and her family were sitting in the row direcly across from us and we became good friends with them. Helen's favorite food is blueberries. Her favorite yogurt flavor is strawberry banana. Her favorite dinner is mashed potatoes. She has lots of favorites.