This wasn’t the plan....

So sometimes things don’t go as planned. Sometimes things are not planned at all. But sometimes it is important to be flexible, and do what you need to do. In another page here I talked about the recent passing of my sweet Grandmother Norma (here). We all knew this was coming and we all knew when it did happen, there would be a trip to California for her funeral. What we didn’t know was how we would actually go. Should our kids go? Should just Katy and I go? Should just I go? Should we fly? Drive? Should we make a trip out of it? Or just a quick turn around?

Well, lots of these decisions were made for us. Great-grandma Norma left us a week before Thanksgiving, which was bittersweet. Thanksgiving was a favorite holiday of hers and she loved it when family got together. The original T-Day plans for us had us staying put and spending it with our wonderful family here. Usually, we try to do T-Day with my side of the family and Xmas with Katy’s side. But money and travel were against us this year. But with the change of plans, it looked like Thanksgiving was going to happen in California with us, Karen and Mark, Aunt Judy, Cousin Alyssa, Cousin Trina, Richard, Aunt Suzy, Uncle Todd, and Grandma Myra. Great Grandma would have loved it.

Backtrack a bit. Friday night, we got the news of Great Grandma. Saturday we waffled all day about what we were going to do. Saturday night, we made the call to drive us out (including Grandma Myra) to California the NEXT DAY! Usually this sort of trip takes a week of planning by air and two weeks by car. Katy made it happen in 14 hours.

So we drove out Sunday, got there Monday. Played Tuesday and Wednesday. Had T-day, then drove to LA for the funeral and drove home Saturday and Sunday. Another twist to this. As it turned out, Grandma Kay and Grandpa Gerry were in California at the same time to visit with Katy’s Aunt Pat and Uncle Griff. This worked out great for us since we were able to visit with them and have their much needed help with the kids during the funeral.

The point of this trip was of course the funeral. Again with plans not always going like they are supposed to; everyone made to Grandma’s funeral except Grandma. Thanks to a mix of poor communications at Hospice, government red-tape and a 4 day holiday weekend, my Grandma’s body was not shipped to LA in time for the funeral. That was unfortunate. But family that has not seen each other in many years was still able to get together, have a service, share some words, stories, pictures and thoughts. It was really special and worth every inch of the trip.

Oh yeah, we also all crashed at Grandpa David’s house (us, Karen and Mark, Alyssa and Trina). Sadly, this was all news to Grandpa David who is in Haiti this whole month for Habitat for Humanity!

Anyway, it was a fun trip, but it was a hard trip. 40 hours of driving, little to no sleep and lots of activities and a little bit of puking. We will remember this one! Here are some of the pictures from our spontaneous adventure (California or Bust!).

To Goleta Beach...as fast as we could