California: The Pacific & The Pier

Last week, John headed out west for his annual west coast conference tour for work. I joined him in Seattle for a long weekend last year, and this year, Helen Grace and I decided to join him for the LA leg. Ever since we missed cousin Sue’s weekend last fall due to her asthma attack, HG has been dying to FLY. We thought this would be a good time to put our Delta credit to use and get out of town for a bit. John flew out Monday, and we planned on meeting him in LA on Thursday.

And then Tuesday night, she felt a bit hot. I took her temp, and it was well over 102. PANIC! We were waiting at the doctor’s office when they opened Wednesday morning. We got the dreaded news:  HG had the F-L-U. (Please note that I am spelling it out and not saying the word out loud. She does not know that she had the F-L-U. After the drama of getting the F-L-U shot, I fear she’ll never get it again if she realizes that she still got the F-L-U.) Other than high fever, a bit of congestion, and lack of appetite, she really felt fine, just a little clingy. Dr. Butler prescribed Tamiflu for all of us, and we started on it immediately. She thought that if we could keep the fever down, she’d be ok to travel. So we spent all of Wednesday doping her up on Advil and making her rest, all while packing at lightening speed.

HG felt good on Thursday morning and was so excited about going to California, so we headed to the airport. (Thank goodness for Spiffer and Granddaddy helping us get all taken care of at the curbside check in.) Other than security taking away Lovey and making it go through the scanner (crocodile tears), we had an uneventful airport experience and walked right onto the plane. She was a bit timid of the jetway at first but thought stepping on to the plane was so cool. She sat by the window and watched all of “blast off,” soaking in every detail. After take off, she colored for a minute and then laid her head in my lap and slept pretty much the rest of the four hour flight (surely due to fever). In between naps, we did make two trips to the potty. I basically had to push her into the bathroom the first time. She was NOT happy about the noise and cramped quarters, and I’m sure it was a sight to see my bottom hanging out of the accordion door while wrangling her.

Once we arrived in LA, we caught her first ever taxi to ride to the hotel, Shutters on the Beach. We borrowed a friend’s booster seat for the trip, and apparently we’ve done too good of a telling her that she can’t ride in one until she’s 4. When I tried to do a test run at home, she threw a fit and said she wasn’t 4 yet. Thankfully, she gave me no problems in the middle of the LA arrivals terminal though and smiled the whole way to the hotel.

Poor Daddy was stuck in meetings ALL DAY on Thursday (we saw him for about 5 minutes in the lobby as he flew through), so we grabbed a beachside lunch while we waited for our room to be ready, dropped our bags in the room, grabbed our flip flops and more Advil, and headed to the beach! Her first request was to build a sandcastle, and then she wanted to chase waves and seagulls. Later, we got the little patient an ice cream cone and checked out the Santa Monica Pier’s aquarium, carousel, and Ferris Wheel. After a wild and very long day, we ended back in bed with room service for dinner. By the time Daddy made it home after 10 p.m., we were both long gone!

Wednesday morning:  Her doll, Sallie Key, had to get checked out by Dr. Butler, too.Thursday morning:  Ready to go! “Is it blast off time yet?!” (she asked a million times) Finally leaving the ground

First taxi ride “Look, whiskers!” at our beachside lunch. She was such a little lady- I was very proud.YAY!!!! First time in the Pacific Ocean Chasing the poor seagulls Ferris wheel And this is how we spent our night More posts to come from the rest of the weekend!

So that I can remember some of our travel details:

I brought HG’s birth certificate, but I was never asked for it. We checked her car seat, which was free on Delta. I didn’t bring a stroller- just rented one at Disneyland. I packed us one suitcase which we checked and then carried on a bag with toys, books, etc. On the way there, I didn’t bring any snacks or drinks with me, but we bought them once we got through security. On the way home, I had unopened bottles of juice and water and opened crackers, and it wasn’t a problem at all. They had to test the liquids, but it just took a second. I had the Tamiflu with us too, and they never even looked twice at it. Children under 12 don’t have to take off their shoes at security.