Best Trip of 2009*

I've wanted to drive down Highway 1 for a while now, but something about doing it in a blue Mustang makes it even better.


Last December I had flights and hotels booked to my convention back in July or August.

I assumed I would get interviews (and we all know what happens when we assume). The interviews never happened, but the tickets were non-refundable. J's convention was the following weekend in the same city, so we turned what should have been a depressing week into one of the best trips of the year.

We started in San Francisco, and when a problem with the rental car company meant that we got to drive a Mustang for the price of a compact, we knew it was going to be a great trip.

We headed down to San Luis Opisbo, where my baby brother lives. We saw the Misson


We ate at the Madonna Inn and I ventured into the men's room to see their waterfall urinals:

We rented a boat and saw the sunset at Morrow Bay, we saw the Monarch Butterflies, we went to Paso Robles and went wine tasting. And X got to have a great time with Uncle D.





But it was still 2008.




We left Uncle D and kept driving down to LA- Little Man was not amused. (And Judy Garland had freakishly small feet.)







After 2 hours in LA traffic.....





We saw 2009 in here:



















We spent two days in the Magic Kingdom seeing it through 2-year-old eyes. We rode the Tea-Cups and the Elephants, we saw the Haunted Mansion transformed into Jack Skellington's house, we watched it snow, on demand in Southern California.

And then we headed North once again, back to San Francisco for J's convention. Little Man and I saw the sights of the waterfront while J went to meetings and panels. I peed on a stick and we celebrated the results in a private booth in China Town followed by cappuccino and cannoli at The Steps of Rome.

I could have picked our June trip to Florida with my extended family; that was also a trip to remember.

The best trip of 2009, though, took us up and down the California coast. It was the trip that helped to heal the pain of not knowing where life was going and the trip that gave us something to look forward to. It was the last trip we took as a family of 3, because when we boarded the plane back to the prairie, we knew we would be 4. And that, it seemed, was a portent of all the good things that had to be coming.





*I know I should be posting on best workshop or conference, but this year I haven't been to any, so I'm going back to the Best Trip post.