I'm assuming there will be more than one post about my California Vacation. The week was filled with so much fun, there is no way I can write about it all in one post and in the time that I have. So, I will "start from the very beginning, a very good place to start..."
The reason I decided to take a trip out to Cali was for a family reunion. My mother's side of my family decided last year at my grandmother's funeral that we were much overdue for a family reunion. Our last one was in 1994. There have been mini reunions since then, but not a big one. What I mean by big one is, a reunion that includes not only the family established by my grandmother, Jean, but also her 6 siblings. Yes, this family reunion included 4+ generations. My great-grandparents had 7 children. Those 7 children had 24 children. And those 24 children had who knows how many children (myself included). So, the reason for the California vacation was the family reunion. More info to come...
Since I was planning the trip for the reunion, which was June 20-22nd, I decided to make a week out of it and see everyone I know in Cali. I hadn't been there in a year, so I was in desperate need of some Cali love! I planned on leaving June 14th in the morning. Well, with everything else I have going on right now (i.e., moving, the play, work, money), I decided Saturday to leave on Sunday. Well, then on Sunday morning I realized I still hadn't packed and there were a few things left I had to do before I left, so I pushed my trip off another day and left Monday. For real! I left Monday at 6am on the dot!
Usually driving in to Cali I stop in Redlands to visit the friends out there. But, with it being a work day and early in the morning, there were out and about so I was going to head back to that area later in the week. Instead, I drove on through to La Verne, making it there by 11:45am. There was no real reason to stop there at the beginning of the trip because that was where the reunion was going to be later in the week, but since I did family t-shirts and had some other things for the reunion I decided to drop them off so living out of my car for the week would be easier.
I stopped in to see my great-aunt, Grace. She is my grandmother's youngest, and only living, sibling. I love stopping in to see her, not only because she makes me laugh with her constant chattering about any and everything, but because she lives across the street from where I went to elementary school, and growing up there were numerous family events and holidays spent at her house. I stopped in to see her, took her some of her favorite cereal that she can't find at the stores out there, showed her the family movie I made for the reunion, showed off the shirts that were made, chatted a while with her and one of my second cousins (her grandson, Zach), and took a nap.
When I woke up from my nap, I headed out to Bellflower, where my dad lives. I was going to take him out for father's day (a day late) and stay the night there. I was heading opposite rush hour, so the trip only took about 45 minutes from LV to my dad's. That left some more time to rest at his place while I waited for him to get home. When he did, he quickly got ready then he, his wife, and I headed out to a great mexican food restaurant. The rest of the night (only a couple of hours) was spent chatting about his job, the classes he is taking at the local college, and him trying to load me up with as many Belkin products he could. He works for Belkin and gets so much from them when things get discontinued. Ironically, when I got to his place my laptop case broke. I was sad, but it was a cheapy from Target, so I knew it would happen soon. Well, it turns out my dad had a new one in his stash. So, I took it. It is SOOOO nice and definitely a lot better than my old one was! Needless to say, I was one happy camper!
Tuesday morning I left my dad's and headed to see my uncle in Redondo Beach, and then my dad's family down in San Diego. Check back for the blog on that!
Pics not from this trip, except the new laptop bag!
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