Day One-zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

We arrived at San Francisco airport and then had to figure out how to get six people, one large dog w/carrier, two cats w/carriers and twenty-four bags from the airport to Travis AFB near Fairfield, CA.

We rented a giant Econoline van (pictures will follow when I remember to bring my camera cable with me to my blogging location) and proceeded to take what must have been the long way through the city.

Our accommodations at Travis AFB were magnificent! We were able to rent a two-bedroom suite, complete with cable TV in all bedrooms and a full kitchen. Only complaint...no internet connection! We highly recommend staying at Travis if you are a military family!

We settled in right away. We turned on the heat, took showers and slept. And slept. And slept some more! It was the best sleep I've had in weeks months! What a great way to start a major vacation!

Yummy bakery donuts for breakfast.
Random lunch.
Godfather's Pizza for supper.

Weather: Overcast. About 55 degrees.

Remember that time???

When my kids are grown, I imagine having those times when we sit around rehashing stories from the past. Here's one that simply must come up:

Thanksgiving 2016
Remember that time we were moving from Hawaii after living there for eight years?

Daddy was loading the 40ft container, virtually by himself (although he had of help from good friends). After about three days, the day before the truck was supposed to pick up the container full of our worldly possessions, Mom came home from running errands and found Daddy sleeping in the neighbors yard. There was still a bunch of stuff leftover in the yard, too! And Daddy had a horrible flu, complete with a raging fever.

So, we delayed our trip by a day while Daddy healed and left a bunch of unimportant junk (mostly containers for organization, a computer table and chair and various other things) on the side of the road. The neighbors and our Freecycle Honolulu friends were thrilled! At least we mailed the anything that was really important.

After sending the truck off, we had to clean and clean and pack and pack...again with the help of friends, albiet teenaged ones. Mommy came down with an ear infection.

And then the night before we were ready to leave, Kona, our cat, ran away and didn't come home until 5:30am! He's not an outdoor cat and Mitch and Mom were sick to their stomachs over the prospect of leaving him in Hawaii. They were up hand writing "Lost Cat" signs at 3am. Finally, Mitch heard him "knocking" on the door and when he opened the door, in he ran. Whew!

We were blessed to have good friends to take care of us on our last crazy Hawaii day; to feed us, to give us a staging area, to love us. The goodbyes were sad, but we knew that we would keep in touch with them.

Remember how we needed THREE vans to take us and our TWENTY-FOUR bags, one large dog crate and two cat carriers to the airport? What a sight we were!

But, we made it! The flight was perfect. The pets traveled well (and so did the humans). In fact, all twelve of our checked bags came off of the conveyer first. Amazing!

Ah yes...what memories. Good times.