Getting There - Day 1

Woke up at 4 am on Dec 21st to get to the airport in time for our flight to San Diego. That was interesting! We left at 5:00 am and go to Bellingham airport in good time. What a pokey little airport that is! It was our first time there. It was a chilly, dark morning and walking out to the run way to board the plane with 5 pieces of luggage, car seat, stroller and three children was such fun! Oh yes.

Here are the boys settled into their seats and ready to fly.

Liam was a fabulous traveller. We really didn't know what to expect but were prepared (emotionally) for the worst. He surprised us and was fabulous. We didn't even need to pull out Keith's Ipod for him. The people in front of us were very surprised once the planed landed to find out that there had been a toddler sitting behind them. He was that good!

The flight was smooth and the service quite good for a 'bargain' airline. We would use Allegiant again. The only thing I didn't like was when the flight attendant said on the PA system: The next time you feel like blasting through the skies in a pressurized metal tube please consider Allegiant Airlines.

Thanks bub.

We arrived in San Diego to find wind and rain. Lots of wind and rain. It was nasty! But it was warm so I guess that's good?! We are not seasoned travellers so we unaware that not all rental agencies for cars are located AT airports. We had to wait for 15 minutes for our shuttle to show up to take us to the rental place. Who knew?!

Waiting for our shuttle. Trying to stay sort of dry.

In the shuttle wondering just how far away Thrifty's Car Rental really was going to be! Turns out it wasn't too far away. Actually at the end of the runway so it made for some excellent plane spotting!

Brrrr...all wet and cold.

Once we got our vehicle we pointed north and headed to Palm Springs. The rain storm did not let up and Keith was white knuckled trying to drive safely. The wipers could barely keep up and it was foggy with heavy traffic. Not fun. It was at this point I wished we had flown into Palm Springs directly! It was about 2 pm and we stopped for a quick bite to eat. We really hadn't eaten since breakfast (I didn't eat breakfast due to flying jitters) and were all famished.

It took a while to get to Palm Springs and then even longer to find the house. We got completely lost and had to phone my parents twice to help us find the place. The last time I was in PS was in the early '80's and I remembered it being one small little town. This place is unbelieveably HUGE! I had no idea just how spread out over the valley these cities were. We actually were located in Palm Desert which is a good 20 minutes from Palm Springs.

Thrilled to arrive at the house in time for dinner with a warm welcome by mom, dad and Andrew. Funny how travelling can take ALL day (we had only considered it a three hour flight not taking into account all the driving, waiting etc). Sheesh!

Very happy to find the house even bigger and better than we could have dreamed of. The very best accomodations! After supper and a dip in the hot tub we were most happy to flop into our bed.