Monterey Trip Notes - Friday March 13

I am very happy to report that the Nelli Family made it to California and we are enjoying our family vacation! I have a few minutes, so I am going to update our blog with our trip notes. Friday was our travel day and it began very early. 4am to be exact. We packed on Thursday night but as hard as we tried to get to bed early, we were still up till 11pm... So at 4am, I dragged myself out of bed, dressed the kids one by one and Chris got the car loaded up. Emily was a bit crabby, David popped out of bed and asked, "Where are we going... California?", and Lia went along with the flow as she always does. Our goal was to be out of the house by 5am but it ended up being more like 5:20 - not bad.

We still had plenty of time to make our 7:30 flight to LA. All went well at the airport. The kids were very excited and had big eyes on the bus from the parking lot to the airport. Emily and David dragged their own little rolling suitcases, Chris had a large suitcase and 2 car seats, and I had Lia in the stroller with another car seat. We looked a bit akward I'm sure... but did well all considering. Going through security was smooth and we got everyone on the plane early while Chris fetched us some bagels and coffee. I won't lie though... the 3 1/2 hour flight was LONG and we had a few unexpected challenges...

First of all, there was only 2 bathrooms for coach class and the kids go to the bathroom a lot. I didn't expect David to have any potty issues because he uses the potty like a champ... however.... I was not expecting the airplane bathroom to scare him. He didn't like the tiny space and when the potty flushed he freaked out... I think he was afraid he might get sucked out of the plane. So anyway, he wouldn't go in the potty and couldn't hold it 3 hours so we had 1 accident... then we changed him and he immediately had another accident... then he fell asleep... then Chris finally managed to get him on the potty and he was able to overcome his fear and he was okay after that. Emily did great - no issues there. Lia did fine but got a little cranky because she wanted to walk around. Can't blame her.

Once we got to LA we had enough time to eat and chill out before our next flight to Monterey. No issues there. It was a short flight and we were glad to finally arrive. All our luggage made it and we were greeted with beautiful California sunshine and a cool breeze that felt like air conditioning. Chris got us a Nissan Xterra and we were on our way!

We found our way to Fisherman's Wharf and had a fine meal at Bubba Gump's. It is incredibly kid friendly and everyone enjoyed their meal. After lunch, we stopped at Lover's Point (a park right by th e ocean) in Pacific Grove and the kids were able to run around and climb on rocks. I thought it was very cold but it was so sunny... the weather here is very deceiving... it looks like it should be warm - but it's not! Then we headed to Salinas to find our hotel and got checked into the Residence Inn. Once we were settled we made a quick trip to Walmart and the grocery store to pick up a few needed items. Since the Residence Inn has a small kitchen, I was able to prepare a simple dinner for everyone before bed. We were all tired. A very long day!!!!