Tomorrow the 4 of us are heading off on a journey to San Diego via Las Vegas.
You may wonder "why Las Vegas?" Well, we fly standby..meaning that we don't get confirmed seats on the plane unless there is extra space and usually we don't get those confirmed seats until boarding has already started for the flight. So we have to watch the flights and make sure there's lots of availability on the ones we stand by for.
Originally, we were flying into LAX but, as it turns out, the flights are full & there is very little chance of us getting there. We never planned on flying into San Diego because those flights have been almost full for months and are now likely oversold because of it being the week of Comic Con.
Since there are 4 of us needing seats..Clark can't fly as a lap child anymore since he is over 2..we had to find somewhere to fly into with (1) open looking flights and (2) lots of flights/day just in case things fill up at the last minute. Flying standby is *always* an adventure.
The great part about it is that a car rental in Las Vegas is only $130 for the week vs $200 in Los Angeles. With the cost of the fuel between Las Vegas and San Diego, we'll end up breaking even, if not saving a tiny bit. Sure, it'll cost us an extra 5-6 hours of travel, but we'll get to squeeze in a little roadtrip through some parts of the country we've never driven before. Very exciting, even if it is just south of Death Valley :)
We usually book rental cars through Thrifty because they have this neat little program called Wild Card. For the price of a compact rental they get to choose the car for you, guaranteed to have room for at least 5 people & several pieces of luggage. Generally that means an automatic upgrade. We're really crossing our fingers for a van so we can have lots of room for all of our stuff. I've read that the Vegas Thrifty likes to Wild Card vans...and that's the only thing we'll be taking a gamble on while we're there. Haha.
Luckily we scored tickets to Comic Con again this year, hence our return to SD. We're only going to the Con for 1 day, thank goodness (haha, don't tell Jeramy I said that!). It's a GIGANTIC production and you can't possibly do/experience everything (or even close) in one day so it's pretty overwhelming. The boys and I will be lucky to even make it past lunch! Even still, it's exciting. I'd attempt to describe the Con but I honestly don't even know where to start.
The other days will be devoted to the awesome San Diego zoo, the Birch aquarium at Scripps, Coronado beach and La Jolla Cove & of course, finding awesome places to eat. Last year we Yelped our way through SD finding lots of cool little hole-in-the-wall places & food trucks to eat.
You'd be surprised what awesome & interesting meals can come out of a teensy tiny kitchen. From a bulgogi burrito at Asian Persuasion food truck to a Gooch Pop burger (which I'm convinced is the BEST burger in the world) at the Gooch truck & teriyaki beef at Leilani's Cafe...San Diego has some crazy good food. This year we're looking forward to trying some shawarma. Don't be surprised to find a blog full of food pics when we get back.
I'm still in the midst of packing, which has been a challenge this year since I'm fitting a week's worth of clothes clothes for 4 into one suitcase. Thank goodness for the space saving roll-your-clothes method! Not to mention having to bring all of Clark's feeding tube accessories, which practically fill my entire carry-on. Given that we're checking 2 carseats (never trust those rental car seats! They're gross & could potentially be expired, not to mention the time it would take to properly adjust them for your child.) and a ginormous sit n stand stroller I figured it was best to check only one suitcase.
Back to Clark's feeding tube, this is our first trip out of state with the button. I'm admittedly quite nervous to be away from his GI for fear of it coming out or some other problem. But I researched and thankfully, San Diego has a children's hospital with 2 of the top 100 GIs in the US. After learning that I felt more confident about going.
Well, I'll wrap this novel up. Look out for the next post, it'll probably be a big one too! Keep us in your thoughts & prayers for safe travel.
