Prepping for SoCal 2015

As predicted, there was no question in grandson Baron’s mind that this was the year to go to “our California house.”  He’s alive and 5, and those are the only qualifications.  Carrie, his mother, confesses that it was harder letting Allen go with us five years ago and have him absent for a whole week.  This time will be easier, she says.  Dunno whether that indicates greater maturity on her part, greater confidence in us, or her looking forward to a bit of a break from a chatterer with a recurring case of the zooms.  So our tickets are purchased and we’ll be headed west on Saturday. Scott will stay at the house and tend the animals, and we will drive to the Twin Cities with Baron, spend the night near the airport, a hotel and restaurant experience for the kid, and fly out bright and early (red-eye flight) on Sunday. We’ll get into San Diego earlier than usual, so will have time to kill before heading up to the resort for an afternoon check-in. Hoping to make contact with sister Nancy, and perhaps another friend currently living on a boat in San Diego Harbor.

When Allen went west 5 years ago, it was with Paula only, Jim having to stay on for a few meetings in Madison and joining them later in the week. Consequently, he missed the trip to Sea World and other exploits, but was in on the trip to the Wild Animal Park and Orfila vineyards. This year we’re five years older, chaperoning an extremely curious, distractable, and yes, less biddable version, Grandson 2.0, who has been hyped about the trip by stories told by his older brother and friends at school. Already he has been told that there’s a Legoland theme park near Escondido, as well as other things to see and do, where Allen had only vague presentiments about the storied paradise that is California.

Traveling with Baron will no doubt be a challenge. We had a planning meeting with his mom over breakfast on Friday, giving her a list of necessities and not-so-necessaries, Baron has a peanut allergy, so epi pens will be our constant companion. Part of the planning meeting focused on epi pens and back-up pens, and health care directives, and peanut dust in the air in the airplane cabins. Lactose is still an issue, albeit a diminishing one, and he seems gradually able to tolerate cheese and milk. On the other side of the menu, however, he is quite eclectic in his tastes, and will probably be game for some more exotic fare out there. We have a couple of favorite restaurants that we manage to hit each trip, and we hope not to be bound by hamburgers and spaghetti.

When Jim was a little over two years old, he was on a train trip with his father and two older brothers, traveling from New Jersey to visit grandparents in Waco, Texas. This necessitated a layover in St. Louis, and his father proposed to take the boys to the St. Louis Zoo. Bags were lockered at the railroad station, and they headed for the taxi rank, and at the bottom of the Union Station steps, Jim slipped hold of his father’s hand, and bolted for the street. A flying tackle prevented him from becoming a statistic, and the fright was of sufficient magnitude that his father went immediately to a harness maker in Waco, and had a leather harness and leash crafted, to which Jim and his younger siblings were subjected in crowd situations for years following. Somewhere in the family archives, there is a picture of youngest sister clad in sundress and the harness held by her grandfather standing by the river. All this is by way of expressing the nervousness of traveling with fast-moving short people. Jim doesn’t move as fast any more, and is much less likely to slip hold of an adult hand and take it to the street these days, but there’s no telling when a sturdy, healthy five year old may bolt, so it’s a good thing that this trip out and back will be double-guarded.  On the other hand, the crowds, bustle, and new surroundings may be so awesome that Baron will want to stay close and chatter about everything he sees.  Either way, it will be entertaining.