So the flight from Dallas to Ontario was not bad, we had to change in Phoenix, but that went pretty smooth as well. The hardest part was lugging around all of our luggage. Once we got our luggage we went out to the curb to wait on the bus to take us to the car rental counter. The bus came and Jamie and the girls got on, but there was no room for me and the 2 big suitcases. I waited for the next bus, which luckily came very quickly. I was pleasantly surprised with the level of professionalism and service that I received from Hertz. Jamie had already booked and paid for the car through price-line when she bought our plane tickets. We got a fairly new Chevy Malibu. I have to tell you that I was very impressed with this new Malibu. It had a lot of features that my higher priced VW has.
We began our drive to Bakersfield, but of course we had to stop at In-N-Out Burger for a snack once we got out of the major LA area traffic. We arrived in Bakersfield in time for dinner and met Rick, Jennie, and Jeremy at Spencer’s. Dinner was good and then we headed back to the house. The next day I went with Rick to install an HD Direct-TV receiver and a new IntelliControl, it only took about an hour and that gave us spending money for Disneyland and Poker! That night Rick, J and I went to a Texas Hold-em tournament at one of Ricks friends’ place. Don (my cousin) met us there later in the night and we all had a great time. We had an open bar with a hostess and Lasagna was served for dinner. It was a very classy event. We got in rather late that night and crashed. The next day Rick and I hung out while Jamie and Jennie went shopping. Later that day Jeremy, Danny, and Jennie agreed to watch the kids while Rick, J, Judy, Jamie and I went out on a Walk-about. This was something that Rick and I did while we were in Prague before the deployment. We walked around and stopped into a bar or restaurant and had a drink at each one. It was a fun night but we got a call that Mikayla was ready for her mommy, so we went back to the house. We decided to go back to J’s house and play a family game of poker. Shortly after arriving we realized that we were all pretty tired and wondered why we had decided to do this.
The days are running together in my mind now but anyway I took Kimberly out on a date and of course she wanted to go eat at Burger King. After we ate we went to go see “Horton Hears a Who” She really enjoyed the movie, I just enjoyed spending time with her. Jennie had a photographer come to the house and take pictures of all the grandkids together. I did not envy that photographer and that was too many kids in one place for me. I went and laid down until it was time to go eat dinner. We went to a BJ’s Brewhouse. There were a few problems with the service, but when the manager came out and found out I was on R&R from Iraq paid for my families’ dinners. He also sent out a huge cookie desert with 8 scoops of ice cream on top for everyone at the table to share. Since Jamie and the girls couldn’t have cookies he brought them each a Sundae.
The next morning we headed to Disneyland. We had to take 2 cars since we would just go to the airport a couple of days later. I rode with Rick and Jamie went to pick up her mom so she could go with us. Thanks to Aunt Sharon we got in for free. We had a great time at Disneyland and Mikayla loved all the characters. She was not scared at all. Kimberly had fun also and I think appreciated it more since she was older this time. We took Mikayla on the Pirates of the Caribbean and she liked most of it, but there were a couple of times that she got scared. Kimberly wanted to go on Splash Mountain and wanted me to sit in front with her. We got totally soaked and I had our prepaid cell phone in my pocket and the water just ruined it. I did not completely dry out the rest of the day. We had a motel right across from the park so it was nice to not have to drive somewhere since we were all pretty tired.
The next day we had decided that we would go to Seaworld in San Diego. Rick called our room that morning and said that he was sick and was just going to go home. We had a leisurely morning and made our way to Seaworld. We didn’t get there until 1 pm, which was kind of late since the park closed at 6. During the Seal and Otter show Mikayla kept trying to climb over the rail to get closer to them. We ate pool side and had a private show with the Killer Whales, it was nice to be able to do something like that. Kimberly and I played the carnival game where you have to throw a small ring and try and get it around a bottle top. I got one on the bottle and Kimberly picked one of the biggest stuffed dogs available. Once we left the park we got on the Pacific Coast Highway and stopped at the beach to show Mikayla. She was a little scared of the ocean, but the weather was cold and I think that was the biggest problem. We then headed to Aunt Linda’s. We had to stop by target and pick up a box, so the stuffed dog could be mailed home. We got there late but we had a short but nice visit. We had to get up at about 3:45 in the morning to get ready to go to the airport. Stay tuned for the next installment where you will find us back in Dallas.