California Dreaming – The Itinerary

California itinerary – map of California

Most of you would know that my family and I recently traveled to California, thanks to Escape Travel (and our savings which are now GONE). I didn’t blog about it while we were traveling because I’m paranoid about my house being left empty. I know, silly really. Anyway, I’m going to write a bit about it over coming weeks because it really was the “trip of a lifetime” for our family and I want to tell you all about it, provide a few tips, answer any questions you might have and also document it so I can read about it later when I’m feeling shitty and I’m crying BECAUSE WE ARE’NT THERE ANYMORE. WAAAAAH WAAAAAH.

So, let’s start at the beginning. Where did we travel? We did a big loop from LA to San Francisco and inland along the State’s border into Nevada to Las Vegas and back to LA, with a heap of stops along the way.

Fab places to see in California

Most of our holiday was spent in California, but we did pop into Nevada briefly. We were so close to Las Vegas – we just had to go there! All in all we spent three weeks traveling. A massive high five must go to Twiggy who drove on some of the craziest freeways and scary single-lane windy roads ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE ROAD. I’d also like to extend my appreciation to the GPS lady who saved our marriage from breakdown. Without her we would still be attempting to get the car out of the hire car dealership at Disneyland. Someone else who deserves our thanks is the woman who drove us from our hotel in Hollywood to our hotel in Disneyland (Escape Travel had organised this special part of the trip). She taught us all about the quirky road rules of Cali – like this gem: “Just smile and wave, even if you’re in the wrong. People can’t help but forgive you if you’re not an asshole about it.”

Driving holidays can be like being stuck in a permanent vortex of hell, depending on how your kids behave. Luckily, this trip our kids were awesome. I think they were aware that their parents had no idea what was going on, so stayed relatively calm. Oh and their own iPads/iPhones to play with in the car helped. Fear also helped as I imagine there’s nothing quite like hearing your parents mumble repeatedly: “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. Look left, look right. Stay right. Stay right. RIGHT. Which way are the cars coming from again? OMG did you see that car? We just missed hitting it. Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. I NEED A BOTTLE OF WINE WITH A STRAW.”

We had such an amazing adventure. I can’t wait to share more with you. Don’t worry, unlike a slideshow in my lounge room, you can actually choose not to read any of these travel journal blog posts if you get bored. Phew.

But if you want to see some pics and videos of our holidays then yay! This is the place.

bigwords x

PS: On a completely different topic – never go underwear shopping with a nearly 4yo. She might repeat in a loud, growling, guttural voice: “SIZE 16, SIZE 16, SIZE 16” every time you reach for a pair of full briefs. You will want the ground to swallow you up.