California Vaca 2013 - Day One

As we barely waddled into the airport we were an impressive sight. If it wasn't for Addison pulling, literally, her own weight we would not have been successful - 2 full-size suit cases (packed to the maximum weight limit to avoid one more baggage fee), one full-size carry-on, several smaller carry-on bags, including my camera bag, Addi's backpack and the miscellaneous backpack that sustained all of us, one large jogging-type stroller, one car seat, one booster seat and two kids.  As single people or kidless couples printed out their bagless boarding passes I was sure to acknowledge their judgmental, silent complaints, "You must be kidding me! You are the people who drive up baggage fees!" Those looks make me laugh and think, "What you mean to think sucker, is we are the lucky ones. Traveling without small kids is easy, this is adventure!" We were a little glad to see another family with teenage kids waddle into line behind us. They were headed to Bermuda with easily double what we had!

Addison said she was a little nervous to fly again. Once we were on the plane and lifting off she was relaxed and seemed to enjoy it. Landon is such a motor head. Anything with a engine and he is just fascinated. He was very relaxed and excited to watch as the ground left him over the wing of the plane. Both kids traveled very well and each fell asleep right as we were descending through the smog cloud that is LA.

We landed in LA about 9:30 am and hit the ground running to see what LA has to offer us small townies beside smog, traffic and crabby, beautiful people. After refueling at In-N-Out Burger our plan was to walk the Hollywood Walk of Fame (be sure to check back to learn what real start I spotted and  photographed!) Both kids fell fast asleep en route so we opted to start off vacation with happy, rested kids. We let them sleep and continued driving up the windy canyon to the Griffith Observatory. We were able to get a full panoramic view of the city, see the Hollywood sign and learn a little something about space.

Learning all about the big city from Sister. First lesson: rental car shuttles are so much fun!

Still too sleepy to be impressed with the view.

Our girl loves anything space and the observatory was so cool for Addi. I will not be surprised if she walks around on Mars someday, "For the fun of it!".

We headed to our hotel, spent some time in the pool and then we were lucky enough to have dinner with my cousin Ryan who is a Marine stationed in the area.

 Day one... Check! Early to bed .... tomorrow Disneyland!