A Trip to Monterey

I’d love to be more spontaneous. I would. I’m just not very good at it. I like to plan. I like to know what’s going on, and how things are going to be. I had such a spontaneous weekend this week, I of course had to share it all. It started on Wednesday. My younger sister is going through a hard time, and is a billion miles away in Monterey, CA, where her husband is stationed. Since she’s having a rough go of it, the decision came to mind that maybe I should visit her. So after a couple of days of checking prices, and times, and all that’s involved, on Thursday, Husband and I booked a flight, a car, and a hotel, and Friday evening, we were off. It was a secret, though – I didn’t want anyone telling my sister we were coming. It was tough to keep such a fun secret hidden.

We flew into San Jose, because according to Google Maps as I was booking the flight, it’s only an hour away from where my sister lives, and we got such a cheap flight if we went there. Husband and I didn’t get to sit by each other on the way to Seattle, which was fine, because I had just planned to read the whole time. I sat by a gentleman, whose name I never caught, and he was pretty chatty, so I didn’t get to read. At some point, we were chatting about reading, and he gave me a book – said it was a good one. I took a look at the back, read a bit, and said it looked interesting, and I’d have to look it up, and he told me to keep it. Told me to read it, enjoy it, and then pass it along. So, I read that on the way to San Jose, and finished it in the time it took to travel, then gave it to a guy, after telling him it was good and he’d enjoy it. He looked at me pretty oddly, ha ha!

When we landed at San Jose, it was late. We landed at about 11:00, tired and ready to just lie down. As we were getting our luggage, one of Husband’s didn’t come. He originally had just the one checked bag, and his carry-on, but on the flight from Seattle, the plane was too full, and they made him gate-check it, and it had his laptop in it, so of course, that makes me nervous. And then when it didn’t show up in San Jose? I was like, freaking out! So, after we figured out where it was (still in Seattle, WTH?) I was trying to get directions from my phone about how to get to their house. I don’t know if I put in the wrong airport, or what, but the time it told me it would take was 6 hours, and I was almost in tears, trying to figure out what the heck was going on. Finally, I got things figured out; we got our car (A Chevy Cruz!) and off we went.

We took the hour long drive to their house, and I had hatched a plan. I was texting her the whole time, making sure that she had no idea what I was doing. When we got near her house, I had texted her and said “Wanna know a secret?” because, I anticipated her answering it with a “yes” and then I was going to knock on the door right then and then I would laugh, but it didn’t quite work that way. When I texted her, she didn’t text back…so I just knocked on the door, and away we went. The look of surprise on her face was amazing, and after some hugs, we went to our hotel – which my sister’s husband had to come in to check in with us. We were staying at the Navy Lodge, getting a really good discounted rate because he’s in the military (that’s actually the only way you can stay there too, is have a military sponsor) and so he had to check us in, it was pretty funny. Finally, off to bed for me, because by this point, I think it was nearing 2 in the morning our time. I was exhausted after all the travels and fun!