It is not very often that I travel without Tracey, but when I don’t it for a special occasion like this. I only have 4 years left until my daughter heads off to college and the beginning of her adult life. Even though she is already in that stage where she doesn’t want to do many things that I want to do, I try to make wise choices to prolong my time with her. Seems like time has flown by, it was just yesterday that I swaddled her in my arms and she stole my heart. She begins a new phase in her life in a short 6 weeks when she enters High School. Wow. Wasn’t I just in High School myself!
So I have taken advantage of a long weekend and her and I have boarded a plane bound for California. Although she would much rather be shopping in LA, we are headed to Napa via the Oakland airport. One of my very best friends since we were in Junior High lives in Napa, and has just bought a new home and we are going to visit. Since I had an airline credit I only had to buy one ticket, so we have splurged and bumped ourselves to first class. Since checked bags are free in first class we are checking one big suitcase and one small suitcase, gotta have room to bring goodies home!
Tracey takes us to the airport after picking Caitlynn up from school. It sure feels strange getting out and having him drive away, not going with us. He has some guy stuff planned so I am sure he won’t be bored. Caitlynn and I get checked in, a little harder than it should be. Since I had a credit for one ticket and had to buy the other, we are on separate confirmations, which in turn flags her as a minor traveling alone. So we are unable to use the kiosks and have to wait for an employee to assist us. We get checked in and our bags tagged and on their way and we head towards our gate. Caitlynn has her first solo flight coming up, when she flies to Wisconsin to visit her friend Georgia, so I make her take the lead and get us where we need to go. She does a good job checking the tickets for the gate number and finding the escalator to take us to the correct security area. There is no one in the first class line so we walk right up to the front. When we are waved forward I hang back just a bit and allow Caitlynn to go by herself to the TSA agent. As the agent is checking her ID and boarding pass, he is telling me I can come up at the same time. I approach and as I hand my ID and boarding pass over I explain I am having her do it on her own so when she flies alone in a couple weeks she will know what and how it all works. The agent smiles at Caitlynn and explains where to go next and tells me she did a good job.
Once passed the agent we are merged with the passengers from general boarding so the line is at a standstill as there is only one lane of screening open. There are many agents milling around so not sure why we all have to herd into one single lane. Soon people are complaining they are going to miss theirs flights (I don’t think you should ever cut it that close) and then asking others waiting in line if they may move in front of them. We have let several passengers go ahead of us in line when they finally open a second lane. By this time the lines are so congested and long that it did not noticeably change anything. We removed our tablets and our liquids, take off our shoes and our belts, and load it all on the conveyor belt. I send Caitlynn to get in line to get screened so she can get our stuff on the other side, while I wait to inch our stuff towards the conveyor part that moves on its own. A few pushes and our first tote is moving, then the next then our backpacks. I turn to get in line to get screened to see that Caitlynn in only 2 people ahead of me. Crazy slow line. Once I clear screening and the agent pats down my side and ankles I join Caitlynn at the conveyor, just as she is catching a tote and a backpack that are being squeezed off the conveyor. The line was so long and they are rapidly forcing our belongings through the conveyor screening that they are bunching up and eventually being forced off the end onto the floor. Well onto the floor had Caitlynn not been there to catch them. She was embarrassed because she is touching some strangers things, as the things that fell were not ours. I am assuring her it is okay, as I grab some of our things trying to make room for her to put the other items back, but there is still more stuff coming at us. I am grabbing all our stuff, she is trying to stop more things from falling, when the owner of the two things she is holding approaches, takes his items and thanks Caitlynn. See told ya it was okay LOL.
We finally get all our stuff and head off to get out of the way so we can get redressed and organized. Once we are ready I look to Caitlynn for direction, remember she is in charge. She looks around and decide where we need to be going and off we go. She did very well, no hesitations and no wrong decisions. I think she will be just fine on her solo flight. Our gate is only 2 gates down from the turn we had to make, she points it out and I continue walking in that direction. I arrived at the gate and begin to look for a place we can sit. As I turn around Caitlynn is not near me or in my immediate sites. Mom panic jumps in for a quick second when I spy her in line at Starbucks! I laugh a little, probably to keep from crying, and go join her in line. We get a snack and a drink and then find a seat at the gate. The seats have outlets so we both plug our phones in to charge while we wait.
Even though it is a holiday weekend, other than security, the airport does not seem overly busy. Our wait isn’t too long, before we hear the announcement that boarding will begin shortly. We pack up our things and head to get in line. In no time we are aboard and seated. I have my daughter captive, with no distractions. That doesn’t happen very often. We enjoy chatting with our flight attendant and people watching, but my favorite part is when she opens up and shares with me her excitement and fears about her upcoming trip to Wisconsin. I just love this time I get her all to myself. The flight seemed short as we chatted and watch two episodes of the Big Bang Theory. We had a smooth flight and good landing. As we taxi to the gate I ask her if she knows where to go once off the plane. She is still in charge and doing a good job. As we approach baggage claim we receive a text from our driver, about the same time we look up to see a driver with our name on a sign. We approach and she introduces herself as Judy and she will be our driver today. She asks if we have any bags, hahahahahha. Two ladies traveling for 4 days, of course we have bags!! Caitlynn gets both bags off the belt and we are on our way. We have a short walk to the car and Judy talks the entire time. I already dread the car ride. You see this is my time with my daughter, I don’t want to listen to her the entire time. And to top it off when we get to the car, we have to load our own bags, her shoulder hurts! Caitlynn and I load the bags and get into the back seat. Judy starts off by saying she has some business to get out of the way first and needs to see my credit card. She fills out some paperwork and asks me to sign it before we can get under way. Judy then asks if we know how to get where we are going? Um isn’t that her job????? I have used this car service before and had great experiences, but this is not looking to be one of those. I ask her if she wasn’t given the address from when I made the reservations. She hmmms and umms for a bit so I give her the address again to which she responds that the address I am giving her is not in Napa. I assure her it is in Napa and proceed to enter it in my phone, which immediately provides me with directions. Judy then tells me, we will just use my phone and can I turn up the volume……………….WHAT???? I do as asked and we proceed. I tell Judy that my friend told me to remind her that the music festival is going on and traffic might be heavy. She says she knows.
Shortly after getting on the freeway we are passing the stadium where the Golden State Warriors play. They just happen to be my daughter’s favorite team. Not sure why or how she came to love pro basketball but she does. She is excited to actually see the stadium and is telling me statistics about “her” team, and Judy keeps interrupting. So we grow quiet in hopes she will stop talking. She does at one point, direct our attention to the bay bridge and the slight glimpse of the Golden Gate bridge that we got along the way, which was very nice. We ride is mostly silence as every time my daughter and I try to have a conversation, Judy butts in. We make it to Napa in short time, traffic is not all too bad. She asks if I know where my friends house is? I tell her unfortunately not since she just bought a new home and this is my first time to see it. We are following my phone GPS except Judy keeps turning before it is telling us to. I repeat again that it is still 400ft up on the right, and she turns again and now states she can’t find it and asks me to call my friend. I call Laura who describes where to turn which is about 300-400 feet from where we are sitting (right where the GPS was telling us) We turn in and see Laura standing on her porch waiting for us. Judy pulls up and gets out of the car. To my surprise she does pull out the smaller of our two bags and waits for me to get the bigger bag. I do and she then tells me that she thinks traffic will be bad on Monday so she should pick me up earlier than originally planned. I sigh and begrudgingly agree. She gets back in her car and Caitlynn and I hug Laura and drag our bags up onto the porch. Laura makes comment about the lack of help. Oh if she only knew the whole story. But we are on to bigger happier things now.
It is so good to see my friend! Her new home is beautiful, she gives us a tour and shows us to our room. She has prepared a spread of snacks for us, along with some sparkling water for Miss C and wine for us of course. We enjoy an evening of catching up and just the company of each other and good quality girl time.
Saturday morning we get up and shower getting ready for the day. Laura prepares us a yummy breakfast for us all. We head over to a local sports shop in search of a Warriors shirt for Caitlynn. As we enter the store we see many choices of Warriors gear. We are shopping around, as Miss C is a very picky shopper when Laura makes comment to the employee that they may want to change their music. I pretty much tune it all out since most shops are geared toward and run by much younger than me people, all the music is obnoxious and usually way too loud! But evidently this song had some very foul and offensive language in it. The employee did apologize and immediately change the music. Way to go Laura! Caitlynn finds two shirts she likes and Laura even finds one too. We make our purchases and head out. We are spending our afternoon at the Jelly Belly Factory, woo hoo.
I have been to the factory twice before but Caitlynn has never been. Some things have changed since last time I was there. We girls had a blast, we watched all the videos, smelled all the smells and played all the games along the tour of the factory. We were given samples and had our picture taken at the end of the tour. As we were walking towards the stairs to hit up the gift shop on the way out, a sign catches our eye. A wine and chocolate pairing, who can resist that. We find a table and have a seat. We had some very tasty fudge, candies and chocolates, but can’t say the same for the wines. None of them were to our liking. Glad we did it though, for the experience and we got a free wine glass out the deal. We finish up and head to the gift shop where I think we spent like an hour looking around! Amazing not just how many flavors of Jelly Bellys there are but what the make out of them and for them, not to mention all the souvenirs and clothing.