Whirlwind in Santa Barbara

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There's no easy way to fly half way around the world. When booking our ticket from Bangkok back to Los Angeles, we had two options:



Option A: Leave Bangkok in the middle of the night but arrive at LA at the perfect time of 11am.



Option B: Leave Bangkok at a totally perfect time, but arrive in LA around midnight.



Neither option was appealing. If we took option B, Scott's dad wouldn't be able to pick us up so we'd have to rent a car at the airport and wrestle two unfamiliar car seats into place in the middle of the night. If we took option A, Scotts dad would be able to pick us up, with two car seats already in place, but we'd be dragging the kids out of bed at 2:30am, effectively setting ourselves up for a nightmare flight! We hated to do it, but option A seemed the most sensible. As soon as we booked the tickets, I started to worry about the flight. Jake on no sleep = screaming mess. Gulp!



Well, the day finally arrived and we dragged the kids out of their slumber at 2:30am, just in time to get a taxi to Bangkok Airport at 3am. It was 3 hours to Hong Kong, followed by three hours in Hong Kong airport (I'm still in shock from paying $8 for a soggy pre-made egg sandwich!) and finally 12 hours to LAX. I'm pleased to say that, apart from a twenty minute screaming session by Jake on the last flight, all went amazingly well. We were soon at Los Angeles airport, searching for one of those ancient phones, you know, the ones attached to a wall that you have to drop coins into to make a call. Tom, Scott's dad, reported that he was about 20 minutes away. He was soon pulling up, we quickly jumped in, and off we went back up to Santa Barbara, with a lunch stop at IHOP on the way! It was strange to be back. Nothing had changed. It almost feels like we've never been away!



We had six nights in total, staying in the living room of Tom's one-bedroom apartment. We were lucky with the weather as there was a heat wave. This was perfect as we were sadly lacking in warm clothing after spending the prior seven months in the tropics. We spent quite a bit of time running errands to get ready for the Galapagos, the next and final leg of the trip. This included opening a huge pile of boxes from Amazon containing everything from replacement kids' water bottles to birthday presents for Kyla. To be honest, though, this felt more like Christmas than a chore!



As we had such a big errand list, and so little time to do it in, we sadly hadn't prearranged any social events with friends. We ended up doing quite a few impromptu things, which was fun, and I had a baby shower to go to, too. On the Sunday it was Father's Day. We took Tom to Padaro Grill and met friends there too. It was crazy busy, with lines out the door! It was fun to see how much all the kids had changed in a year. In short, the younger siblings (around Jake's age) had really grown up, but the big kids (Kyla's age) hadn't changed all that much. Unfortunately I somehow didn't managed a single photo. Not like me at all!



On our last day, Tom took the kids over to visit Wanda while we spent two hours madly organizing and packing. By the time we'd added three pairs of shoes (Kyla already had some), two wetsuits, and a bunch of cold-weather clothes to our luggage it was bulging. I guess it was good we kept the suitcase! ? Oh, and we've also added a double stroller to the mix.We'll be staying in a town on the Galapagos (as opposed to a little beachy island on most of the trip) and the beach is a 2 kilometer walk. We figured we might need one for the first time in 10 months so as to avoid whining! Thank you so much, Jenna, for generously donating yours!



After everything was packed and ready, including birthday presents wrapped and packed for Kyla, we could relax a bit so headed out for dinner with a harbor view at the Endless Summer with Wanda. Unfortunately we didn't get any photos as the kids were not exactly in cooperation mode. ?



So that's it for our whirlwind California pit stop. It's been nice, but I'm looking forward to continuing the adventure tomorrow. Off to Ecuador we go!



*** Please scroll down for more photos ***

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