For months, our family has been planning our Spring Break trip to Western New York, to see the church history sites for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and also Niagra Falls. We planned to go last summer, but then Covid happened, so we were really excited to finally get to go! We were flying out of Las Vegas and into Cleveland Ohio. My sister, Monica, and her family were meeting us there from Illinois for a couple of days to see Kirtland, Ohio. We started out by driving to Cedar City to spend a night at my parents and watch General Conference with them on Saturday. My other sister, Nicole, ended up having her baby early, on that Saturday morning, so after a fun day with Grandparents, we took Grandma and drove to Vegas Saturday evening so that she could fly to California and we could fly to Cleveland.
Ryan's first time driving, on the dirt roads of Enoch. He did great!
The journey down to Vegas
Our flight got delayed before we even got to the airport, so we had lots of time to sit around at 11:30 at night. There were lots of other people sitting around, too, because Spirit Airlines had cancelled an earlier flight out of our terminal, and had delayed other flights. That was our first clue that we might have problems. But we were still hopeful, even with zero communication from Spirit employees about why were were still not boarding our flight. We were hopeful, right up until we got a text around 1:00 A.M. saying that our flight was cancelled and rescheduled for the following Thursday. We hurried and ran down to talk to someone about a different flight and Dustin got on the phone with Spirit to try and figure out any other options for still getting to Cleveland. But by about 3:30 A.M., we knew we were out of luck. It was so disappointing! I texted Monica and James to let them know we weren't coming (they were already there waiting for us. So sad!).
After looking for a hotel to stay in for a few hours, we decided just to find a hallway of the airport and try to get a couple of hours of sleep. Our kids were amazing through all of this! No one complained or got mad. We had a moment of sadness when they knew they wouldn't get to see cousins, but they handled it all like champs!
Me, attempting to protect my boys from being carried off while I slept. This was when I assumed that I would actually be able to get some sleep in a busy, freezing, noisy airport...
We got up around 6 A.M. and I started calling and cancelling all of our hotels and reservations in New York. Dustin worked to cancel our car rental and get ahold of our friend Greg, who had dropped us off at the airport the night before (they were keeping our van at their house while we were gone). Greg and Amber showed up around 8:00 with our van and some hugs and then we headed out toward San Diego. The night before at around 3:30 A.M., we decided that since we were only 5 hours away from San Diego, and I had had such a great time there with my sisters in January, that we would take the kids there for the week instead. So, by 8:45 A.M. we were on our way to San Diego, listening to General Conference, with the kids mostly sleeping through General Conference after our long night. We arrived around 4:00 and made a quick stop at Old Town and then on to our Airbnb that luckily, we had found during our drive. San Diego was beautiful! Green, flowering, mostly warm. It cheered our hearts.
We also stopped at Pacific Beach to watch the sunset.
Ahh, blessed sleep in a blessed bed. Sometimes it takes not having something to realize how grateful you are for it! (On a side note, our water heater has been broken for a week and it has made me so grateful for easy access to hot water!)
The next morning we got up and went to LaJolla Beach. So beautiful! We loved the animal life here and the beautiful scenery.
We took a walk down to Sunny Jim's Sea Cave. Apparently 100 years ago, Sunny Jim (or the people he paid) carved a path in the mountain down to a cave to smuggle all sorts of stuff in and out of California. It was interesting.
And, the kids trying desperately to control themselves and not jump into the ocean that evening. We were going to go eat and didn't want everyone soaked. But, it was hard, and a couple of them ended up wet.
Dinner that night in Little Italy was super delicious!
Gas prices are terrible! And especially terrible in California! $6.29 a gallon!!
The next morning we had a little miracle. Dustin had called the San Diego Temple to see if they had space for us to come and do baptisms for the dead and they said they were full. He asked if we came and someone hadn't showed up for their appointment, if they would let us take their place, which they said they might do. So, we came and sure enough, they were able to fit us in. It is such a beautiful place and it was so neat to be there all together! I also saw an old friend from High School, who was there with her family. Small world!
Later that afternoon we went to Old Town San Diego. We loved the shops and the Mormon Battalion site and the food and the souvenirs.
The next day we drove to Coronado Island. We walked around the Del Coronado (a famous hotel) and rented bikes and rode around the island for an hour. It was fun and no one got hit by a car, so we felt successful!
We had lunch at an Irish pub and then headed to the south end of the island to the beach. A thick, foggy cloud rolled in just before we got there and it made our beach experience pretty cold.
So after about an hour of freezing ocean play we drove further north and found a sunny beach to play on!
That night we made another trip to another temple and did baptisms for the dead again. Dustin had called and got on the schedule for the Newport Beach Temple before we made it to the San Diego Temple, so we took advantage of the appointment and served in another beautiful temple!
Thursday morning we made a decision to drive north to see our newest niece/cousin, Flora. When Matt and Nicole had found out we were in California, and not New York, they invited us up to see the baby and their new home. It was an 8 hour drive, but the kids were excited and we stopped to see Arie and Isabel's family on the way, which broke the trip up a little (Arie and Isabel were actually in Guatemala, but Jenny and Matthew were there. And Brownie.)
We saw the beautiful California Poppies on our way out of Lancaster. The mountains were covered in them as we drove! It made for a very pretty drive.
That night we got to Nicole's! My parents were there already, helping with the baby. We were excited to see cute cousins and hold baby Flora!
Nicole's yard is super fun. They have an acre in the Redwoods, 20 minutes from the beaches of Santa Cruz. They get the best of both worlds!
It was a super cold beach day the next day! But we did see some fun tidepools.
More fun back at Nicole's house that evening. We even celebrated Grant's upcoming birthday (two days later).
We got up early the next morning, said goodbye to cute cousins, and started our long journey home. The thermostat on our van stopped working at some point in the drive, but it luckily was stuck in the open position, causing more air to come in and keeping the temperature cold, rather than the opposite. Other than that, it was an uneventful drive home through Nevada. We got home that night, retrieved Pepper from Lynnette (she is the best!) and took Avery back home to Provo (she is also the best!) and got back to normal life. It was not the vacation we had expected, but we had a great time together anyway! What an adventure!
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