trip back home

Yes, Southern California will always be "home" to me. After all, I lived there for 44 years, raised my children there, earned my education there, and just felt like I was "living" there.  Now that I reside in central Florida in a very nice little house and have begun to make a new type of life there, It's not quite "home."  Maybe at some point a few years from now, it might feel like it.  But right now, SoCal is home and feels that way to me.

In any case, with the holidays approaching and after a week's visit with my son and family for Thanksgiving I decided to make a visit to SoCal for Christmas and New Year's.  Of course living on a very restrictive retirement budget, I wondered if I would be able to do it. I had thought about going back for a while and fortunately, one nite while I was roaming around the Internet, I found a great flight on United from Orlando to Santa Ana with a change of planes in Houston.  Just my kind of flight and at just the right price.  I cannot take flying cross-country in one plane ride any more.  Two or three hours in a plane is about all I can manage any more. And so the reservations went on the credit card, and are actually all paid off before I even took off.

Since my daughter and her family still live in SoCal (Newport Beach about 2 miles from where I used to live in Huntington Beach), there was a place to stay and I would get a chance to spend some quality time with my daughter and my grandson... and my son-in-law.  Altho I wouldn't have a car, I figured I could get rides from people I wanted to see, and depending on work schedules, I could get driven by Carisa or Devin.

When I was packing for the trip, I had checked the weather reports and it said it was to be in the high 60's and low to mid 70's with sunshine.  Great, I don't have to pack any heavy/bulky sweaters or jackets.  Slacks, jeans and a few peddle pusher would be great with some T-shirts and short-sleeved tops.  Since I was take two bags of golf balls for Devin, I didn't really have a lot of space left in the suitcase which I would have to check anyhow. 

So now all I have to do is get on the planes and get there in one piece.  SoCal here I come, ready or not.

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