Holiday Travels...

With our Lake Swan Camp RVICS project completed on Thursday, November 16 we began the process of getting the rig ready for its extended stay in Florida while we packed for our upcoming trip to the west. Karen actually started packing almost a week earlier, after returning from her visit to Nancy's home in Tampa with an extra borrowed suitcase.

Our planned itinerary will take us first to Denver, Colorado for Thanksgiving with our son Erik's family until Friday, November 24. Then, it's off to Portland, Oregon for five days with our daughter Elisa's family before heading south to California. We arrive in Oakland on Tuesday, November 28 and travel north to Sonoma County to visit with friends and get a bunch of doctor appointments out of the way. On December 7 we will fly to Fiji in the Pacific with our dive buddies, the "Fiji Fanatics" to spend 10 days scuba diving. Returning to California on December 19 we finish up spending another week, including Christmas with our son Nick's family in Sacramento before flying back to Jacksonville on December 27. I'm sure that many of you might think this a whirlwind schedule, but fortunately it is working out manageable within the 6 week time frame we've allowed. The biggest hassle has been the amount of luggage for dressing in multiple weather conditions and our dive gear.

With four suitcases and two backpacks in the truck, we left Trinity (our fifth wheel) all buttoned up for the next six weeks on Friday, November 17 at noon. Lake Swan Camp has graciously allowed us to leave the rig on the camp property at no charge for the duration of our holiday vacation. This is a huge savings and in a safe location where other members of our team will still be around the trailer most of the time we're gone.

This first travel day on the itinerary we drove from Lake Swan Camp in Melrose, Florida to the Jacksonville International Airport (JAX) where we parked in an off-site long-term parking facility and then arrived at the terminal for our flight to Denver. The weather in Florida the past three days has been rainy so we were looking forward to new surroundings and maybe even snow. Thank goodness that 2 bags fly for free on Southwest Airlines! The flight departed at 4:34 PM and arrived in Denver at 6:30 PM their time. Erik picked us up and drove us to their home before leaving for work that evening.

We got to see the grandkids and Tori before bedtime rolled around. We surprised them all with the disguises Karen bought. We can't discuss does details in the blog yet, you'll just have to wait until after the trip.

Monday, November 20 we took the grandkids to the Denver Aquarium for the day. Arley made sure he would fit in and wore his shark sweatshirt. The aquarium was impressive and the grandkids had a great time running from one tank viewing area to the next. We ended the visit with a late lunch in the aquarium dining room and a trip to Freddy's frozen custard before driving back to Thornton.