Our USA/Canada adventure!

Hello all for the first time on our big adventure!

We are both very excited to be on long service leave and have a long stint of time together. At times throughout this term there have been weeks we’ve seen each other properly just once, asking each other “how have you been?” like we were partners living on opposite sides of the city rather than a married couple living together!!

It’s been a hard term. As we landed home from our honeymoon in the Maldives in January, Mum called me to tell me my Pa had died three hours before we landed. We just missed him, it was rough. So the term started with that and his funeral, and it was busy and hectic with lots going on as always at school. Rob’s had a crazy time at work as well. 

We are happy to fulfil one of Pa’s wishes on this trip. When he had been deemed palliative in early January we had a long conversation about where he wanted his and Nan’s ashes scattered. So for this reason I’ve got about half a kilo of each with me today ready to scatter when we get to Vancouver, as they loved it there. I got pulled over at the security scanner but once I told them what it was they didn’t want to see my documents from the funeral home. When I took some of Nan’s to Paris last year I didn’t get asked at all, so there you go!

So here we are at the start of our big adventure. In the very first lockdown of 2020, we spent a day on the couch planning out this trip vaguely as we figured out I would have long service leave. We had already talked about going on a big holiday in 2023, but being stuck at home we were trying to distract ourselves and plan for a better time when we could get back to doing the stuff we love. I can’t believe we are already three years on ready to follow the itinerary we mapped out then. We have lots of adventures to come - including but not limited to hiking in various beautiful national parks, revisiting Disneyland and a few other favourites, going on a helicopter ride above New York City and even seeing Taylor Swift’s ‘The Eras’ tour in Boston (just me - Rob passed on that one!!). 

Today was a long travel day. We first flew to Fiji for a 1.5 hour stopover which ended up being a 2.5 hour stopover due to delays, then we flew to Los Angeles. The first plane was pretty small and cramped but the second one was nice. At one point on the first flight I got stuck in the toilet cubicle for five minutes as the hosties kept the food trolley there despite me trying to open the door a few times. Lucky I was happy to stand in there and stretch!! 

Los Angeles airport looked much the same as it did at the end of 2019. It was strange thinking that the last time I was there, Covid was just beginning and I remember there had been one case at the airport right before I arrived. Little did we all know……!

Once we arrived in LA, we got a shuttle bus to our hire car company and picked up our car, a Kia. Now we are driving to Yosemite this evening with a dinner stop in Fresno, a six hour drive all up. We are both a bit tired but are alternating driving while the other power naps! We have quickly learned that the freeways here are not in very good shape and are full of potholes, and that no one except us pays attention to speed limit decreases due to road works. 

The first proper post will be up tomorrow. I hope you enjoy reading along! This is the first time writing my blog without Nan and Pa around. The blog was originally started so they could see what I/Mum and I were up to whilst travelling Europe in 2010. I’m still not sure what I believe in once you die, but I would like to think they’re still reading along somehow, too. 

Love to all

Claire

Xoxox