Spring Break this year has shaped up to be one of the most complicated travel experiences yet in 9 years of living in the US.
Here’s how it is unfolding. As always, we sort of totally forgot it was coming. The kids mentioned they were off school for a week and that's when the penny dropped. We also saw we had a really important meeting with a big customer in NYC right in the middle of it. Who sets up meetings in the middle of a holiday we always forget?
And then just last week, we realised that if we could pull it off, we wanted to catch up with some other work-related folks in Ventura, CA on the Sunday (today) before Spring Break. So we thought we could engineer a Spring Break around two work things and bring the kids.
This is what the last 48 hours looked like.
Friday - Fynn gets a bait to going skiing for three days so he is gone baby, gone.
Saturday – I coach rugby, Harper plays rugby. Kim drops the dog off at a last minute doggy day care solution (phew) and picks us up from rugby and we head right to the airport. Change out of rugby gear in the car park. Kim and Harper check in and jump on Jet Blue Portland – Long Beach. There, they meet up with Sydney friends, hit the aquarium and check out some Parkour.
Due to a whole bunch of reasons, I can’t get on the same flight. My route is via Seattle. Yes – fly north to go south. So I head 2 hours in the opposite direction. In Seattle airport, I bumped into our old CFO – Hi Sam! And my flight to Long Beach is delayed an hour. Neighbours mention on Facebook that they too are in Seattle and will be flying back to Portland the following day. I leave them a secret note under the seat I am in in the terminal and leave them clues to find it on Facebook. Blow me down if this morning they send a picture of them with the note - see below!).
I finally land in Long Beach, meet Kim and Harper and a rental car. We drive an hour north to Ventura. The daughter of the family we are meeting is taking Harper to Santa Barbara zoo while we meet. Tonight we drive back to Long Beach where I drop off the wife and Harper who will spend tomorrow with aforementioned Sydney friends.
I fly back to Portland tonight for a day of meetings tomorrow, rugby practice and to track down Fynn. Tuesday morning it is back to the Airport with Fynn to fly back to Long Beach (I just love the place) where Kim and Harper join us and we fly to NYC.
Wednesday we see some of NYC, have lunch with other Sydney friends and squeeze in a meeting with Every Mother Counts, a non-profit we support. Thursday we meet with our customer then drive to the depths of Vermont to catch up with another set of Sydney friends (we really have to stick together, especially when we are all 10,000 miles from home!) to get 4 days of skiing done (this is the "break" in Spring Break kids - enjoy it!).
Fly home Sunday night. Back at work bright-eyed and bushy tailed on Monday.
And that’s what happens when a married couple run a company together with two kids in the US of A. And I wouldn't change a thing except maybe the one hour delay in Seattle. That was kind of sucky .
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