Summer Travel Intermission

We got back from St. Louis late Saturday night. We leave for London next Monday evening. This week is our summer travel intermission. Then it’s go, go go until the school year starts.

Saturday morning I ran in the rain, which was only a bummer because I had to pack my running shoes wet. I never get to run in the rain here, so it was kind of fun to do it in St. Louis where it was warm enough that I didn’t mind being wet. Then I finished packing while we waited for the rain to abate so we could hit up the zoo one last time. It was actually pouring as we drove to the zoo, but once we got there it stopped, and it never started again. We really lucked out because not only did it not rain, but the temperature never topped 80! It was lovely.

I love the St. Louis Zoo and I’m happy we started and ended our trip there. This time we were just with my parents, as I didn’t feel like I could manage the variable of a cousin on the day we flew home.

We got back to my uncle’s in time to pack up the rental car and head out. Returning our car took way less time than I thought, and clearing TSA was super easy so we had a lot of time at our gate. Our flight was fine; it took off on time and the kids did great. We didn’t have a layover this time and I was very thankful for that. Even the drive home from San Jose wasn’t nearly as bad as I was expecting.

It did feel like a long flight, and it was only four hours. I’m a little nervous about our flight to London. I haven’t been on a flight that long in a while, and definitely not a flight that long over night. It’s going to be rough for sure. I honestly think I might handle it worse than my kids do! But my husband will be on the flight so that will help. He rarely flies with us (we usually leave earlier and come home later than he does because I don’t work in the summer), so I’m very much looking forward to having another adult on the plane with us.

Yesterday we slept in and then the kids played video games. I took the bearded dragon out for a backyard bath, and realized his UVB light wasn’t working. I just bought that light and when I realized it was the fixture, not the actual light bulb, I was really bummed out. Instead of going back to Petco to get the same light again, I decided to hit up the East Bay Vivarium in Berkeley. I also decided the kids should come so we could hit up Adventure Playground afterwards. It ended up being the perfect way to get the kids out of the house for a few hours. And picking up an order of churros only made it better.

Sunday afternoon and evening we unpacked and got ready for camp on Monday morning. This week my son has half day basketball camp and my daughter as full day swimming camp. I have a ton of errands to run before I leave for a rafting trip with some college friends on Friday. I get back Sunday afternoon (my birthday!) and then we leave for London on Monday night.

It’s going to be a whirlwind rest of the summer, and if Covid doesn’t mess part of it up it will be a miracle, especially since they don’t ask people to isolate in London, even when they know they are positive. I know we are relatively well protected since we just got it in May, but my parents (who are traveling with us to London) have never had Covid before so who knows what will happen. And we could get it again too! It just feels impossible that we can travel this much this summer, when way more people have Covid than we’ll even know, and not end up having it mess something up. It already put a small dent in our St. Louis trip, but that was truly the smallest of dents. It just feels like we are tempting fate every time we get on an airplane, and we’re getting on a lot of airplanes this summer.