on our way

I like to have everything planned and organized before a trip. I start early. I get everyone's clothes together and make lists and pack bags in my head days (weeks...) ahead of time. I give myself time to have all the laundry done and straighten up before we leave. Some things came up before this trip, so I was extra glad I didn't have to stress what we were taking or try to find things last minute. Except that we couldn't find this one huge green duffel bag that I like to use.
Still can't find it!
Mike does all the boy things. Gets the van ready mostly. Brakes, oil, washing.
Packing the cooler.
(finding the bags for me)

This year we got one of those cases that go on top of the car. We looked at a bunch online and read reviews. We ended up getting a Thule 867 Tahoe Rooftop Cargo Bag It seemed better than a hard case and the one other we considered had poles in it to hold it's shape, but we decided against it thinking it might tear. The one complaint about the Thule one was that it was only water resistant, not water proof, but since we weren't driving across country or through snow, that shouldn't matter to us.
We live in California anyway.
And will be using it in the summer.
So, right before we leave, there is this huge storm coming our way.
In June.
Our last trip to San Diego was in the pouring rain.
hmmm

Mike packed up the van the night before including the big cargo bag thing. He put a tarp over it in case it started raining overnight. (we live in the city, our garage is small and the van doesn't fit )

The kids sleep in their sweats/traveling clothes and every pillow pet is in the van along with a blanket for each kid.
(yeah, I warned you I plan ahead)

We got them up at 4am and it was POURING rain. It didn't faze the kids, but Mike was stressed thinking everything was getting soaked and that the bag might fly off any second -- since this was our first time using it and we were driving through a STORM.

I ban all iPod use, thinking that if they are a bit bored, they will fall asleep. Um. Not MY kids. They are on an adventure and want to chat! Most of them fell asleep for a little bit a couple hours in.

It was still raining.

We (well Mike) drove through the rain for four hours. It finally stopped raining when were reached the Grapevine.

We gave ourselves a 12 hour window to get down to San Diego. It took us that long each way on our trip to Disneyland and the last time we went to San Diego and when we came back from there too. We always stop whenever someone wants/needs to and I hate to listen to my baby cry. So we take extra time.
But none of them were crying or asking to stop.
Other than the eventual traffic in Los Angeles, we had easy sailing the rest of the way and made it down  in almost 9 hours.

Of course that made us way too early for check in at the Grand Pacific Palisades that Michael Pagliocca at Elite Travel Planners hooked us up with.

BUT the "rain resistant" bag thing ended up being closer to rain proof
-- since only one thing in the bag got a little wet and even then it was just damp!

{to be continued}