Step 1 (of 237) of moving: COMPLETE!

So the first part of what feels like it'll be the most drawn-out move in history is complete (ok, so this actually isn't even that bad compared to international moves, when it takes months for your stuff to get shipped anywhere, but it still feels like there's a bazillion steps to this move). On Saturday Zach and I loaded ourselves, our various bags, our two kids, and the two cats into our car and drove out of Sacramento for the last time as a family. We drove two hours to the San Francisco airport (taking a slightly longer way to avoid the bay bridge since it was gay pride weekend). In an amazing stroke of good fortune, it just so turned out that Zach's brother's girlfriend, Jakki, was taking our same flight so she met us at the airport and helped through security and the plane. This turned out to be kind of a lifesaver, as just to get through security we needed one person to hold each cat, and then someone to walk the kids through. I was a bit nervous about how security would go for this flight, as we had more complicating factors than for any other trip and I've recently heard many horror stories about TSA incidents, but everything went totally fine-- since we had kids we got to go through a shorter line, and the agents were all friendly and helpful. Zach's theory is that TSA in major airports just want to get people through quickly so don't hassle them with weird time-consuming checks and hassle. I don't know if that's true, but am very glad it all went smoothly.



Watching other airplanes = best way to kill time at the airport.





The flight was a direct 3hr flight that also went pretty well. Donovan, Jakki, and I sat in one row, and Zach and Quinn sat across the aisle from us. D's at an age where he's a super chill traveler, especially if you've got a movie for him to watch so that was easy enough. Quinn was a bit more restless, but here Jakki was again awesome and wonderful by playing and walking up and down the aisles with him. The cats meanwhile just hunkered down in their carriers under the seats and didn't utter a meow, probably bc they were scared for their lives.

We arrived in Austin at night. The cats are settled in nicely at my in-laws' house, and we're staying with my mom & Philip. Zach turned around and flew back to SF Sunday evening so he can work this week, then finish packing up our stuff and load up the truck this weekend. The boys are having an awesome time hanging out with the grandparents and other local family, even if we're mostly staying inside thanks to the triple-digit heat.


I was feeling some very strong pangs of sadness in the weeks right before our flight, it was just hitting me how much I'll miss everything we were leaving behind. I even got sad thinking about the last time I'd drive my trusty Fit, which we've had for 3 years and expected to drive for 10+. even now that we're here it really weird thinking that after these few weeks in Austin, we won't be returning to CA but will be moving on to the east coast. Then again, we may very well be back... Zach recently went to an event at a consulting firm in San Francisco and was really drawn to everything there, so we'll see. At this point I know better than to try to speculate or plan anything about where we'll be two years from now. (ps- I don't know why the pictures look so small and crappy when I post them throug this app, if you click on each one they come up larger and look much better... But in-post they look bad. Oh well...)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad