Sleepless in San Diego

Hands up if you’ve ever taken your toddler on an overseas trip!

Well for my little boy, this is his third time traveling abroad and enduring a long haul flight. Whenever we land in LA and we get the ok to turn on phones, I get an influx of texts from family members asking if he did well during the 13 hours in the air. Thankfully on this trip, he did really well! But while he wasn’t badly behaved, this time was much trickier than the last. It seemed that fast walks up and down the isles was his favourite way to pass the time... that was until he decided to play a “fun” game with anyone who seemed to be sleeping. He knows this special game courtesy of my mother, his Tayta. She pretends she’s fast asleep so that he can make a great big sound and startle her awake. Now imagine this in a darkened cabin with sleepy people who were definitely not pretending. *embarrassment*

It was straight to San Diego for the first week. We stayed with my dear friends Jacqueline and Keith. If you’ve ever seen my posts tagging Petalsweet, then you’d know about my ties to this talented woman. Jackie makes the most incredible sugar flowers and travels the world as a professional educator sharing her craft with cake decorators who are eager to expand their skill set. I have had the privilege of teaching alongside her with my dear friend Mav in past years in both Sydney and San Francisco. So much has changed since my teaching days, but my move away from educating didn’t stop us from maintaining a solid friendship. Jackie and I had been talking about spending a week together for some time now. I already had plans for a month long trip back in Los Angeles, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to lock it in. While I battled the worst jet lag Xavier has ever experienced, we still made time to get inspired, reconnect and recalibrate.

Here are some of my favourite moments of our excursion to The Flower Fields. This stunning farm is home to Jackie’s favourite flower variety, called ranunculus. A sea of rich red, pink, lemon, orange and pure white, this experience was unforgettable and I’m so glad we were in town to catch this all in bloom. 

Xavier slept the entire time.

*keep scrolling for a special mention... the kind that makes all of this feel even better*

Special mention to the champion I was lucky enough to be seated next to on the flight to LAX... something I'm always nervous about when boarding a plane with Xavier.

Pleasant natured and super friendly, this guy was happy to lift his arm rest to allow for the space for Xav to sit beside me. He was also incredibly helpful when my hands seemed to be too full to manage my wriggly kid. These are the travel moments that I live for - the ones that aren't planned and remind me why I love it so much. Getting to know new people and hearing their stories is the best part about all of this, and I was reminded of that the moment we settled in for the flight. Thanks Chris! Can't wait to have you and your soon-to-be-wife in Sydney one day!