Where were you?!

We were in Monterey, that's where we were. Petra had her first big road trip. Daddy had a conference at Asilomar, so we drove up to Santa Cruz on Saturday and spent the night with Grandma Kate. Sunday Daddy went to his meeting, while Mommy and Petra drove up to the bay area to see Grandma Glorena. Then Monday and Tuesday Grandpa Bob and Grandma Judy came to Monterey to visit Petra (and us I suppose). Wednesday we drove home.

For a 6.5 hour drive, Petra was an absolute angel. LA to Buttonwillow she slept, then woke as we arrived for coffee and snacks and a little boob. Then she slept again almost all the way to Santa Nella, only getting fussy and crying in the last 15 minutes or so. Another boob break, and she conked out again until we got to Santa Cruz. I don't think you can ask for a better trip with a 6.5 month old.

And once we got to Grandma Kate's, Petra was besieged- Grandma Kate, Grandma Janice, 4 year old cousins Adia and Aurela, Aunt Kirsten, Uncle James, and Sasha the Rottweiler. Busy busy evening. Petra was a star, and behaved wonderfully. She was entranced by the 4 year old girls, who absolutely adored her. She played cheerfully, was a good girl at the dinner table, then melted down completely at about 9pm, well after her normal bedtime.

Sunday was a little rougher, at least on Mommy. Petra slept all the way to Lafayette, which was good. However, the day spent with Grandma Glorena was a bit too much for her. She was WAY over stimulated all day long, and was having fits by the end. She slept most of the way back to Monterey, but just about the time Mommy took a wrong turn she woke up crying, and kept it up the rest of the way back. She was a jittering mess when we met at Asilomar. Poor girls!

Monday was spent much more quietly, with a good long walk (and nap) on the beach (we brought the Quinny Freestyle 3xl jogger, which handled the sand very well), and then a stroll around Monterey with Bob and Judy. She was adorable of course, with even the skate punks at the pier stopping to say "cute baby." Like we didn't know!

Tuesday Daddy played hooky from his meeting, and we went to Carmel with Bob and Judy for the afternoon. Petra napped a lot in the stroller, and was cute in the Baby Bjorn.

The trip back was much the same. Petra was wonderful until about the last 20 minutes of the trip, then started crying. We managed to soothe her though, and arrived home not too frayed.

What did we learn from the long trip? Well, first, Petra is a pretty wonderful baby, and a good traveller. Second, make sure everyone knows how the strollers fold up (long story short- the giant jogging stroller can be jammed into the front seat of the Passat unfolded). Third, bring the snot sucker. The salt air at Asilomar made Petra's nose run pretty heavily, making sleeping kind of rough (this of course developed into a good cold for a couple of days. Who knew such a small baby could produce so much snot?).

Next year, this conference is being held in Hawaii! Petra's first plane trip?