A Travelin man or woman or family?

There are benefits to being in the military that we often don't take advantage of but this month we decided on a vacation to SC while dh was on extended leave, and that meant utilizing the space-a travel in order to be thrifty. This means being very patient, very flexible and willing to change plans at a moments notice. It also means a lot of hurry up and wait, the military's motto. We have been calling our local AFB line for days waiting on a flight either to somewhere near Charleston or straight in to it. We opted for a flight to Travis AFB in CA and hoped there' be a flight out to Chas from there (there usually is but they only give 24 hour travel info). Sunday morning we call the Travis line and success, there is a flight scheduled out on Mon to Chas woo! Then I call back at McChord just to make sure the flight that morning was still going out to Travis when ZOMG they moved up the flight it's now scheduled in 40 min and we are a good 45 min away without traffic. Luckily the stars aligned and they were way behind schedule so we got on with no problems.

The flight was quick and painless and the girls well behaved. Soon as we arrived we put ourselves down on the list for the flight out and headed off to the USO to spend the night. . . only the damn thing was closed for the holiday! Then it as off insearch of lodging. Let me say one thing about Napa Valley, it is brown and dry and toasty. The heat would have been ok but the dry air was horrible. We had to walk about 1/2 (or more I didn't exactly measure) in the heat with all of our luggage to get to the lodging and then wait in line forever. Thankfully we got a room and only $39 score! Then it was off for another 1 mile walk in the heat to get lunch and buy dinner supplies.

All of that walking in the sun really wore everyone out so bedtime ended up being about 8pm. We all woke up early at around 6am. My friend Angela came up for a visit and brought us a ton of bagels! While we were eating we found out from another family traveling the same place as us that the flight to Chas had been canceled. Noooo! But wait! There is a flight going to Norfolk VA, switch gears change plans. This flight likely won't land until after midnight which means hanging out in the terminal until the car rental places open at 6am. Renting a vehicle from VA is crazy expensive so we opted for a 1 day - 1 way rental from VA to SC. Once we get to Chas then we will do a rental switcheroo and be one our way!

I can only imagine how much fun getting back to WA will be when we have the entire crew of children with us. I tell you though we really can't complain. Flight from Wa to Ca $0, overnight hotel $39 + food (we won't total that mmkay), flight from Ca to Va $17 which was the cost of 4 inflight meal boxes. Yeah, really can't complain :)