Driving down I5

Driving during the holidays is always gonna be crazy but this past Thanksgiving weekend was just horrible.

We drove from the Sacramento area down to the San Diego area. We left the Saturday before and it was smooth sailing almost all the way down. There are two major areas that you can stop in for food and fuel. There are of course gas stations along the way but pricier and food is very limited at other exits.

We passed thru the 'Grapevyne' without a problem. Whats the Grapevyne? Well on the way down I5 between Bakersfield and Los Angeles is this beautiful mountain range you have to drive thru.  Your ears will pop!  As you drive you climb and climb and on the other side you fly down the road!  Have good breaks! lol....  I think the locals call it that because on the base there is an exit called Grapevyne.  Once on the other side you hit the LA area and thats when the traffic started.  Whats worse was the rain that came and went throughout the day!

The Mountains

The clouds over the moutains.

According to the GPS our total trip was 517 miles and it should have taken just 7 hours. I used a regular GPS because last time we took the trip our phones lost signal during most of it. Our total trip took us 9 hours door to door because of Los Angeles traffic.  Its strange traffic, it wasn't like there was an accident or active construction or detours... it was just stop go traffic that didn't make sense.

So we spent Thanksgiving week in San Diego and decided to return on the Sunday after the holiday.  What a mistake that was!  We figured if we left before noon we will get home at a decent time, wrong!  LA was so horrible it took almost 5 hours to go barely 150 miles! Once we hit the Grapevyne traffic was moving again and we were excited, but delayed.  Until we get to the other side and once again there was traffic, stop and go and stop and go... the volume was ridiculous!

Traffic didn't start flowing smoothly until we were almost in the Merced area, by then it was so late we were dying... a total of 13 hours driving to get back home. We finally arrived home at midnight.  Next time I don't think we will leave so late next time wait until Monday lol.

Thanksgiving Week

We plan to visit my brother in San Diego for Thanksgiving week.  Its a few hour drive and  its a beautiful area.

Ive been there once before, ok maybe twice but the second time was just for two days so I can't really count those. The first time was about a week, we flew thanksgiving day, stayed until the following week and flew back.  We also got to visit Disneyland, doubtful we will be going there this time around.

If we did head to the LA area I would love to visit Universal Studios backlot.

I can't wait to get away and spend the holiday with my brother.  Its going to be fun.

What are you doing for Thanksgiving?

Get out from behind the camera

A few weeks ago I was looking for a picture and I couldn't find it. I was totally devastated and it took a few days for me to realize that all my computers for the past few years were backed up on to my back up hard drive.

Ive never accessed the drive before and well for my first time I managed to located ALL my pictures since 2003. We weren't really digital until then.  I was able to get the computer to access the images to my current computer.  What I actually ended up doing was downloading them and now have over 30K image on my computer.

I did find that one image but only today did I scroll thru them, slowly. Unfortunately many are duplicated and there is some facial recognition thing there were the original images are kinda split up between faces, thing is some of these faces were in the background,  strange I tell ya! Then there are pictures of the videos, just the start of the video - it became an image.

I re-experienced, my wedding, the birth of my youngest child, the graduations of the older kids, all our vacations: numerous trips to Disney, Hawaii, Vegas...

Our first videos had no sound recorded, trying to imagine what was being said by the action in the video lol.  Oh and the number of videos I have when we did finally get a camera that recorded sound!  I don't remember all these events, maybe cause I was always the one behind the camera.

I can't believe how many places we have gone over the years! I have been lucky I have to say, many people haven't been to half the places I have.  There were so many trips my hubby and I were upset with each other but still managed to let the kids have a good time. Cant tell if they noticed but I remember.

If you've never been to a place before then yea it mades sense that you'd want to take a ton of pictures.  Personally I have noticed that Ive started to take less and less pictures. It used to be about a hundred pics per event, these days maybe I take a dozen.

Remember to enjoy the moment with your family and get out from behind that camera.

It was hard but I managed to do it. I went on Vacation.

We had planned this trip back in May and it was a cruise so that meant no internet access.  Ok seriously we could have had it but decided against it. The ONE day we had back in the states I lost half my battery on my phone within an hour lol.


Yes I was very concerned because I tried to hire people and it didnt work out. The one gal I got is was to young in my opinion to leave at the store alone.  In the end I opted to have my sons and my mother help keep the store open during the week I was away. Was I worried? Of Course. Did everything run smoothly? It seemed to. 

Our cruise left from NY on Saturday and was to return the following Sunday with a single day in Port Canaveral, FL.  Once the ship left NY harbor that was the end of my internet access.  I had to trust my kids and my mom to run the store without my. I was concerned because my kids never came over the week  before and I didnt get a chance to really go over anything with them.  They knew how to pack and ship my products from my online store and they knew how to function the point of sale system for the physical store.  It was the customer service I was really concerned with.

When that one day in Port Canaveral arrived I turned on my phone even though my husband had suggested that I keep it off.  Within an hour the battery was half gone! I was online reviewing everything I could and then the phone calls started. It was like they could not function without calling me.   So yet again I was concerned but I could do nothing about it besides guide them over the phone. When we returned to the ship we were out of contact again for two more days.

Upon arrival everyone thought I should go to the store and see whats going on. But I actually decided against it. I did log in from home and checked emails, I replied to a few but that was it. Arriving at the store on Monday was tough. It was a long day and here I am three days later finally caught up on paperwork. From what I can tell it looks like everything worked out but I wont really know for sure for another few weeks when the buyers from last week get their items and complain. I hope it does not happen but one never knows.

Can I run a business and go on vacation?

I am usually the type of person that vacations a lot. Since I opened my store last October I have not gone anywhere.  I took a trip to California in November during the holiday so I didnt have to be closed for too many days but it may have been enough to scare people away. Thanksgiving is supposed to be biggest shopping day of the year.

Its not June and I have not been anywhere. By this time we would have traveled twice already and planning the next two trips. My spouse blames my store and how my time away is now limited. I guess in a way is is right.  Im having a hard time with just 'closing' for the time we are supposed to be away. Im having a harder time finding someone to work for me. I thought my kids would help me out and I am not having any luck with that. They want to be paid, I guess anyone would and its pass the time were they would help me out.  I tried to hire someone to work and they never called me back. So Im to assume that they dont want the job right?  Im an employer I should not be chasing people for a job.

Well now that we are even closer to our getaway Im stuck.  I have no choice but to pay my kids to work and keep my store running. I make enough online sales that it would hurt dramatically to 'close' them for a week.

Can I still take vacations?  I hope so, maybe not as long and maybe not as many but I hope to keep going away. I need to get away from my kids.