Happy New Year! I can’t believe we are already a week into 2020. I feel like 2019 flew by faster than any other year to date. Aaron and I spent the last week of 2019 and the first few days of 2020 in Michigan with friends and family, and it was a jampacked couple of weeks. I wanted to fill everyone in on what we were up to on our two-week vacation.
On Monday, December 23rd we hit the road in San Francisco and drove nine hours to Las Vegas to begin our trip. Travel is crazy expensive during the holidays, so we decided to drive to Vegas to save some money on airline tickets and add a layer of exploration to our trip. I had never been to Vegas, so I was excited to spend a few hours there.
The nine hour drive from San Francisco to Vegas takes you South towards LA, then over to Vegas. For eight of the nine hours we were in California. The drive is beautiful, but there are stretches that are very boring. It got dark a few hours in, then started to rain, but we were listening to an audio book and it wasn’t too bad.
We stayed at the Luxor on the strip, and this was all I saw of it besides our room. By the time we arrived, unloaded our luggage, dropped off our car and visited with a friend for a while, we had to go straight to bed. It was raining, so we didn’t really miss anything.
After a few hours of sleep, we loaded up a taxi and headed to the airport. We flew from Vegas to Chicago, then to Flint on Christmas Eve.
Flying from the West Coast to the East Coast is weird because you lose three hours along the way. We landed in Flint around 7pm, but it felt like 4pm to us. We grabbed our luggage, picked up Aaron’s car and changed our clothes real quick.
Aaron and his father have gone to candlelight service on Christmas Eve forever. We were happy we made it in town in time for them to continue that tradition!
We spent Christmas day with our families. We visited my parents and Grandpas then his Dad, Step-mom, and Grandma. I always forget to take photos on holidays. Every year I tell myself I’m going to take more photos, but then I get caught up celebrating with family and forget. For dinner on Christmas day we joined some friends at a Hibachi buffet. We started doing this a few years ago, and I love it so much.
The next morning we headed three hours North to celebrate with Aaron’s Mom, Uncle, and Grandpa. We stayed the night at his Mom’s house and spent some time with them before we made the three hour drive back.
What Aaron didn’t know about our trip, was that I had a surprise Birthday party planned for him the first weekend we were home. I will tell you the whole story of the party later this week, but let’s just say he was surprised.
We had so much fun catching up with everyone at the party that Aaron has requested we do it every year.
Aaron turns 40 on January 11th. I’m so happy that we could do this for him and really celebrate him while we were home with everyone we love. I cannot thank everyone enough for the help, love and support surrounding this day.
It was unseasonably warm the first few days we were in Michigan. Warmer than it was in San Francisco in fact. That changed on December 30th and 31st when we had snow. I had a hair appointment on the 31st, and I woke up to fresh snow and crappy roads. I did not miss driving in the snow and ice.
For New Years Eve we did exactly what we wanted to do. We stayed in at a friends house with some close friends and their children. I purchased beverage glitter from an Instagram ad before our trip, and everyone loved it for New Years Eve. It looks better in white wine or rose if you want to try it.
The last few days of our trip were spent catching up with friends and visiting family one more time. We spent as much time as we could Downtown Flint. We shopped and ate the best nachos at XOLO (seriously, try them).
On January 3rd we packed our bags again to head home.
We made another overnight stop in Vegas to grab our car. This time the weather was nice and we could explore the strip. We had fun hanging out with friends, people watching, and walking around.
The next day we made the nine hour drive back to San Francisco. This time we got to see the other half of the trip in the daylight.
We finished our audio book, started another one, and enjoyed the views. I slept for a few hours, but Aaron enjoyed the view.
After two weeks away I have never been happier to see the Bay Bridge, or the view of the city.
We had so much fun on our trip, but we are so very happy to be home. Two weeks is a long time to be away and out of your routine. We almost felt like we were moving to San Francisco for the first time all over again we had been away so long. The kitties agree they never want us to leave for that long again.
What is the longest trip you have ever taken? How long before you are ready to come home from vacation?