Travel || Visiting my Nana in Weed, Ca

My dad sent a text to all his kids that our grandma was experiencing some health issues, which was a first for as far as I knew. I convinced my younger brother to a quick visit after work. We drove up Friday night, stayed in a hotel, then drove up to her house Saturday morning, then came back to the bay that night.

The trip was much shorter than I remember from my youth, it seemed to go on and on forever. Plus we did make some pit stops (which you would need to for a car full of six kids). Shane and I only made one stop for gas in Redding, then continued on. The trip took us about five and a half hours. We got to the hotel about 11 at night and were surprised to find the parking lot kind of full. I met a dog in the lobby named Bear going out for a late walk with his owner while I waited to get checked in.

And with my terrible directions, the lady at the desk said to go down the hall, then LEFT to our room, and we went down the hall and then RIGHT. It seemed like a weird long way to our room until we realized our mistake the next morning. Oy.

We got up at seven to start our day, and par for the course, I forgot something. My makeup bag! I don't normally wear makeup, but I was about to meet an aunt I hadn't seen in over twenty years and I wanted to make a good impression. Oh well.

Shane also commented that our room was kind of cold the night before (dude! should have just turned on the heat!) but it actually felt kind of cozy for me since my bedroom is such an icebox. The fact that a cheap hotel room where it actually snows was warmer than my own house is ridiculous. Shane also expressed this sentiment.

We pass by some hippies in the hallway going to their room with their breakfast, like they looked straight up plucked from Woodstock '69. But like, super young too. We check out and decided to go to Starbucks for breakfast since I had a gift card. We walked out of the hotel and I gasped. THE VIEW. IT WAS JUST SO AMAZING. I got so excited and asked Shane if we could go for a walk after breakfast. He was game, he loves going for walks. YAY BEST TRAVEL BUDDY. Our trip up was in complete darkness so I had no idea that this view was waiting for us.

We get our breakfast then walk about a bit while I take a million photos. We come across a few puddles that had iced over during the night and I had a blast crunching it to pieces. IT WAS SO HILARIOUS. My husband said I was ridiculous with my maniacal laughing. Why was it so funny? I couldn't tell you. Maybe the novelty of it all? I wasn't expecting to go walking about, so I just wore the same shoes I had been wearing the day before at work. I could tell Shane isn't normally aware of girls wearing heels and led us to a shortcut to the car which involved going down a steep dirt incline. I managed while he was like, well, why are you wearing those shoes anyway.

Also, the majesty of the mountains juxtaposed to Taco Bell was also amusing me.

We head to the floral shop to get something for our grandma, and I see this amazing mural that I JUST HAVE TO GET A PHOTO IN FRONT OF. Shane was super obliging and even took more than one photo. I offered to take his photo but he gave me a face like why would I want that.

The floral shop was closed, with a sign saying they would be back in ten, just making a delivery, so we walk about some more and take more photos. There were some people standing around our car, and I think this is when my boardgame and bag of gummy bears got stolen. I HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT GAME NIGHT. I didn't notice the items were missing until I got home late Saturday night and was trying to get all of my things out of the car. It was just my old credit card game of Life and some candy I got with a coupon so not a great loss. BUT STILL. I'm so glad we put our other stuff in the trunk, I would have been super bummed to lose my Kate Spade Weekender bag.

We also went into the souvenir shop because OH MY GOD HOW HAVE I NOT GOTTEN A WEED SHIRT UP UNTIL NOW! I also convinced Shane to buy a hoodie, even though he was reluctant, he ended up being pleased with his purchase. He doesn't really like buying clothes, but you can never have too many hoodies.

It was getting a little late now, so I call the number on the door to talk to the owner. She said she would be there in 3. No make that 5. Really, it was more like 15... But she arrived with two of her granddaughters and their dog named Sage and they were just so friendly and nice we didn't mind waiting. She put together a beautiful bouquet, even using foliage from her own yard to give it that local touch. Even Shane was engaging in conversation! And we found out that the Christmas season is super busy for her, she made about 3500 wreaths this year! She had to hire 10 extra people to help.

We now head up to our grandma's house, which was another fifteen minutes away. We get there and we find out that they weren't expecting us because they thought I canceled! When I called, they thought I would be traveling with Michelle, and then Michelle called and said she wouldn't make it Saturday. DOH. My Aunt also kept confusing me with my sister's name, even the next weekend when Michelle was able to make it. I know we do look a little similar but not that much.

It turns out it wasn't as awkward as we were expecting, and we had a great conversation with our Aunt. My nana seemed ill, but annoyed with being ill, so that was a good sign. We stayed a few hours then headed to our dad's, which was about an hour away but on the way home.

Conversation with my dad was great, but once his wife was in the mix, bleh. The fact I had a great time with a person I have never really talked to over this woman just speaks volumes. We had dinner with them then headed home.

I told Shane that we definitely need to do something like this again, it wasn't really that expensive or time-consuming. He only spent about 60 bucks in gas both ways, so he was super pleased over that. Though if we could avoid having to visit dad's wife that would be even better.

EDIT:
My nana has now sold her home after thirty some odd years and moved to Texas with her daughter/my aunt. I'm so glad that I "made" Shane go so that we could visit her and her home one last time! Texas is much farther so not sure how often we are going to manage that.