Latest / Just Us Sisters / Episode 27: Traveling Together

Transcript

Episode 27: Traveling Together · Just Us Sisters

• speaker-0: Welcome to the Just A Sisters Podcast. Life doesn't come with a manual. So we made a podcast. Welcome to Just Us Sisters Podcast. I'm Susan Allen, the host for today. This is episode 27, Traveling Together. And I want to introduce my sisters, Cheryl, the second one, Shelly, the third. And Stacy the Fourth. We just recently came off of a trip together to California. It was actually a trip that we gave my parents for Christmas, and it included our husbands and both my parents. And we asked them what they wanted to do, and they said they wanted to take a train trip and they wanted to see family out in California that they had not seen in a while. So Gears started going and Shelley found an Amtrak train route along the Pacific Ocean and it went out of Los Angeles into San Luis. Obispo and it worked out perfectly because my parents had family outside of Los Angeles to see and it was a part of their bucket list. So we wanted to talk about that. But the last time we traveled together was 2017 when we took a cruise out of California. And do y'all remember where we where we went? There you go. speaker-3: Sonata. We went to the the island that's named after speaker-4: Yeah. speaker-0: Catalina, okay. So 2017, so it's been nine years since we last all traveled together. We get together, but the I'm talking about traveling together. I wanted to ask you girls what the most memorable part of the trip was for you. speaker-3: want to say the whole trip was something that we made memories the whole time but seeing mom and dad with their cousins and they're all around the same age and I don't know that just hit me. It could be the last time that they see each other. And and I loved how they caught up and talked and and just showed each other that they love each other. That's the biggest part That I took away. speaker-4: I think like what Stacy said, there were so many wonderful things that we did and we could p probably pick the you know, everything we did as our memorable but I will have to say we were on that train and Susan says, my gosh, y'all, look at dad and he was up on the chair because there wasn't any available on that side like a little kid watching out the window and everything the coastline and all the The beaches and palm trees, seeing dad watching like a little boy was that was funny. speaker-1: Just literally being with my parents, my sisters, their husbands and my husband and us just being together. We could have been doing anything, honestly, because I enjoy getting together with family like that and not that I don't enjoy trips when we include kids, but the ones with just the adults is particularly special because we can just have a good time together. speaker-0: Well Cheryl answered one of the questions about favorite moment, watching mom and dad. Does anyone else have a favorite moment? speaker-3: Yeah, the one that Cheryl just shared and then and then just watching them with their cousins. That hit me. I that got all my feels going. speaker-0: Cheryl took a picture of mom and dad sitting on that bench at the Pacific Ocean, just looking out. And that will be a very special picture to me. I feel like on the train was number one. But watching them just, you know, just take it all in was a sweet moment. speaker-1: We'd have to be dad getting up in the morning, going out on the back porch of our rental and listening to the geese. speaker-2: You speaker-1: he seemed to really enjoy that. He'd watch fly in at night, in the morning, he'd come in every time and just say, I just can't believe those keys. speaker-4: Yeah. Yeah, he he's on Sunday morning he said, this bunch over here is is gathering for church and I think this group over here overslept and they partied too much. He had it all figured out. speaker-0: So what do y'all think mom and dad enjoyed most? I know we know what y'all but what do you think mom and dad I think just being with all of us they love that time. It's it's very precious and and they don't get that very oft with all of us. So I I think that was being with family was something they enjoyed. speaker-3: I agree. I think the things that we experienced, the different food that we ate, I just think they soaked all of that in and enjoyed our time. speaker-4: They're still talking about it. You know, I'll go over 'cause I go over there and swim. And mom will come out there and and she goes right back to the trip ba talking about something. speaker-0: Did y'all notice anything about them that you had not noticed before while we were on the trip? Well speaker-1: I'm around them twenty-four seven and I find that those of you that aren't around them as much notice bigger changes in them when you see them, especially physically. You know, we kind of just guided this. I sent mom the itinerary, she subsequently put it in a safe place and left it there. Yeah. And I found that she really likes to know what's going on because The entire time I would tell her what we were getting ready to do and thirty minutes later she would ask me, Now what what is it that we're gonna be doing? So that kind of surprised me a little bit that she wasn't just kind of going with the flow. speaker-4: Mom surprised me. She was getting in and out of that van like a champ. I'm telling you, she a lot better than I was getting in and out. So usually I have to get under her and kind of give her a little shove. Not this time. I'd goose her every once in while, but she was just jumping up in there and no no problem. speaker-3: You know, they didn't nap much either. They were speaker-0: They did not. speaker-3: ready to go anytime it was time. The only time was when we took the drive and stayed in Los Angeles that night. They needed, you know, a little break. But other than that, they were ready to go. speaker-1: Yeah, they didn't want to miss out on anything. speaker-4: No, no matter fact, they were a little bit like where'd y'all go when we w we went to the observatory? They were a little bit like, we didn't get to go to that and that's a I barely could make it with all the walking. It would have been a lot. But by golly, they almost went up to the roof of that hotel. speaker-0: Yes, they did. speaker-1: text going on including my parents and they were at the hotel resting and we sent a text telling the other part of our group that we were on the roof. Well that's about the time mom and dad woke up and they said we're on our way and we were like no no don't don't go to the roof don't go to the roof speaker-4: Don't go to the hotel roof. Nobody's there. That was funny. speaker-0: Was there any other funny moments? I don't remember laughing as much as I did. I felt like I was constantly laughing. speaker-3: I know, but I think it was just about everything, you know? speaker-4: The funniest thing to me now this is about me when we walked into that second Airbnb and I went over to the A C 'cause I'm a I need A C and I was moving it around and I was like, Shelly, I think this A C's broken. And so she called the lady and she says, we don't have AC. We have heat and I I almost not started crying because that'd be so speaker-3: Again. speaker-4: sure. But I I almost thought Okay, am I gonna need to go get a hotel? But it it it ended up being fifty eight degrees at night. We just opened those windows and doors and let it come through. speaker-3: I think one of the funniest things was our first Airbnb though. yeah. The rules I I still refer back to them. You know, the rules the it had to have been eight pages long and we were all afraid to do anything. Yeah. Don't turn the T V up. speaker-0: Don't touch anything. speaker-3: Don't move the remote. speaker-1: I never have left as low a score on an Airbnb rating as I left for that house. speaker-3: Nice one. speaker-1: The house was beautiful. It was a beautiful home, but my gosh, we were frozen in fear of breaking one of the rules which would result in a five hundred dollar fine. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-4: Yeah. speaker-3: Broken. Yeah. You bought insurance, right? speaker-1: Yeah. The thing is and one of the things I put in my rating, you know, they wanted us to turn the air completely off if we went somewhere. So we speaker-3: In the day. speaker-1: in and we came home and it was eighty one degrees upstairs and we were ready to go to bed. And I put in my comments, you realize keeping a house at an even temperature is far less expensive than rehe cooling it every time you walk in. So that was just bizarre. It finally did get cool and that was good. And the beds were comfortable to be on the positive side. Yeah. Except Stacy's which they considered a non sleeper sofa, a bed, which speaker-4: It's all speaker-1: are in like comments. speaker-3: A modular that has the speaker-1: Yeah. It it was it was not one of my finer moments, but it has taught me to read the details. Well, actually I couldn't have read the details because they weren't in there. I went back and checked. speaker-4: Wow. What did they rate you? speaker-1: I haven't got a rating from speaker-0: Nor was there not a de detail about no A C speaker-1: Well, the funny thing about that is the RBO lets you reply to someone's comment and she replied back to me, I'm sorry you were unable to read the listing that says very plainly there's no AC and that the fifth bedroom is a den attached to the kitchen. And I know for a fact it did not say that when we booked it, but she went back She still didn't add the AC part. That's still not in her listing. But she went back and put that there's no walls to the fifth bedroom attached speaker-4: she did. speaker-1: to the kitchen. And I just thought speaker-4: Have you a good writing? speaker-1: you little booger. She gave I gave her a four and she gave us a five. So speaker-4: Well, speaker-3: On that one, you you and Andy slept in the kitchen pretty much. So any and any time anybody woke up early, like Cheryl, took speaker-4: Hey, I was kinda quiet. speaker-3: Yeah, you were. I don't know. I was upstairs in the speaker-0: You were in the attic. speaker-4: It reminded me of what's that that little not Cinderella, but the one they had up there away from everybody. speaker-0: But you weren't on multiple mattresses. No speaker-1: Well she she was in the taco mattress. speaker-4: Taco matches. I think y'all need to tell the audience that Casey didn't get to go. speaker-3: Yeah. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-4: And it was it was really tough on Stacey. speaker-3: It was. That was a long time to be away. speaker-1: Well and we missed him. The whole point was for all of us to be together and it just happened at the very end he was not able to do that and it was disappointing because we were looking forward to him being there and all of us being together. Yeah. speaker-4: Job vacation. Hmm. Get paid. He made yeah, he made the right decision, but we did miss him. speaker-3: Yeah. speaker-0: Did so what were and and that was one of my answers to one of the challenges that we have in traveling together is schedules. I mean it took us a while just to come up with that schedule. We're all in different kind of seasons of life and we just have a lot of schedules to work around. So I feel like that's one of the challenges of traveling together. Can y'all think of any others that we have? speaker-1: Coming from two originating airports does complicate things, but it is what it is. But I felt like we did pretty good in our early arrival we went and got the rentals and even went to breakfast and then by then Susan and Tom had had gotten in, gotten their luggage, and we swooped in and picked them up. So, you know, coordinating that can be difficult, but it is doable. That's the good thing. speaker-3: And I got to win thirteen hundred dollars. speaker-0: While waiting while waiting on us to fly in. speaker-3: Yeah. speaker-4: But that reminds me of something. That was one of my favorite things was that little lunch our second lunch. at that little place. What was that called? speaker-0: I think it was LaCrace, La Creeze, Lacrease, something like that. speaker-4: Like that. Yeah. speaker-0: Yes, got to talk to them and they really seemed to have an interest in in us and we told them that we would do a shout out to them. speaker-4: Yes. He was the one that told us you've got to go to Morrow Bay. speaker-0: Yeah, yes. And Mara Rock, yes. Otherwise we would not have gone there. And that was beautiful, beautiful. Matter of fact, that's was my favorite adventure part. any other challenges? Did any of you think personalities were a challenge? speaker-3: No. No. No. the one I think the biggest challenge we had was the first morning at that house with no air conditioner and the coffee maker didn't work. speaker-0: yes. speaker-3: Well, I think that was our biggest challenge. So that says a lot about the trip. speaker-4: We all had a lot of coffee grinds in our teeth. speaker-0: At the the the last house when that coffee maker didn't speaker-4: yeah, that that too. speaker-1: even have coffee for a courage at the first house. speaker-4: that's right. And that I went to that Lowe's grocery shop and bought that pie. speaker-1: What I learned about my sisters and brothers in law is they don't I just I knew they loved coffee, but it's an addiction. They don't function without their coffee. And that was a big eye opener 'cause I was What you know, what's the big deal? We'll get coffee later. Nope, nope. First thing they've gotta have their coffee to function. speaker-0: Yes, absolutely. Or Susan. speaker-1: Did you find there to be conflicts with personalities? speaker-0: I I just saw some s dominating personalities and especially when it came time to pick out a place to eat. speaker-3: You, you were the dominant speaker-0: In Japanese town in Los Angeles, speaker-4: Yeah. speaker-0: someone who will not be mentioned said, Let's go to American Grill something or another and we were like, What? We're in Japan town. We're not gonna go to American Grill. speaker-3: Japan down it's speaker-4: Little speaker-1: Tokyo. speaker-0: Yeah, there you go. speaker-3: That was our challenge. None of us could remember little Tokyo. We kept calling it speaker-0: But no, I I just feel like that it's interesting while we traveled how some slip into their birth order personalities. You know, to me, Cheryl doesn't like conflict, so there's never gonna be anything, you know, not coming out of her that's gonna cause conflict. gets speaker-4: Except for if I don't like something to eat. speaker-0: Yeah. And Stacey gets all the leftovers. speaker-4: Well she did this time for sure. speaker-3: I was good with it. speaker-4: You were very f I would flexible. Very flexible. Shelley, what I saw was did a wonderful job organizing the trip. Susan, you were batting one thousand on all the restaurant picks. I th I speaker-1: You made it. speaker-3: Mm. Madonna in Madonna. speaker-4: And yeah, that one. But okay, so w you missed one out of all speaker-3: It was mine. She took the heat for me. we had those can't miss out on the champagne cake or something. Yeah. Yeah. And it's not anything when we went. speaker-0: And what was it like a hundred dollars? Yeah. speaker-4: Yeah, if you wanted to buy that cake, it was a hundred bucks. Or you could have a slice for fifteen dollars. speaker-1: Or your breakfast cost ninety. speaker-3: Yeah. speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-3: my pancakes were wrong. speaker-0: Yeah and Stacy and my pancakes were raw. speaker-3: Yeah. speaker-0: Well speaking of meals, what was your favorite? What was the best meal and would others d agree or disagree with it? speaker-3: So I'm gonna start this because I have a couple but when we were in Little Tokyo we did a little I don't wanna call it bar hopping, but we went to multiple restaurants that night because we were waiting on Shelly and Andy and Johnny to get back they dropped the rental car off. Mm-hmm. And mom and dad went with us and we had a little bit of things from each one and it was amazing. What an amazing experien as well. Just food that you don't n normally eat. Love that. And then I'm I'm sure that my second favorite is right there with you. speaker-0: Yeah, my favorite was the Luna Red. Everything that I'd read, chat, GPT, Yell, everyone had said Luna Red. And it was just a sweet outdoor patio, delicious food. Tom and I had something that we had never had before. And sweet, sweet waiter. Yeah. speaker-1: Look like Timothy Chalamet. speaker-3: And he wanted to get speaker-0: And yeah, he wanted to go to Baylor but didn't, so speaker-4: The bitch y'all had, Susan was called Paella or something like that. speaker-0: Yeah, and had all kinds of seafood. Best delicious ever yes. Yes. speaker-4: Street tacos were amazing. Yeah. speaker-0: What about your biggest adventure? speaker-3: the e bikes for sure. speaker-4: Definitely. Even though I wrecked and we got separated from the rest of the group, it was a lot of fun. speaker-3: Two. speaker-0: Tom speaker-4: But but the group stayed with you. speaker-3: Yeah, I've speaker-0: Well she was with the group. speaker-4: We couldn't get our bill. We won't go there. That was funny though. That's the first time I've ever listened to Andy tell me what to do. speaker-3: And you still got lost. speaker-4: I said Andy, what should we do? And he he got his phone out. So we're gonna go over here, two streets over, take a look I said, Okay, I'll follow you. speaker-1: Did that mom and dad and I went sightseeing and we saw some of the most incredible views. We stayed a little longer than they did at each of the places and Morrow Rock being one of the speaker-4: Yeah. speaker-1: state park, that the top of my gosh, you'll see pictures from from some of those views that were just phenomenal. speaker-3: It was Black Diamond Mountain. I don't think it is the same as snow skiing, but it was hard to speaker-0: To ride up. It was. Yeah. Too bad you missed that, Cheryl. Was there anything that happened that was an unexpected moment? I will tell you mine while y'all are all seem to be thinking. And that was on the last night we were just sitting in the living room of the VRBO and we just started a conversation about I mean, it wasn't planned, it wasn't something it was very unexpected to me. And it we talked about death and being prepared and mom and dad being prepared. And you know, just what they want at their funerals. And even though y it might sound, you know, like a morbid conversation, honestly to me it was very freeing because it was good for me to hear what they had to say. That they do seem to have things in order and the things that they didn't have in order, we were able to say, get these things in order. Yeah. speaker-3: They didn't push back at all. speaker-0: No and really I did not even expect us to go into that conversation at all, really. But I'm so glad that we did. And it was not just a ten minute, you know, get on the subject and get off of it. It was almost an hour and a half, you know, conversation. speaker-4: Well yeah. speaker-1: May I thought it was unplanned, but it was actually very planned on my part because it was important for me to get y'all together and hear their wishes so that we all are on the same page when that time comes. And I figured I had a captive audience, so that was the time to do it because we were unable to get together prior to that. And it was important and I think that it was very beneficial and fruitful in in how it went about. speaker-4: It was good for me because every time that either one of you know, start talking about death, I get all you know, why do we have to talk about that? And you know, they're got it together. They're they're not afraid of death, which we shouldn't be because we know where where we're going. But it made me like calm down a lot about and heck, I'll probably go before they do anyway, so it doesn't really matter. But it was good. speaker-0: So if we took this trip again, is there anything that you would do differently? speaker-3: Yeah, I'd bring my husband. speaker-4: Extend it a couple of days 'cause I really feel like we missed out on seeing family Brandon and Holly and all the kids. I was like, I'm and Tammy and Keith. Yeah. And I was like, Golly, I wish we could have seen But it worked out the way it was supposed to. but I think a couple more days. I don't know, Susan, could you have handled a couple more? Nope. Thank you for your honesty. speaker-0: No, I I I mean, I love traveling and I love being with my family. But I I think I was ready to be home. I mean you know, the good thing was Cheryl and I didn't have a lot of work. I don't know about you Stacy. Normally when we take vacation there's a lot of work going on during my vacation and I'm having to write contracts or you know, and I was having to be on the phone a couple of times but nothing like I was concerned about. But I think probably the only thing I would do differently is kind of either know ahead of time or set a cost limit like a you know hey we'll pay the first thousand dollars or something you know just and because I had no idea what we're gonna we were gonna be I I had no idea what to be putting aside you know for a trip and I'm budget oriented and so when I'm like by the time I got done I was like I have no idea how much we're I don't know if we're gonna owe five hundred dollars or ten thousand dollars you You know. So I think that would be the only thing that I would do differently is kinda say, Hey, we wanna take y'all on a trip and we're gonna cover the first block, you know, from that. speaker-4: And I agree, except for I have to honestly say you can't put a price on what we got to experience with them at that trip, but I'm not saying that like speaker-1: I don't know. speaker-0: No no, I'm not saying that I would the only thing I would do to I'd do the same trip, but it would be good to know financially what we're committing to ahead of time. So that it's not any, you know speaker-1: Yeah, we were about two hundred and fifty over what I estimated, but my gosh, between gas and the speaker-0: And California. speaker-1: cost was so different than what I anticipated and that's probably what made up the difference right there. speaker-0: Well the cost of eating out is ridiculous. speaker-3: We ate out every meal, which is very odd for us. But yeah, I mean twice pretty much twice a day I think we'd skip lunch. But speaker-4: Different from when we were growing up as kids, we never ate out on that trash. speaker-3: Practice lunches, I was expecting to go to the store and have sandwich bread and bologna. speaker-0: Yeah. So even when we go on our national park trips, we eat breakfast at the VRVO and we pack our lunch for our hikes and the only meal we eat out is night. and so, you know, it makes a little bit speaker-3: were our best meals. And I can't say anything 'cause I was just along for the ride. I didn't know where we were going, how long we were gonna stay, where we were speaker-0: Okay, Mamma Law. speaker-3: I was just speaker-4: You didn't know you're gonna be in a taco bed with no milk. speaker-1: She didn't she was opposite of Mammal. She literally went along for the ride. Yeah. And such a trooper. I I do wanna just reiterate what a trooper Stacy was because in the two bad instances she got the shaft and that was unfortunate. speaker-0: I w I would have loved to have seen Casey on that first one. speaker-3: No, it was it was the second one that speaker-0: I'm gonna throw this last question out. What is the one thing about our family that you were reminded of on this trip? speaker-4: Very unique family. Yeah. Take that however you want. speaker-3: Yeah. Just how much we get along and you know, we were all in it for the time. Nobody complained except for coffee and air conditioning, I think. But just that's amazing. speaker-0: Yeah, yeah. speaker-1: I mean it just reiterated that we really do enjoy being around each other, and I hope that never changes. Even when mom and dad are gone and you know, we become the matriarchs. I hope that that continues and we make that effort. speaker-3: Well, I sent y'all a thing already. We need to go to Nashville or something. Start planning. speaker-4: We gotta save some money first. speaker-0: I love I do. I love that you could tell that we love spending time together. And even as we met people, just being able to share that we were family and doing this together was a a very, very unique and sweet time with y'all and you know, but one thing I did realize about our the the women in our home were very strong personalities with our husbands. And I didn't realize that. I mean, it was interesting to watch that. speaker-3: So my my big realization is we could have been the get go commercial about when you become your I'm speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-3: telling you we had every commercial that they've made we went real life. speaker-1: One thing I did want to note though, if you remember back in 2017, mom was in far better shape this trip than she was in that trip. I speaker-4: Yes. speaker-1: had to push her all over in a wheelchair there, and we brought the wheelchair to be on the safe side, and we used it one time, and that was just because Susan and Tom wanted to get somewhere quickly and put her in it and took off. But otherwise we didn't even get that thing out. And I was so proud of her and the work that she's done to to get in better shape. speaker-3: Please plan amazing. speaker-0: And that encouraged me to keep staying in shape in order to travel and do those things. Because if you're not, it it makes it very difficult to get around. It does. So well this has been an amazing time just to re recap, remember our last trip together. It hasn't been that long. We've already forgot of the names of the places, but it's been fun to just sit here and and share with you guys. Next week on episode number 28 we are going to be talking about hobbies so if you have any hobbies we would love to hear about them or if you've taken any trips with your family and they've been great trips and you've enjoyed them please share with us we're always open to hearing what other people are doing with their parents or with their kids so thank you for joining us and just remember that life is meaningful messy and better when shared don't forget to like Yes. speaker-4: Share speaker-3: And subscribe. speaker-0: Bye.