Mother Daughter Trip

When I was younger my mother and I would go on little mini-vacations, day or weekend trips. I remember one time when I was a teenager probably around 15 or so, my mom surprised me with a trip to Knotts Berry Farm in California. She tricked me into going to the airport really early in the morning one Saturday.

She told me that she had to go pick something up from the airport, that a friend was bringing it back from wherever they were coming from. So she tells me that we have to go to the airport at like 6 am on a Saturday, and I say to her, "Why do I have to go?"

"Please come with me, I don't want to go by myself."

"Fine I'll go, since it looks like I don't really have a choice."

I get dressed, in nothing I would normally be caught dead in, I figured what's the point I'm not impressing anyone. I didn't even brush my hair, I just put on a scarf on my head. My mother sees what I'm wearing and says, "Why don't you put something a little nicer?"

"Why its not like I'm going to see anyone, come on its early."

"Here why don't you put this on, and why not put on some jeans and wear your sneakers."

By now you would think I would've had some clue, but nope I'm 15 and it's early and I'm cranky.

"Fine, whatever." I reply, grabbing the sweater from her and putting on jeans.

I remember getting into the car, and having a serious attitude, huffing and puffing, rolling my eyes, and trying to sleep. We get to the airport, my mom parks the car and we go to the gate to wait for this person. Remember this is when you could still go to the gate even if you didn't have a ticket. So we're sitting there for about 15 minutes and then I realize, wait, we are waiting to board aren't we, we're not waiting for someone to get a package. So I look at my mom, trying to still be all teenage angst, "Are we going somewhere?" I ask trying to not smile.

My mom smiles at me, and says, "I was wondering when you'd figure it out, yes we are going on a day trip to somewhere fun."

Now I'm all excited, "Where are we going?", I see that the plane is going to Los Angeles and say, "Are we going to Disneyland?"

My mother just looks at me and says, "You'll see, now are you in a better mood."

The frown is now turned into, curiosity and wonder. Where is this woman taking me, I try to get her to tell me, but she doesn't budge. Nope she doesn't tell me, and just about this time I realized I'm not exactly dressed to be out in public, where there could be cute guys or people that might see me. (I know I was at the airport but who cares about them, we're going to California who knows who might see me there). I go to the bathroom and try to fix myself up somewhat, not exactly what I would've worn if I knew but that's okay. I was never one to be a fashion queen, still not.

We board the plane and the flight from Phoenix to LA is about an hour or so, it is a quick flight. We get off, get the car and off we go. We drive and I start to see the signs that say Knotts Berry Farm, turn here, turn there... I think to myself, "we're going to a farm, ehhhh boring." What I didn't realize though was this was an amusement park. Yeah there was a "farm" there but there was so much more to do then that. Like this


and this


We arrive and I realize that this is going to be a fun trip and it was. My mom and I used to do these Mother Daughter trips every so often, just the two of us. Well most of the time it was just the two of us, she was a single mother who tried her best to make some great memories and special times. (I am the only on my mother's side and the oldest on my father's.) I love those times we spent together and I love that now that I'm older we are more then just mother and daughter we are friends. We are going to Mystic, CT this weekend for a special Mother's Day trip and we cannot wait. We both need a little mini-vacation. We are going to go to the original Mystic Pizza and trying a "Slice of Heaven"


I can't wait, we are going to check out the Sea Aquarium they are famous for, and we might just ride over to Essex, CT to check out the steam train and riverboat. But we are also just going to relax too, take a book and sit on the pier and read. I promise to take lots of pictures and write about our trip.

Happy Early Mother's Day, Mom! Thanks for always being there for me and thanks for letting me be me. I love you.