Trip To Bako

It was a dark and stormy night...ok, so it was a beautiful sunny Saturday morning around 10am. We set sail for Bakersfield where Elanor planned on staying all week long to prepare for Becky's(Rory's mom) baby Shower. Wilken became sleepy 3 miles after starting the journey and was fast asleep for over 2 1/2 hours when firetrucks starting passing us on the freeway (actually, we were passing them because it was uphill on the freeway, but that's beside the point. Plus other people did it first!). Within the next few minutes, we saw smoke. What kind of smoke you ask? Well, we weren't exactly sure and it was the last thing on our minds as Ryan was for some reason trying to test the car's fuel economy (ever see that Seinfeld episode?). There was smoke, a baby crying in the back seat, 12 miles to go before we ran out of gas, traffic slowing to a halt, and had been over 20 miles since we saw a gas station. The anxiety in Elanor's voice, face, and language was starting to show...especially since she had strongly urged Ryan to stop for gas nearly 30 miles earlier in the trip, when Wilken was still asleep, and not screaming with hunger.

Luckily, we pulled into the gas station with 6 miles to spare (plenty, says Ryan) only to find out that the fire (whose smoke now seemed right above us) has taken out the electricity of the entire town and the closest working gas station was 27 miles behind us! To make a long story short, we were at the gas station for over 1 1/2 hours before electricity was restored. Wilken was very calm, even chipper, and was the hit of all the poor suckers at the gas station who had no where to go because they were running on fumes as well. The freeway ended up being closed for over 6 hours due to a grass fire. In fact, we saw flames on the hill overlooking the gas station.

So, even though we were 30 miles from the lap of luxury in Bakersfield, we had to back track and take alternate freeways taking us 3 more hours to get to Bubie & Grandpa's house. Over the river and through the woods is right! The trip to Bako took 7 hours (10am to 5pm) and the last hour Wil just about had it (crying uncontrollably). Needless to say, once we got settled, we were happy to finally reach our destination although it took Wil a bit to acclimate to the new surroundings. Here's a view of his pouty lip once the cries subsided.
Once in Bakersfield, Elanor was hard at work getting Wil to adjust to the new surroundings.
A vacation from her daily routine? I think not. It was a little tougher than she thought but was grateful to have Bubie & Grandpa there to take turns holding their grandson. Wilken decided that the new surroundings were entirely different and not at all enjoyable the first few days as he stared in confusion at his surroundings and decided to forgoe sleep for the week for the most part. Naps were reduced to 20-30 minute sessions and he decided it would be fun to wake up mom every couple of hours at night just to see if she still had it in her. It took quite a bit of convincing to get him down for the night, but Bubie had the "sleep dance" down and almost everytime she danced with Wilken he would be asleep within 10 minutes.

Elanor spent the week in Bakersfield preparing for the shower with Julie (Aden's mom), while Ryan returned home for a short work week (and a few movies!) only to return again the following Thursday.

The shower for Becky went great! Here is a snap shot of the Bakersfield crew...
We even followed up the festivities with a Greek Festival in downtown Bakersfield!

Then entire trip was fun and Wilken made a lot of improvements in both his attention, play, and even rolled over once (we're certain on accident as he hasn't done so again).