What a whirlwind of a month. As I sit here on my Eames lounger in our living room in Newport Coast its hard to imagine that on April 1st I was waving goodbye to Jenn and Elle at JFK for their flight to LAX right before cross country road trip began. We woke up early on the 1st to make sure Elle and Jenn were at JFK and ready to board their JetBlue Mint Flight to LAX at 8 AM. They got through security quickly and were off to their gate and ready to fly. Unfortunately their plane had mechanical issues and they had to wait for nearly 3-hours for a new plane before boarding and taking off to LAX. Elle did fantastic according to Jenn, falling asleep in her arms in the waiting area and again later on the flight. I’m so proud of both of them. We hired a driver to pick them up at LAX and drive them to our new townhouse in Newport Coast before Jenn took our new Volvo to her Dad and Joan’s to stay at for a few days.

Day 1: New York, NY to Newark, NJ

Distance: 17 miles
Listened To: Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad
Hotel: Renaissance Newark Airport Hotel

While they flew across the country, I had breakfast at the TWA Hotel before taking the subway back to Columbus Circle, grabbing one last coffee at Common Address, and turning in our keys at 21 West End. It felt surreal being in our empty apartment. I wrote this on my Instagram that day, but the change from home to apartment was stark. After turning in the keys, I grabbed our Mercedes from the garage for the last time, picked up Frasier at Camp Canine, and drove an hour out of the city to the Renaissance Newark Airport for our first road trip stop. Had I known how quickly everything would have gone I would have had us drive further out but it was good to get out of the city, grab a sandwich, and watch a movie before the big travel days began.

Day 2: Newark, NJ to Pittsburgh, PA

Distance: 362 miles
Listened To: Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad
Hotel: Pittsburgh Marriott City Center

Our first day of driving began on April 2nd when we got up early, got terrible coffee from the hotel, and drove to the Pittsburgh Marriott City Center. The drive started uneventfully but ended when we arrived in Pittsburgh with a massive hailstorm. It was so bad that we had to pull off to the side of the road and wait for it to pass. Fortunately, it did, and we arrived at the hotel where we stayed on the top floor. I had an interview that I took from the hotel room, and after Frasier and I went exploring for an hour before retiring for the evening, and having Indian food.

Day 3: Pittsburgh, PA to Cincinnati, OH

Distance: 288 miles
Listened To: I Who Never Knew Men by Jacqueline Harpman
Hotel: 21c Museum Hotel Cincinnati

Although it was a relatively short drive, the next day was the most challenging of the journey across the country. Not only did we hit rain for most of the drive, but nearly the entire time we were in Cincinnati, it was raining or threatening to rain. We arrived at the 21c Museum Hotel Cincinnati in the afternoon, walked around the hotel's art museum (which was beautiful), and walked around the nearby area.

Day 4: Cincinnati, OH to Louisville, KY to Kansas City, MO

Distance: 617 miles
Listened To: Lucky Loser by Michael Kosta
Hotel: The Westin Kansas City at Crown Center

The weather at the start of the trip turned out to be rough. We originally had planned to go to St Louis on Day 4 and then down to Oklahoma City after that (similar to our drive in 2021). However, given the bad weather system, we decided to make Day 4 one of the longest. I picked up Jake from his hotel in Louisville, where he had been training all week, before continuing to Kansas City, MO. The drive to Kansas City was in nonstop rain, sometimes to the point where it was hard to see. Thankfully, we arrived safely at the Westin Kansas City at Crown Center, went for a walk to stretch our legs, and had Eli’s BBQ delivered.

Day 5: Kansas City, MO to Denver, CO

Distance: 604 miles
Listened To: Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
Hotel: Renaissance Denver Downtown

Thankfully, the bad weather was behind us, and we had nearly as long a drive as yesterday. The drive from Kansas City to Denver was as dull as they come—flat open land for almost the entire drive. Fortunately, we arrived in Denver at 2 PM and were out walking a few minutes later. We stumbled into an anti-Trump protest that was happening near the State Capitol. It was inspiring to see everyone there protesting peacefully and respectfully. From there, we snuck Frasier into Great Divide Brewing, where we both got a beer before returning to the hotel and having Chapala Mexican Restaurant delivered. It was a bit cold still in Denver, so even when I took Frasier for his evening walk, it felt like it might snow.

Day 6: Denver, CO to Saint George, UT

Distance: 630 miles
Listened To: Verity by Colleen Hoover
Hotel: The Advenire Hotel

Today, the longest and most scenic drive is from Denver, Colorado, to Saint George, Utah. After almost freezing to death taking Frasier out this morning, we left Denver quite early and made our way towards Saint George, Utah. Thankfully, we missed the most recent snowstorm and didn’t have to worry about chains. But I’ll never forget stopping to get Starbucks and driving through the majestic Rockies full of snow, even in April. We stopped in Utah at a beautiful lookout point to stretch our legs and finally made it to Saint George a little after 3 PM and checked into The Advenire. We were underwhelmed after everyone said how beautiful Saint George was, but we walked around town, had beers at the hotel, and enjoyed the warm dry weather.

Day 7: Saint George, UT to Newport Beach, CA

Distance: 397 miles
Listened To: The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

We woke up leisurely this morning and didn’t leave Saint George, Utah, until 7 AM. We grabbed coffee from a coffee shop around the corner and headed home. Jake drove back, stopping outside Vegas for Taco Bell and Victorville for Del Taco. This was the first traffic we hit on the entire trip, but eventually we made it to Santa Ana to drop Jake off at his apartment, and Frasier and I made our way to our new home. We met Elle and Jenn at the house, and I instantly fell in love, as did Frasier. It was a beautiful, at times stressful drive across the country, but I think we all loved it.

After I got to walk through our Town House for the first time we drove our new Volvo to The Pendry where we’d be staying for the next two days while we waited for our move to be delivered. We were so fortunate as they upgraded us into a beautiful suite overlooking our old apartment. It was the best setup we could have possibly asked for with both Frasier and Elle in a hotel room.

The following two days went by quickly. The next morning, I met Jake for tennis at Newport Beach Tennis Club, which we had joined for the first time. It was surreal to be back in California and to know this is where we live again, to be able to just get in the car and play tennis on a beautiful Tuesday morning. We started to get the house ready with the items that we had recently purchased and met Jake for dinner at The Pendry’s restaurant.

On April 9th (nine days after they picked up our belongings in New York), the moving crew delivered our boxes and furniture in perfect working order. We were so grateful for the early arrival of our furniture (which could have arrived up to a week later) and for being able to start settling into this beautiful home. The move was very efficient. By lunchtime, they were done, and it was left to Jenn and me to do the heavy lifting. Just like packing, we underestimated how difficult it is to do with a dog and a 10-month-old. But we persevered and pushed hard (especially the first few nights) to wash all the dishes and unpack the boxes. Jenn had to have made a dozen trips to the recycling center to dispose of all the boxes in the first week of moving in.

But slowly, the house started to come together. We haven’t lived in a house in a decade (2015), so the adjustment did take some getting used to. Fortunately, Jenn picked a great home for our family to rent, and both Frasier and Elle seem to love it here. Jenn had a few different contractors come while we were driving across the country, so by the weekend, we were getting settled and watching Rory win the Masters. One of the big pushes for us to move back to California was to be closer to family and we did a great job in the first few weeks of being back of doing that. Jake came by often, so too did Amy and Ryan and their kids, as well as Jenn’s cousin Holly. Jenn’s Dad and Joan were also by to help with some of the unpacking and to spend time with Elle.

I took Elle to Riverside to spend time with her cousins and grandparents. She was a little nervous at first when she got there but warmed up as the day went by. The next day, the family went to Menifee for a late Passover and early Easter. What a weird sentence. All of Elle’s cousins, aunts, and Uncles were there. It was a nice visit, and Elle did spectacularly. She liked playing with Abby and Gracie, who never left her side.

The next day was Easter, and Jenn went all out to ensure that Elle had a great first visit from the Easter bunny. We started out the day by going to the earliest Easter service at Mariners. Jenn looked radiant in a beautiful beige dress. We put Elle down for a nap when we got home from Church while Jenn (and the Easter bunny) did a great job setting out a simple Easter egg hunt for Elle and Frasier. It was a beautiful Easter day, and Elle and Frasier enjoyed it. Jenn’s Dad and Joan came over for brunch, where we popped not one but two bottles of champagne.

The last weekend of the month came, and we went down to Menifee so Elle could spend a few hours with my parents while we went to Bottatia Winery to celebrate Jake’s 34th birthday. It was an overcast Sunday, but we all enjoyed wine flights and a charcuterie board while Elle had a blast with her grandparents.

One of my favorite memories of our first month back in California came on the second-to-last day of the month. Elle and I grabbed Flame Broiler and met Jenn and Frasier in her office for lunch. Jenn has a beautiful office in Fashion Island, about twice the size she had in New York. We were able to all enjoy lunch as a family together on a random Tuesday, something we’ve never done in Elle’s lifetime, and something Jenn and I have rarely done. That evening, we had dinner with Jake at the tennis club. Hopefully, we have a lot more days like this in the future.

We closed out the month celebrating Jake’s official birthday. He came by that morning after a round of tennis and joined Amy, her kids, and my parents. We all went to the park across the street from our house and had Shake Shack delivered. That evening we went out with Jake and Holly to celebrate his birthday at Vaca. It’s still easily one of the best restaurants in the OC and proved it again this evening. And that closed out April—what a wonderfully weird and tiring month. We moved across the country. We spent a lot of time with family. And we are doing our best to get used to this new phase of our life, however long it lasts.

TV WE WATCHED

We didn’t have a TV for the first few weeks of our move to California because we didn’t have a TV hooked up. Not to mention, we were so tired from getting through all of the boxes that by the time Elle was asleep, we were too. However, come mid-April, we started to catch up on some of our favorites, including the end of the third season of The White Lotus (great again), the final season of The Righteous Gemstones (running out of steam), and the fourth season of Hacks.

We also started two new shows this month. Paraidse is a very over-the-top show that’s entertaining and often a bit over the top. And our new favorite show, The Studio, which we love.

BOOKS I READ (OR LISTENED TO)

I did a glance back at past monthly posts, and I don’t think I’ve ever read eight books in a month. I listened to five of the eight books during the cross-country trip, which was still quite an accomplishment. The first book of the month was my favorite, Between Two Kingdoms. The beautiful memoir of Suleika Jaouad was about her journey not only through cancer but also through life. I found her narration, her writing, and her story to be one of the most heart-wrenching and moving things I’ve ever read.

From there, the journey across the country started. I’m not sure why I did. Who Have Never Known Men to start, but I did, and it’s a very dark and short novel about women held in captivity. From there, I picked up Jake, and we started our first audiobook for the drive together, Lucky Loser, a very funny and entertaining look at his time on the tennis Challenger circuit. We both love tennis and his comedy, so this was the perfect book to start our drive together. I chose Me Talk Pretty One Day for the next day of driving from Kansas City to Denver. I love Sedaris, and this was another brilliant and biting book, featuring a random assortment of stories that I devoured.

The most awkward book of the drive was Verity by Colleen Hoover. A very sexually explicit book had us laughing pretty well for most of the drive to Utah. On the final day of driving, we went the opposite direction and listened to The Five People You Meet in Heaven. I had such high hopes for the book. It had moments of brilliance, but I don’t think it was as good as some of his other books.

That concluded our cross-country audiobook tour. My first book in California was Maybe You Should Talk to Somebody. It’s been on my to-read list for a long, long time. I’m not sure what stopped me in the past, but it was a fun read about the ups and downs of the author’s life (Lori Gottlieb) and her patients. The month concluded with This Is How It Always Is, a brilliant book about a family with five sons, but their youngest is trans. It’s as much about the family as the community around her. I loved this book and shed a few tears at the end.

MOVIES WE WATCHED

The one movie I watched this month was Here with Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. Frasier and I watched it from the Renaissance Newark Hotel before embarking on our cross-country drive. It was poetic that I watched this movie right before a cross-country move, given that the central conceit of the film is that it takes place from one fixed location within a home. I didn’t think it was a perfect movie but I really enjoyed it and found it quite moving.

GAMES I'VE BEEN PLAYING

I didn’t play any video games for the first half of the month, but when we finally got the TV mounted in our third bedroom, I dove headfirst into Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, which will likely be on my list for the rest of the year. It was a slow burn at first, but now I’m fully into it and can’t wait to play more.