This was the big weekend in the Glynn house as we said goodbye to Kira, loaded up her stuff and headed to Santa Barbara to
start college at the University of
California at Santa Barbara (
UCSB).
Kira did a great job packing up all her stuff. As you can see from the back of the car photo, everything fit in with room to spare. Her room is now nearly bare, with most of the stuff heading off to UCSB, a couple of boxes to the garage, and a couple of bags to the garbage. Dianne has threatened to make her room into a reading or playroom, but Kira wants a shrine built in her memory. Time will tell.
The drive down was pretty uneventful. We headed out Friday morning with Conner and Parker thrilled to be missing a day of school. A couple of movies, stops along the way and the next thing you know, we are in Santa Barbara.
It was a very busy weekend in town. The students were moving in and all the hotels were booked months in advance. We were luck to stay right down town several hundred feet from the main pier, across the street from the beach. It was excellent (expensive, but excellent!).
Friday evening and Saturday were for hanging around and taking in the sites. We wandered over to the campus to check things out and get a feel for the process. There was a sand castle building contest at the downtown beach which was very cool. We hung out at the pool, wandered up the main street and other wise had a great time.
Sunday was move in day. They have a very organized process and we were due to move it at 10:00 am. We joined the line of cars and waited our turn. At the drop off point, the car contents were dropped on the curb in a couple of minutes and I headed off to park the car. The bags were dropped into large carts and Kira headed to her new room. Room 1201, is on the first floor. Two roommates. Ocean view. Not too bad.
Beds were bunk beds. One set had two beds, the other one bed with a desk underneath. Kira chose the lower bed. The main problem with the bed was the head clearance, probably two feet below the upper bunk. Kirk suggested duck taping a pillow above her head. In the end, we figured out how to lower the bed and alleviate the tunnel feel. Setting up the room went pretty quickly, even with the three of them moving in at nearly the same time.
We then headed out for lunch on campus, bought a few items to help organise the room and then said our goodbyes. I think for Dianne and I, it was a little surreal, and it was really hard to believe that she was no longer our little daughter. Conner was definitely very sad to have to leave her and was a little teary eyed. We promised to connect over Skype when we returned and I think Conner felt better. Parker just didn't seem to get it. He couldn't figure out why she was going to stay in this "hotel" and not come home with us. I think Kira was a little nervous, but there was a lot going on, and keeping busy and saying hello to everyone was probably the best thing to do.
As we were driving home, two hours into a good movie, Parker removes his head phones and exclaims, "Hey, we forgot Kira!"
