What a week

(Last Wednesday, right when we got home, I wrote an email about what we've been thru to a group of our college friends. I'm way too lazy - I would say "burned out" but it may be too soon for jokes - to rewrite it so here it is. My apologies to those who have already read this!)

Four days after we moved into our new house, we had to get out. Yep, we were one of the first people to be evacuated during the San Diego fires.

So Sunday night there were report of fires in Ramona, which is way east of us - we live closer to the coast. We watched with concern, not for ourselves but for Jason's parents, who live in Rancho Bernardo and is closer to Ramona than us. We were joking about how they would have to leave in the middle of the night, so they better pack their bags. We then went to bed after work at midnight.

The winds were blowing hard - so hard that I couldn't sleep. I was worried that a window would blow out in Charlie's room - his room is in the front of the house and pretty exposed. I got up around 2am to get the bed ready in the guest room. Jason got up at the same time, looked out our front window, and saw the hillside about a mile from us was on fire.

The neighbors started milling outside to look. Two guys came over and said they were gonna drive up the hill to see how close it really was. I started packing. The guys came down and said it was pretty close, and we should probably leave.

The fire looked like it was dying down at one point, so Jason got in the car to see what the deal was. He wasn't allowed to drive toward the fire because there was a police barrier. So he drove away from the fire toward the gas station to get some information and turn around. A police officer tried to keep him from re-entering our neighborhood until he explained his family was up there and he had the only car. He told him to hurry up and get us.

We woke Charlie up and got in the car, heading toward Jason's parents house. This is around 3:30a. We were unaware of any fires that had entered Rancho Bernardo at that time. The closer we got to their house, the "oranger" the sky got. Then we started to see flames.

We got off at our usual exit and we practically drove into a wall of fire. The hillside was on fire on both sides of the road. The flames were probably 30 feet high. There was one fire truck blocking access. We re-entered the highway to go to the next exit, driving over burning embers to do so.

It was obvious to us that we were in an area we probably shouldn't be, but we had to get Jason's parents out. They were still in their house, in bed, despite warning them that we were coming and they had to get out. I think they were waiting for an official evacuation call. We got to their house and Jason went inside to insist that they leave with us. We then drove to a grocery store parking lot to wait for them (his dad is in a wheelchair and they needed to use their adapted van).

We were in a line of traffic getting to the parking lot of people doing the exact same thing we were. I kept thinking the flames would travel down the road and engulf all of us while we waited for lights to change. We got to the grocery store and while we waited my sister was trying to find us a hotel in Orange County. She found one in Dana Point, about 40 miles north of San Diego, and booked us two rooms. We finally saw his parents - they let us in the traffic stream and we headed out of town.

We stopped at a gas station that was virtually empty. By the time we left, there were easily 50 cars lined up to get gas.

We inched along 56 to get to I-5. We called some family friends, who were sleeping, and told them to meet us in Dana Point. They also got a room at the same hotel. Soon after, the hotel was filled to capacity. It was apparent we were about 10 minutes ahead of the game.

We got on I-5 and the sky started to clear of smoke. It was only then that I popped a xanax and fell asleep. It was 7am. We had been up for 24 hours straight. Somehow, Jason managed to stay awake long enough to drive us up to Dana Point.

We watched the news waiting to see if our houses made it. Our fire was put out on Monday afternoon and we were cleared to return. But Jason's parents were still ordered to evacuate, so we stayed with them. Besides, there were other fires that were threatening our area. We didn't want to return only to leave again. We were afraid we'd lose our hotel room.

From watching the news, it looks like Jason's parents' condo was spared. The burn area surrounds their complex. We won't know for sure until they let us back in, but I think it's okay.*

We all came back to San Diego about an hour ago. Camp Pendelton is on fire, which we drove past to get back home. Luckily the highway was open going Southbound. There happens to be a nuclear reactor there, right by the burning area. That was a concern. But we made it.

The sky is blue now. The air isn't great, but it's certainly better than it was. There is a thick layer of ash covering everything outside, but inside, all is good, save an infestation of ants who took advantage of our pantry while we were gone.

It was obviously the worst thing we have been through thus far. But in the end, it turned out all right.

*The parents' condo is okay. Houses burned to the north, west, south and east of them - but somehow avoided their retirement complex altogether. They are back home and it's all good.