How did you prepare for this trip?

I pretty much didn’t. A few months ago I got the family directive to be there for J’s grandmother’s 90th birthday party on the Saturday and that is the whole extent of the plan. I love J’s extended family and haven’t seen them en masse since our wedding in 2014, so I’m excited about the trip. When I hadn’t gotten around to booking anything at T-10 weeks, my FIL forwarded me the flight info he’d booked, and offered up sharing their rental car to get from Oakland to the Marin area where we’ll all likely gather. I tried to convince J we should stay a day longer than his folks and do fun San Francisco stuff, but since we’re both extra busy with work this time of year, he convinced me we should stick with a one-vacation-day trip length. I did some half-hearted fare searching and wound up booking the exact same flights as my FIL. (He’s great at finding the cheapest airfare and also travels way more than me, so I wasn’t surprised.) We were too late to grab one of the bedrooms at the “Coral Castle” aka J’s aunt’s house where folks are likely to gather, so my FIL sent me their hotel info as well. I balked at $225/night for three stars (ugh, Bay Area) and found a cute Airbnb for less located between FIL’s hotel and the Coral Castle, figuring we would be able to Uber or get rides with family. My dream vacation is going someplace with a nice view and chilling out with people I like. There should be knitting and reading; cats and wine are good add-ons. J’s clan isn’t super into chilling out (they’re more: Go places! Do things! Preferably with exercise involved!), but after 12 years, they’re used to me and my relaxed couch potato introvert ways.