The drama started several weeks ago when Mom decided to update her will; after all, she is 76 years young. The original will had been drafted 20 ago. Three of her four children were involved in discussions as to what Mom wanted and how best to update a California will to meet her Florida lifestyle.

I spent time on phone calls and e-mails with my younger sister and my brother. My sister (living in Massachusetts) and I (loving the life in Burbank) had to decide if we needed to go to Florida. July 16 was the critical date. With one week to go, we both scrambled on the Internet to book airline flights.

Saturday morning I headed out to LAX for the parking adventure. My first thought was to leave it at the airport itself. This way I could head straight to work on my return to California. Well, at $30 per day this idea was dead on arrival. I found a lot off site for $11 per day.

Next stop was the check-in process at the airport. As a veteran flyer I knew the rules, so I was well prepared - shorts, flip flops, camera bag unzipped, and my laptop ready to be placed in a separate bin.

Of course, the family of five in front of me must have been on their first flight. The wife had at least eight pieces of jewelry on and had to go back and forth passed the metal detector three times. When the father took his turn, the son hung onto his leg and walked through with him. Both had to back up as the daughter held the son while the father went through quickly - only to have his belt buckle and watch trigger the alarm. He made it on the third attempt and the son quickly followed without incident. Several minutes later, I quietly passed through the hallowed gates of aviation security without sounding the alarm.

Now Fort Meyers, Fla., is not on a direct path from Los Angeles, so the first leg of the United Airlines flight made its way to Chicago's O'Hare airport. The three-and-a-half hours flight did not include a meal (unless you were fortunate enough to have a 1st class seat) but you could buy one of five gourmet snack boxes.

Of course I'm the type of person that if it moves or crawls, I will eat it. The gourmet snack, however, was made to please all types of passengers, which meant it actually pleased very few. The snacks attempted to be vegetarian, organic, and healthfully weight conscious. Not very inspiring. The second leg was on a regional airline, Shuttle America. The cabin was roomy, allowing me to stretch out and relax. The one drawback - no electronic entertainment. So it was a quiet flight as I had used up my laptop battery on the previous leg and this flight lacked plug-ins for headphones.

Finally I arrived at the Ft. Meyers Regional Airport. After collecting my one checked bag, I called my sister, who indicated she had just entered the parking structure and would meet me in front of the terminal. As I stepped outside the building I was reminded of the Arizona desert joke: "It's a dry heat. " The Florida humidity whacked me in the face and opened all of the sweat glands in my body. When I return to Burbank I will apologize to the desert sun for complaining about the summer heat wave.

Saturday had been an adventure. Starting my day as the sun rose on California, I now found myself on the gulf coast of Florida. My body tried to tell me it was only 7 p.m., but my mind was complaining it was 10 p.m. So after an hour-and-a-half of family gossip with my sister and mother, I headed to bed. Sunday would start day two of my adventure as we hooked up with my brother and his fiancé, attended church, and met with relatives I had not seen in 20 - 25 years.

(Look for "Adventures in Parenting: Relative Encounter," for the second part of this adventure)