i've got sunshine...

Hi. I'm supposed to be packing, but... it's not happening. So here's the scoop on our vacation instead. It was awesome. We ended up traveling over 3000 miles, through eight states, and had lots of bonding-time in the car. It was a bit nuts. There are many stories, but I'll give you a quick run down. The trip started with a four-hour delayed plane ride back from Phoenix. Poor Maggie and Laura waited in the airport parking lot for hours, all packed up and ready to go. I thought I would never get there. We left Denver on Thursday at 10pm, drove in three-hour shifts through the night, and made it to Portland by 7pm on Saturday. ...And only ran over one deer in the process. Yikes.
In the next few days we worked our way through Oregon and California along the Pacific Coast Highway (my first time to CA and the Pacific), stopping in the Redwood Forest, driving through a tree, and ending up at a campground 30 miles north of San Francisco. The next day was full of all-out tourist attractions, with rides on the street car, cable car, and over the Golden Gate Bridge. It is such a cool city! Along the way we picked up another friend at the San Jose airport and stopped at a friend's house in Carmel. Another first - riding a yellow banana tandem bike. Let me tell you - not as easy as it looks!
On our way back home we stayed on the strip in Las Vegas - New York, New York - and, being the big spender of the group, I gambled away $2. Maggie did actually make twenty dollars playing Roulette... a win that I claim partial ownership of because I (very convincingly) talked her into quitting while she was ahead.

The last leg of the trip through Nevada, Utah, and Colorado was beautiful (well, minus the Mojave desert) but our hineys were ready to be home. At one point Laura looked over at me and said, "Rachelle, I think you know absolutely everything about me. I've talked about everything. I don't know if I have anything left to say." So we cranked up the NOW 5 CD, listened to the whole thing three more times, and counted mile markers until we were safely home.

And home sweet home it is.