Sunday, August 28, 2011

road trip

We deviated from our usual road trip course this time and took a little longer to get to our destination. On July 25, Monday night, we hit the road at about 9pm. We made our way through Arizona and arrived in southern California around 8am Tuesday and had breakfast with my grandmother. After a few hours of visiting and the girls riding their bicycles around we caught up with one of our friends from Germany who lives and works very close to my grandmother's home. She was on her lunch break at school so it was a brief stop. We grabbed a quick lunch at Chipotle and Starbucks and drove a little further to get to Pasadena. I have lots of wonderful online friends that I have been chatting with for years now and I had the pleasure of meeting with two of them at a cafe in Pasadena. We had a nice chat and the kids ran around and played and I wish we lived closer so we could do that more often. Then we headed to my grandparents' home on the central coast and spent a night with them, the kids got to play, and we had a nice stroll on the beach the next morning. That is such a beautiful area and we really need to stay longer next time.


Next stop was San Fransisco, but we took the scenic route and drove up highway 1 to enjoy the coast. We live so far from water that we just couldn't get enough of it.



By late afternoon we entered the fog in San Fransisco and spent a fun evening with Eric's sister and her family and spent the night at their place. The next day we checked out Fisherman's Wharf with our friend Jessica and her girls. It had been over 2 years since we had seen each other, but it was just like old times.




That evening, after the kids were worn out, we headed to Oregon. It took about 9 hours to make it to Eric's parents' home. Just after sunrise we knocked on the door, handed the kids off to Omi and Opi, and went to bed for a couple of hours. The next few weeks were filled with visiting friends and family, hiking, camping, playing, shopping, etc. Eric and I even made it out for a few dates :)







On the evening of August 18 we hit the road again and headed straight home. It took about 24 hours to drive through Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. In the 20th hour I got a speeding ticket, but other than that it was an uneventful drive. We made it all the way to Moab, UT before the kids woke up and we took a breakfast break. We stopped at a park in northern New Mexico to stretch our legs and eat some lunch. Now we are home, have our dog back, have restocked our fridge, and Eric has been back at work for a week. It was great to take a break from hot, dry, and boring New Mexico, but that trip wore us out and we're not sure when we'll try it again.