I've been slow to finish up the last blog which will conclude our monumental vacation. I've been trying to figure out my motivation (or lack thereof) about this final post. Is it the fog I am in from succumbing to the kids' back to school bugs? (You'd think that getting 10.5 hours of sleep last night would have helped, but sadly no.) Is it the hours I've spent trying to solve my dental dilemma? (Insurance company pre-treatment estimates, second opinions and treatment consults, etc, etc.) Maybe so, there are only so many hours in a day, right? OR, is it because if I conclude this saga, then our trip is finally, officially over (although in reality we've been home now longer than we were gone!)? I think it's a combination of all of the above, proving that, yes, alas, it's only a memory now. How grateful I am for those happy memories and the miles we safely traveled.
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| The fog as we drive over the Hood Canal leaving Sequim and heading home. |
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| Driving over the new Tacoma Narrows. It was still under construction the last time we crossed. |
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| Adding another state to the list of those we've traversed this trip. |
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| The ONLY rain we saw while in the Pacific Northwest was the little bit while we were driving through Portland. |
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| Portland. |
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| Not Multnomah Falls, but still pretty neat. |
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| When the rain dried up, it REALLY dried up. As we were driving through Oregon and southern Idaho, the temperature climbed up to a blazing 111 degrees. What's more fun than a cab with hubby, 2 kids, cat, AND rabbit for the remaining 1000 miles home?! |
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| Our campground for the night in Oregon. |
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| Emalie's so happy to be out and about playing rather than strapped in after a long day. |
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| Pretty sunset over the river. |
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| How's this for symmetry?! |
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| Onion, anyone? |
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| Hanging out with the big boys. |
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| There's the proof--- 111!!! |
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| Another mile, another state. |
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| As we did a few years ago, we stopped by and visited my Aunt Lori on the way home. These little stops are the only time we get to see her! She looks great, and it's always fun to surprise her!! |
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| We put in a lot of miles in Wyoming this trip. |
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I see this picture and I just have to laugh. We didn't plan our stops ahead too much during the road trip part of our vacation. We did plan this one though the night before and made reservations. The website made it sound like it was the best thing since sliced bread. The real motivation was the mini-golf at the 'campground'. We knew Nikolas would be in heaven and Emalie would enjoy it as well. As we were exiting off the highway I just kept thinking, 'This CAN'T be it!' Had the website said, "gravel parking lot with electrical hook-ups, dilapidated mini-golf course, and oh-yeah, you're in Wyoming so remember it's WINDY" then I would have thought maybe. Good grief. And we planned this out on PURPOSE?! The funniest part was when we were pulling in and the way Nikolas' eyes lit up and he said, "We HAVE to save this as a favorite (on the GPS)!!!!" Sigh--- we did make this stop for the kids, and I guess we didn't let them down. In my mind I was envisioning the end of the Chevy Chase movie where they FINALLY get to Wally-World and it's closed. This place wasn't closed, but the feeling was almost the same. LOL......
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| So we left rainy Seattle (not) and arrived back to our home state of sun (not). Oh, the irony of it all..... |
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| We stopped so everyone could add more layers of clothes. How funny is that? |
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| It must be the transportation degree in me, but I was captivated by all the cool things being hauled around on the highways. So much to see, so much to see! |
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| Denver. Where's the water?! LOL..... |
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| This photo is 2-fold: 1) look at our trip mileage. Wow! 2) Yep, Sven ended up getting a whole new set of tires. Our vacation just got a whole lot more expensive! |
Hmmm....well, I guess that's all. That's a wrap. Done deal. I've been teased for my subtly (or lack thereof, yet again) about my feelings after spending some time in Seattle. What can I say? We knew this trip would be a 'test' of sorts to feel the waters (see, because there actually was water!!) of where we want to live after this whole chapter of our military lives closes (that's an unreal thought, it really is after 18+ years). All of you who know me, know I wear my heart on my sleeve. You also know that I will more freely express my thoughts in writing (regardless of how many strangers in cyber world might read it). So, yes, I guess I wasn't too subtle about how great it felt to be back in Washington. But I think the poignant part for me is how unexpected my reaction was to it. I didn't anticipate that sense of 'home' that I would feel or how deeply I would feel it. It really took me by surprise and made me reevaluate what I thought I knew to be true (we can stay in Denver forever and we'll like it just fine). Now, I'm honestly not so sure. I've expressed many times in this blog about how I love certain aspects of Denver but how I also feel that there's just something missing. I feel like Seattle and Denver are the yin and the yang. They are so different, yet so similar and I'm pretty sure if we ended up living in either place we would be happy but missing aspects of the other location. I miss the water, I truly miss the water. Seattle has that. I love a 70 degree day in January and snow that melts off the road in just a few hours. Denver has that. So, my point is, that while this journey is over, our bigger journey has yet to begin. Thank you for listening, thank you for sharing, and thank you for not teasing me too much about those feelings I wear on my sleeves! Now, back to the real world!
