Home at last

OK so I missed the last official day of posting, since we arrived back late yesterday afternoon. Routine took over as soon as we opened the house door and started unloading, and I did not get back to the concluding post of our California adventure.

We left Portland by 9:30 on Tuesday morning, and both of the boys caught up on their beauty sleep in the vehicle. Alex snoozed his way through most of Washington state, and Evan actually picked up a novel for part of his waking time! I did NOT capture this on camera, so you'll have to take my word for it. Both of them were fully conscious again by Tacoma, and took in the sights of Tacoma/Seattle speeding by. Alex says that mum is planning a trip for all of them to Seattle to see a Mariners game, so he was happy to point out Saveco field as we passed it on the freeway. Wow two MBA games in one summer. That's a pretty impressive stat for any young Canadian ball player.

After a quick lunch outside of Seattle, we continued ever closer to Canada. I needed to get my Trader Joe's fix and we made the obligatory dairy stop at Lynden, but after that we were nearly home free!
The border line-up was mercifully short, and then the boys excitedly pointed out where the official border was as we crossed it. Home at last...

It's been a great experience, traveling together and experiencing everything we did. I don't think that any of us would hesitate to do it again, except perhaps if the Canadian dollar takes another REALLY dramatic drop. The highlights for the boys were definitely the water-slide and the dune-buggying. The low-lights I'd say were sitting in the w-a-y-y-y back on the 2-day trip in Jessica's Toyota Highlander through the back country of the Sierras. Possibly also standing in line at Tony's Pizza for 1.5 hrs in San Francisco, or another hour at lunch for a seafood lunch they had no idea they would be eating. Hey, I did say it was going to be an ADVENTURE, not always a picnic!

Norbert and I had a lot of highlights - we loved spending time with Pat and David and seeing a part of California that we would never have seen otherwise (Bodie - so interesting and unexpected - now I know what 'arrested decay' really looks like, our Basque lunch in Nevada, the majesty of Yosemite), San Francisco's many sites, and the yet-to-be explored wine country of Oregon.

Traveling the U.S. is a great eye-opener in so many ways. We saw so many terrific things, made some fast friends (thanks again for everything, Pat and David!), and were never disappointed by the welcome we got in so many different places.

But it also made us thankful for our many blessings here in our own Great White North, warts and all.
The boys got along terrifically, and we're grateful to Greg and Sue for trusting us with their boy for all those weeks. Hey Sue, anytime you want to take Evan away for a few weeks...? let us know LOL! I promise to send Evan to Charm School for a boot-camp first!

This will be my last official post on our adventure - thanks for following, and all your comments along the way. It's been a great experience, and I will definitely try this experiment again.

Happy trails of your own-

Esther