Our Travelin' Man...

Josh is here tonight en route to Santa Monica after attending a friend's wedding in Holland Lake, Montana. He and 2 friends drove there a week ago, and they returned early this morning with an additional buddy. Those Village Homes boys seem like cousins. He said the ones in the back seat slept, and we thought back on the days we worked with the same guys to make safe trips to snowboard in the Sierra back country. They look out for each other.

I can see from his smile and deep pleasure talking about the journey how much fun they had. It brought back fabulous memories of traveling with our kids on several big trips. The first was when Josh was 14 and Julia was 11. We headed east and north to the Ruby Mountains in Nevada, the Snake River and Laura Ingalls Wilder landmarks, the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Glacier, and Vancouver.

We loved that trip so much, in spite of rain and 3 trips to Urgent Care, that we headed out again 2 years later, this time to the Southwest. Our first stop, though, was the X-Games to see wild wakeboarders do their thing at a sea park in San Diego. Then we hit the Grand Canyon, Monument National Park, Mesa Verde National Park, and finally Zion before a 3 hour stop in Las Vegas. Our dog Tam pooped on a resort lawn and Alan refused to pick it up, saying it was the only real item in the whole town.

When Josh graduated from college we took a memorable trip to to Alaska. We were guests of Alan's folks on a 52-foot boat and fished like we'd never fished before. The last few days of the trip the kids and Alan and I stayed together in a hotel room in Juneau, where the kids and I woke together to stare in disbelief to our beloved snore-machine as he peacefully sawed logs. It always makes me laugh to remember.

We took a long road trip with both of them 4 years ago when Julia was studying in Granada, Spain. It was like old times - they both fell asleep in the car when we drove, we played their favorite music, and Josh and Julia and I woke up to Alan's snoring all across Andalucia.

Julia is in Chile for 2 weeks right now! She'll be back 5 days before she starts graduate school in creative writing at San Francisco State. Guess we all have the traveling bug. I enjoy looking back as much as taking the next trip - it reminds me how blessed I am.