It's been some time since I posted on here. A friend has created blogs for all of his travels, past and present, which I would love to do at some point. Today is not the day. Today was the first day of a 30-day trip. I desperately need the time away, but I've been dreading it for a while. I don't actually like to be gone from home that long. I'm going to miss our puppies, even though we have caring people staying with them. I'm worried about some of my patients, not that my partners and their specialists aren't perfectly capable of caring for them while I'm gone. I'm worried about my boss, Jen. And yet . . . Rather than leave yesterday as planned, our eldest requested we leave today, after a birthday party ... read more

The boys specifically requested a battlefield for this trip, as they do for most. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of battlefields west of the Mississippi. (We've been to some named battlefields, but they're mostly massacres on one side or the other.) We were excited, then, to discover Fort Point National Historic Site, not a battlefield, but close enough. It's also at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge, so it was somewhere to get a different perspective. It was also one of the best maintained forts we've seen. The boys, and we, had a great time exploring all the different rooms--the powder storage, living quarters, batteries, etcetera. Liam loved looking over the edge at the water below, while Cole preferred to stay as close to the center of everything as possible. The boys, Dad and I ... read more

Today's drive was about getting to San Francisco while finding a variety of caches, as well as seeing Pinnacles National Park. We saw more wildlife today and classic cars, less coast and vineyards. Pinnacles National Park, converted from a national monument in January, protects the eroded leftovers of the western half of an extinct volcano, now 150 miles from its eastern half. There are hundreds of miles of hiking trails, and numerous talus caves that house over a dozen species of bats. The collective we aren't really up for hiking or caving, so we mostly just visited the few viewpoints available on the eastern side. We saw deer and squirrels and some beautiful birds, although they were too fast for us or our cameras. We didn't see any rattlesnakes, although the boys really wanted to. Jeff ... read more

Today was our one day at Disneyland. It was Monday, so we expected the crowds to be less, the lines to be shorter. It seemed that way to start, but it didn't last. If anything, it seemed that there were more people today. I'm wondering if that had to do with narrower walkways, though? It's hard to tell. I don't think Disney publishes their day by day visit numbers. The day started out great. We got in at opening time and sent Jeff off to get fastpasses. The boys and I saw a variety of characters, and were able to get pictures without waiting in line too long. I don't have it with us, but there is a great photo of Jason and Lorrin with Chip and Dale from the '80's. It looks like their characters ... read more

Technically, our goal for the day was to drive from Kingman, Arizona, to the end of Route 66, and then to Anaheim. In truth, though, it was to find more than 100 geocaches. On a section of Route 66 south of I-40, there are more than 800. Dad would love to have done all of them, but we had to consider the time, the heat, and sheer boredom. We worked out a system. Dad would jump out and get it, I would roll down the window and stamp the log. Jeff would roll up the window, while I recapped the stamp and Dad would get back in. It worked pretty well, until I thought he looked too tired, and then I made him sit. There isn't a lot of Route 66 memorabilia in California, although there's ... read more