Its Friday morning here. Its been a great week. TJ and Bri have been cooking up some great dinners. Bri has made taco salad and clam chowder. YUM! Definitely getting the recipes for those. TJ made corned beef and I made up some white sauce for it. They said they had never heard of it and they usually only serve corned beef with mustard. Turns out white sauce is gravy to them, as in the gravy they use for breakfast biscuits and gravy. So Bri made that for breakfast as well. Wednesday night, Bri organised a girls night out. It was [View Full Entry]

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Cleaning up loose ends fun last dump trip(s) Friday morning and Jeep and Saab outfitted for move mid-day. Ridiculously beautiful white crested waves on the horizon as we wave good-bye to our sweet life in Pescadero! However, big wave=big storm, don't ya know. And, yes, first big feared drops of the season descend on our early Friday rush hour commute and it becomes a little harder to say good-bye to CA. Filled with junk and stuck in traffic. We thought this might happen so evening plan to arrive in Sierra foothills is curtailed. New Stockton Sheraton for the night becomes a [View Full Entry]

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I'm finally here!! The flights were interesting, but not too bad. On the flight from Sydney to Taipei, there were a lot of kids. One that screamed most of the way and two behind me that kept kicking my seat and fighting. But overall, no dramas. I was glad to finally get off and be able to stand for longer than a couple of miutes! San Francisco was nice, although we missed our reservation at the Stinking Rose for dinner. We ended up going to Pelligrini, a really nice Italian restaurant. Its been good to see the girls again. Both Riley [View Full Entry]

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After a night from hell in the Fallon Lodge and Inn unit we arose to prepare for the day to journey down from altitude to close to sea level. The overnight motel was a shocker.It was dirty and we should have moved on.The only thing going for it was the high powered shower which at least when you got under it made you feel a little cleaner.I suppose the first sight of the motel proprietors stained shirt should have told us something.The bed was comfortable and so were the pillows as long as you didnt look too close.No obvious cooties !!! [View Full Entry]

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Nach einer 17stuendigen Zugfahrt (ich habe nach Stunden herausgefunden wie ich liegen muss um nicht mit Kreuzschmerzen aufzuwachen und Schlafsack war diesmal auch dabei) bin ich also in Sacramento angekommen. Alleine die 5 Blocks die ich bis zum Hostel gegangen bin waren schweisstreibend, ja es ist heiss in Sacramento. Bin heute nach Old Sacramento gewandert und dann habe ich mich kurz in den State Capitol Park gesetzt und Eichhoernchen beobachtet wie sie eine Orange durch die Gegend getragen haben (ich habe Fotos die das beweisen). Morgen geht es wieder frueh los, habe ja einen Flieger zu [View Full Entry]

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Difficult to get an internet connection in the past few days. after the Grand Canyon, we went to a one horse town. Everywhere was closed so we ordered in. A mexican restaurant delivered great food to our room. Next day on to Las Vegas. This place is everything you thought and more. 110 % f and constant noise and people. In the evening we went to a show, the return of the brat pack. Dinner then the show. Afterwards we went to a light show at Firemont. The next day, up early to go to the hoover dam. What an amazing [View Full Entry]

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Woke this morning to a lovely clear sky......not. But at least I hadn't been fried during the night. I made my way out of the mountains and into Redding where I excercised my ancient ingrained manly hunting skills and sniffed out the local starbucks and got a good strong coffee to wash down all the smoke that I had inhaled. From there it was just a cruise down the interstate (yes I did it again) to Sacramento where my sister Melissa lives. A sister which I havn't seen for about 11 or 12 years. So it was great to catch up [View Full Entry]

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Day 1 We left for Portland around 6am. Kelsie drove down with us to take the car back. A quck stop at Tim Horton's on the Maine Mall road enabled us to meet what had to be Tim Horton's newest employee. Two atempts at a hazelnut with just cream, no sugar, and she produced a regular coffee for Brian the third time we asked for it. We'd already paid for it, and it was on the screen, but she was still having trouble. We got to the bus station right as the bus was boarding. A pleasant ride to Boston [View Full Entry]

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San Francisco & Sacramento We arrived at San Francisco airport and got in touch with our friend Soraya, who we were staying with in Sacramento. She told us Ever (Evito to us friends) was going to pick us up, on his way from LA. So pretty much on time, Evito arrived at the airport after about 5 hours drive from LA, and we headed off to Sacramento to Soraya´s house, not before stopping at a Taco Bell for some food (here begins our All American diet that would replace any lost fat from our Asian travels). Soraya had our next plan [View Full Entry]

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I have been on a ten day farewell tour through Sacramento, Santa Cruz and San Francisco. It was great to feel all the love again and know that I have so much support back 'home'. The notion of 'home' is so fluid at this point. My mom lives in Fullerton and I lived there in that house for 4-5 years during high school, but that isn't my home. I lived in Sacramento for 20 years and have many lovely friends there, but I don't know if that is my home either. My kids GPS is still temporary, so I cannot consider [View Full Entry]

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