We arrived in San Francisco, the city on the bay after a 6 hour drive. The drive was beautiful, through agricultural communities that grow vast quantities of produce. Only ran into traffic at the very end as we entered the city, but even that wasn’t too bad – we got very lucky for a Friday afternoon. The Omni hotel chain is now officially my favorite. We’ve stayed first in New Orleans and on this trip in San Francisco and the stay, service and staff are top notch. Knowing that some of our nights in small town Oregon won’t afford rooms like these, we splurged on a suite on the 17th floor with arched windows that look out onto much taller high rises with architectural features that are unparalleled. We got settled and had a knock on ... read more

Well, it's been one year since our epic journey - California to New Orleans with stops in Arizona, Texas, Tennessee, Missouri, Kansas, Utah and Neveda. So many times in the past year, we have recounted just how amazing that trip was and clearly led into a very exciting year for us both! We bought our first house and moved in at Christmastime 2010. It is fantastico! A two-story with travertine tiles, a beautiful kitchen island and a yard that we just finished having landscaped. We have spent so much time (and so much money!) on making it ours. This summer vacation 2011 couldn't come at a better moment. Five days ago my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, but one of her earliest demands to Jim and I was that we were not, under any circumstances, ... read more

What a beautiful morning here in Escalante, Utah - home of the Grand Staircase National Monument. We checked in early evening last night following our stay in Moab. Let me get you caught up... On Tuesday morning we started the morning off with breakfast, a seemingly innocent activity that I would pay for dearly. Not thinking that there would be anything further to think about after breakfast, I proceeded to get sick. Headache, queasy and generally not well - but that didn't stop us for heading out to newspaper rock and and the south entrance of Canyonlands National Park and the the Needles District. It was magnificent! Newspaper Rock always captures my imagination. The petroglyphs tell stories that no one has yet deciphered which is fine by me! I love to imagine what they all mean. ... read more

I never get tired of the last 30 miles outside of Moab, when the wind turns dry and hot and the rock formations begin to take on a rust colored hue. It is very other-worldly and yet, feels like coming home. I never tire of the anticipation of arriving in a place that is like no other. A place known for restoration, relaxation and re-energizing. Crossing over the Colorado River at a wide spot on a brand new bridge that was only in scaffolding last year, we arrived late yesterday afternoon to Moab, Utah. Jim brought me here June of 2001 for the first time on our very first road trip to Salt Lake to meet his folks. We only spent one night, but I remember it fondly. For the past five years, this stop has ... read more

We've had a couple of days with spotty internet connections and a lot of traveling since leaving Kansas City, Missouri on Tuesday, including driving almost entirely across the great state of Kansas on our way to our first truly Western stop in weeks - Colorado. Kansas was very flat (no duh!) with wide open stretches of highway in between small, small towns. Jim had perfectly planned out this leg of the trip, taking into consideration the fact that there is very little out there on the open road. In fact, the state of Kansas capitalizes on this with a strange toll system - you take a ticket as the start of the highway and then have to pay a sliding scale toll when you exit. The longer you are on the highway, the higher your toll. ... read more