Almost Ready

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For our summer vacation this year, we are returning to one long trip. It started with the suggestion that we take my parents on Route 66, but has ended up to be a nearly month-long tour of the western US. We have been, of course, but we will introduce them to Arizona, California, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana, and perhaps a couple other states as well. I hope it will be a lot of fun and memorable for the right reasons.

The title suggests we are almost ready to leave. That's not entirely true. I am very ready to leave from the perspective of needing a vacation. I'm ready to be away from the responsibilities; I'm ready for the boys to be done with school. I'm not, however, ready to leave tomorrow. We are working with new technology this time--a tablet that is supposed to make my life easier, but has actually kicked me out of this website 4 times in the last 20 minutes and shows me the screen's keyboard that I'm not actually using (since I have an external keyboard) and shows me less than 2 inches of the screen. I did not do well the last few vacations with updating the blog, and I really hope to do better this time. I am still trying to figure out how to incorporate some important (at least to me) geocaches without creating impossibly long days. Jeff is still working on making sure the car can handle the trip. Has anyone ever installed an air suspension in their own vehicle?

We're getting closer, though. Thirteen more days of school. Twelve more days of work. We can do it.



(There's supposed to be a counter there, but it doesn't appear that it will actually work. If anyone knows how to do a functional one, please let me know.)

Before we leave, though, I wanted to highlight a few of the places we will be going, to which Jeff and I have already been. I hope to use similar pictures to create some Dear Photograph moments. Thanks for reading.

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Photos

Grand Canyon National Park
April 2002 - This was my first trip to the Grand Canyon, Jeff's third, perhaps. We got there super early in order to see the sunrise, and stopped at every single viewpoint. It's easier without kids.

Alcatraz Island
November 2004 - Liam was four months old and already on his second vacation.

Muir Woods National Monument
November 2004 - I think this was the most impressive part of this trip. I worked our schedule so that we can return in June.

Yellowstone National Park
May 2005 - It was not warm for our first trip to the park, but we still managed to see many of the sights and eruptions by Old Faithful, Grand Geyser, and at least one other that I think stopped erupting shortly thereafter.

Temple Square
October 2007 - It wasn't a very long stay, but we did appreciate the architecture in the area. We're headed back so Mom and Dad can see, and so we can log a few virtual caches.

Grand Teton National Park
June 2008 - The weather wasn't great for this trip, but we occasionally got glimpses of the mountains.

Yellowstone National Park
June 2008 - We camped in the park this time, which gave us a little more flexibility. We were hoping to see bears, since our campground was on a bear trail, but we were not so lucky.

Grand Canyon National Park
April 2009 - While planning our trip home from a conference in Phoenix, Liam suggested we should go to the Grand Canyon. We did, and he was ready to go after about twenty minutes. Hopefully, he's happy with the entire day we will be spending there in June.

Comments

[Snowhawg]

Sounds Great!
Looking forward to getting your updates. It sounds like it will be a wonderful time. I'm jealous.