spring break

Well, y'all, we are home from our spring break trek. It was a lot of fun, but once again I am glad to be home. There are things I do love about vacationing and things that I do not love, and it is nice to be reminded of what they are.

I do not love hotel shampoos, which seem to confuse perfume with actual cleansing ingredients. If I wanted perfume, I would go to a store and buy some (no, I actually don't own any right now). I do not love leaving something I value (like my laptop or (this week in San Francisco) my van) with a stranger, even if I am paying them for the privilege of trusting them with my valuables. I do not love long eternal drives through the middle of nowhere. I5 runs for 797 miles through California... much of it is long stretches of nothing. The fields and hills are pretty, I will say, and traffic moves at a brisk clip, but there is certainly nothing to compel anyone to drive that stretch of highway on its own merits. I do not love "free" hotel "breakfasts" which consist of Special K. Special K is not food. It is Rice Krispies for grownups. I do not love tourists. I do not love being a tourist.

I do love having fresh towels every single day. I do love having someone else make my bed. I do love my children and my husband and getting to spend time with them. I do love getting to take hundreds of pictures. I do love having a laptop I can take anywhere so I can dump said pictures every night. I do love getting to see country I've never seen before. I do love the restaurant at the Monterey Bay Aquarium (holy cow, I would buy a membership to the aquarium if I lived there just so I could eat!). I do also love the Wild Plum Bakery across the street from our hotel in Monterey (see Special K note above). I do love driving on the Pacific Coast Highway in Big Sur (think Blue Ridge Parkway but with ocean).

When it's all said and done, though, mostly I love to come back to my own home with my own family and Andy's cooking (!!) and my own big computer. I love my own bed and my own coffee. Of course, right now I am suffering a little schizophrenia on where exactly home might be... I didn't think that 210 would ever be a welcome sight to my tired eyes, but that's just another indication of how things can really change. We will be here for just over two more months and then this is home no longer--an old/new home to head back to, one which has been waiting patiently for me for months. And let's not even get started on the theological implications of going home, but I will say that my current "two home" situation puts that one in a whole new light as well.

Enjoy the pictures; let me know if you want more.

photo alert

I know, I am way overdue for an update. No update here, but wanted to point you to some new pics on flickr from a recent day at the beach. The girls match because Aunt Jenny made them sundresses for birthday presents (so it's early, but if you're giving matching gifts you ought to do it simultaneously and if you're visiting you ought to do it while you're here). There are more pictures of Elanor than anyone else because she actually smiled for the camera; Caroline made stinky smell faces; Michael was just on the go (that lone foot in the surf, though? that would be him).

By the way, I should note that when the girls opened their dresses, they were so excited that I thought they would hurt themselves. I had to beg them to wait until Sunday to wear them (but they can wear them for play also). They did get to try them on over their pjs that first night, though. Anything we give them for birthday presents this year will have to be pretty spectacular as Aunt Jenny has set the bar pretty high.