travels

For the last two weeks we have been on vacation together!

First, we road tripped to California with our favorite road warrior, Roscoe.

We forgot the camera on the kitchen counter so I only have words to share. We stayed a night in the magical town of Ashland, OR - at least it felt that way walking around downtown all lit up with Christmas lights on a cold winter evening. We discovered the local dog park and then drove south to Santa Cruz. We stayed two nights with Heather, Drew and Clara. It wasn't long enough; we wish we lived closer. From there we headed to the valley for Christmas in Visalia. We feasted, talked, walked in the sunshine, watched my favorite movie and celebrated with family. After three days we drove north to Ashland again. Now returning to a familiar place we explored more of this small town and vowed to return again. We ran into Eric and Elizabeth at a crowded store where we stopped to stretch our legs. And then continued home - happy to be in Tacoma again.

We have spent the last few days cleaning, cooking, up-packing, washing laundry and re-packing. I was settling in - spending most of my days in the kitchen with my new cookbooks and dutch oven with occasional breaks to walk the dogs. Cyrus was preparing for the trip of a lifetime. He is traveling to China with a group of students from his school and two other chaperones. They will be in Beijing for two weeks and then traveling to Guilin and Hong Kong. They will be keeping a blog of their trip here

Wishing you and yours a Happy New Year and great adventures in 2010.