Travels

My Mom mentioned once that I was a nomad.  I didn’t stay in one spot for too long, and if I did, I was usually traveling a lot.  Before college and during college, I was travelling for missions trips and went to school in Georgia.  It didn’t stop when Mike and I got married.  We travelled the country for three months in a motor home and saw a lot of the country.  We returned to Massachusetts, packed up the motor home with wedding presents and headed to Seattle.  We’ve always loved travelling and the kids like it too, which has been a lot of fun.

Top Ten Favorite Travels:

1.  Hawaii.  Six months after we had Tullie, Mike was asked to go to Hawaii for work and work in their office for a week.  How could someone refuse that?  Mike asked me to tag along.  My mom flew out from Massachusetts and watched the kids, and Mike and I spent a week in Paradise.  Mike worked.  I read books on the beach and strolled around Waikiki.  It was a wonderful restful time after having Tullie.  Very much needed rest. 

2. Mexico.  Well, we’ve both been there a few times, but this time, was certainly an adventure.  We were visiting Mike’s dad during our whirlwind-three-month-motor-home-honeymoon trip, and at the time Mike’s dad would take youth groups down to Juarez, Mexico and build houses in a week for families.  So, we decided to tag along in our cool jalope of a motor home.  We helped build two houses, went to church in Mexico, hung out with a crazy youth group, brush up on my not-so-good spanish and got to know Mike’s family a bit better. 

3. Chappaquiddick.  Well, this was just a dream come true for me….Growing up in Massachusetts, Martha’s Vineyard, was sort of a far fetched beautiful ideal place to visit.  It’s hard to get to in the summer.  It’s expensive to stay there.  Crazy rich people everywhere, but wonderful all at the same time.  Beautiful.  Gorgeous.  We have friends in Seattle and his parents have a place on Chappaquiddick, a small island off of Martha’s Vineyard, and we all planned our trips back East last summer together, so that we could spend a week together on the island.  Bliss.  Pure bliss.  Beautiful bliss.  I’d like to go back.  Oh, and I saw Meg Ryan stroll by at the 4th of July parade.  I took everything in my, not to act all crazy star struck. 

4. New York City.  I always wanted to go to New York City, but never had the opportunity until last summer.  Mike was working in New Jersey for a week, while I stayed with the kids at my parent’s house in Massachusetts.  My parents were gracious enough to hang with the kids for a couple of days, so I took off and met Mike in the Big Apple for two days.  We strolled around.  We saw a TON of stuff.  I was in heaven.  A bike ride in Central Park.  A walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.  Over stimulated at Time Square.  The works.  I could move to NYC in an instant.  Mike wouldn’t even have to talk to me about it.  I’d start packing the minute he told me we were moving.  I love it there.   Wonderful. 

5. Mt. Rushmore.  Ok, this is sort of a drive by.  But it’s funny.  And we can say that we’ve been there and we’ve seen it.  We were planning on going to Mt. Rushmore and spending time there, but we had driven through the Badlands earlier that day.  We paid the $20 (or whatever it was) to drive through and when we got to Mt. Rushmore and saw that it was $20 more, we just couldn’t do that day.  BUT, there was no turn around, except through the parking lot and we got an amazing view of the the Presidents.  I was in a tank top and shorts and the tempeture had dropped about 30 degrees since we had gotten out of the car a few hours earlier.  Mike said, “Get out! Get out! Let’s get a picture!”  I hop out and shriek at the cold air slamming my body.  I stand there for 30 seconds chattering my teeth, while Mike took the picture.  It is by far the worst picture ever taken of me.  I think Mike also lost his sunglasses there…..

6. 13,500 miles.  Yes, that’s how many miles we drove on our 3 month honeymoon.  It was great!  We went from Boston to Seattle to San Diego to Austin to Mexico to Missouri to Boston back to Seattle.  It was fun!

7.  Seattle to Dallas in 34 hours with three kids.  We did not leave the car unless it was to go to the bathroom or get gas for 34 hours with three children.  Yes, we are crazy.  But we got to see our dear friends the Preskenis, the Preskenis and the Preskenis’.   We had a wonderful time with them and we would do it again.  Not sure when, but we will.  The kids did really well too.  It was right around the 32 hour mark we all kinda lost it at the same time, but we pushed through.

8. Whistler.  Vancouver, BC is gorgeous.  It’s gorgeous in the summer and the winter.  My cousin came to visit and we all took a trip up to Whistler to go snowboarding.  It was so fun and I was sore for a month afterwards. 

9. Mt. Rainier.  A couple of summers ago, Mike and I took the kids camping at Mt. Rainier.  So fun!!!!  The kids loved it and we had some much needed family hang time with smores, hot dogs, burgers, tents, dirt and some fun hikes.  Hopefully this summer we’ll have a lot of camping opportunities with the kids. 

10.  Eli’s trip.  About four months after Eli died,  Mike and I were done.  We were tired.  We were burnt out.  We had just had the summer from hell and we felt like we had to get out of town.  We had bought a motor home a couple of months before just for this purpose.  We left Seattle and headed to Dallas to see friends (and my parents happened to be stopping by there too).  Made our way to Albuquerque to see Mike’s dad.  Went to San Diego to see Mike’s sister and drove up Highway 101 and took our time back to Seattle.  Stopping in the Redwoods and staring at the ocean.  It was a wonderful refreshing time for us and our entire family.  We needed that.  Just to be alone a be our own unit for awhile.  Us and Jesus. It was good.  Really good. 

Crazy to think we’ve done so much….I wonder how much more we’ll do in the next 10 years….