Hello Friends and Family,
We are safely in Texas and partially ensconced in out neat little apartment. We're here now and NOT moving a gazillion miles an hour but I'll slow things down a bit for those who are interested. If you don't want a day by day story of our drive to Texas, you can skip to the end to get our latest contact information. If you don't care about that either, thanks for reading THIS far. :)
We left the Bay Area, CA... (We don't think this is a coincidence but, Galveston and surrounding areas are called the Bay Area too.) It was a little sad leaving all that was familiar and knowing that we would come back but nothing would be the same. Even Thorsten got a little sniffly. I cried like a baby. It was a good thing that we'd had a send-off breakfast and a visit with my Mom, Grandmother, Bill, and Dad. Crying is hard work.
We drove and drove and drove and made a pit stop and drove some more. Actually, Thorsten drove while I napped and chattered.
We arrived in Las Vegas just after sunset. Thorsten demonstrated his impeccable timing as usual. We watched the sunset over the desert and then saw the glow in the sky over the strip. I was (and still am) totally bowled over by the amount of electricity that town uses. My desire to gamble evaporated by the minute as I contemplated who was paying their power bill.
We stayed in the Bellagio that night (and the next one too but I don't want to get ahead of myself). Our room had a view of the fountains in the lake and it was REALLY COOL to watch the water play and see the lights of the strip twinkle beyond. That night we ate at the buffet. Between Thorsten's normally large appetite and the appetite of a 5 month pregnant woman, we definitely got our money's worth. I guess the manager was glad to see us go.
One of our favorite things was the Atlantis ride in Ceasar's Palace. That ride was really great! They handed out 3-D glasses and we were led to beleive that we were on a roller coaster. The only thing missing as the wind in my hair. I loved it. The baby did summer-saults all the way through so I guess he liked it too.
We took a very cool helicopter ride over and into the Grand Canyon. Wowy-zowy. Landing at the bottom in a helicopter was an extra dramatic way to see it. Drinking champagne after landing at the bottom was WAY over the top.
After a too-brief nap we headed out for a night on the town, fancy people style. Surprisingly, nobody figured us out for the yokels we are and stopped us. We ate at Le Cirque and then saw Cirque de Soleil's "O". I still want to know how the cast of that show were able to breathe under the water. I looked REALLY hard for gills but didn't see them on any of the performers.
We saw Hoover Dam and said Dam, a lot. It was pretty Dam cool. We took the Dam tour and got to see the Dam generators. We guess that with all the Dam power floating through the air that the baby now has an extra limb. We just hope it's the right one.
We were all set to drive to Sedona, Arizona but then like the good future sailors we are, we checked the weather report. Snow was expected on the roads we wanted to travel and we were (and still are) unprepared to be caught in snow. We decided to pass and drive directly on to Tucson. I had been looking forward to the "intuitive massage" that Ron recommended but it was not to be. Dam.
We arrived in Tucson, pretty late, and crashed at a hotel with a bed. I was Dam glad to lie down.
We got a slow start in the morning. It was nice not to get up and rush around. We went to Borders and got some great books on CD so we could have a diversion while driving. I recommend this for dozens of reasons.
We were delighted to abuse the hospitality of my Aunt Pat and Uncle Richard after our Border's spree. Somehow we cajoled them into taking us out to lunch at Las Margaritas (I wish I knew how we did that!) Yippee! We like Mexican food. We got the good gossip on all the Arizona folks and passed on the family gossip that we knew. (Family, not to worry, there was nothing TRULY juicy exchanged.) It was an all-too-brief visit before...
....hitting the road again. Thorsten drove and drove and drove and drove all over again. We listened to old timey radio science fiction stories to pass the time. Thorsten pulled a rather amazing 10 hour day and we got all the way to White's City (just outside Carlsbad Caverns) by about 10ish. ANY hotel looks good after that drive.
We hiked around in Carlsbad Caverns (about 2 miles) and were amazed by them. Thorsten was stunned into talking more than once by what we saw. They are worth every bit of stress on the knees that a 1 mile, all down, hike provides. The ride back up in the elevator was REALLY GREAT, We both thought they could have charged more for that.
Then, we drove. Well, Thorsten drove. I didn't drive at all on this trip and consider myself very lucky to have such a wonderful husband.
I hate to say this but the scenery from this point on in the trip STUNK. It's a good thing we had the stories on CD or we would have had to resort to silly driving games to break up the monotony. We made it to San Antonio, Texas that night.
On our way to Galveston, we bought a bed. Thorsten hadn't even see the apartment yet but we were tired and thought this was a great way to spend our time. We just saw a place off the freeway called Mattress Giant and pulled over. (For the record, their bathroom was worse than any other I saw on the trip and believe me, I saw lots of them...) It took us about 23 minutes to complete the entire errand. It was delivered safe and sound the next day, hooray.
When we got to our apartment, Thorsten liked it. Whew. (I chose it without him on a previous trip.) Then we went to a hotel, because we had no bed yet.
We slept in our apartment. It is very nice not to be homeless anymore. We unloaded the car and shopped for the rest of the stuff we needed. Four words: buy stock in Wal-Mart. The movers came Monday and we're about half unpacked. We hope to be settled in soon. Why does it always seem that we have more stuff than we have room to put it in??
We'll be in Galveston till 2/18, returning early May sometime. Here is our current contact information:
We miss you all. I know a blanket statement like this doesn't sound very personal but trust us, we mean it. Hope to hear from you soon.
Heather