Grandpas Resting place We came to this land in June of this year, in the midst of a heatwave. We thought we could make a home from the dust but we left after less than two weeks, frustrated. Our plans foiled. Maybe it wasn’t time yet. Maybe we wimped out. And so we left. For…
We drove south from Alaska near the end of May this year on a whim. Maybe I’m just tired of the winters. The darkness gets to me. Or maybe it’s just a classic mid-life crisis and the husband and I have sunk at the same time. Because in April when I said, “Let’s go…
“Mom, I need some more language arts worksheets printed,” said my nearly 15 year old this morning, who needs her world aligned at all times or she gets frantic. Order, structure, neatly stapled packets are a dream come true and the chance to organize canned foods makes her heart go pitter-patter. “We’re not doing any…
It’s February 20, 2014. I’m sitting on a barstool on an island, sipping a non-fat vanilla latte, casually, as if I’ve done this before. And I don’t wanna go home. Upon arrival on the coastal islands of Texas (who knew Texas had islands?) I knew I would love this place. Long beaches, scarcely used in…
Cutie Birds on the Boardwalk SISTERS! Sunset Pelican Steven Skates the Bowl Luke…the reason they make helmets… Robin wanted to try skating… But her skateboard didn’t want to play… Anthony HAWK rides again… Anthony Hawk…trying to live up to his namesake And not quite making it… No Riley’s participated in the making of this awesome…
HUGE Scenic Sunday full of BIRDS! And some Dolphins. And other stuff too. Dolphins leading the ship from the harbor… Dolphins SO cute! And look, there they are again! Me, the husband, and this beach to ourselves all day long… Enough garbage washed up on this beach to fill a landfill. It was 99% plastics…
I’ve been asked the same question many times these past months as we travel. “How are you affording to do this? Must be nice to vacation all the time…” There is no secret. We’ve not a pot-o-gold buried on our back forty and we’ve no inheritance paving our way across the western U.S. The fact…
This morning the kids and I planned to wake early and leave our little cabin up the Frio River here in Texas. Yesterday we packed the pop-up, cleaned up the cabin completely, and left out only our duffle bags and breakfast food. Upon waking, I encountered a site that the family, as a whole, has…
“Whaaaat the blaaaazes are Y’ALL doing in Teeeexas?” I keep hearing over and over. Well, they don’t say it like that exactly, but my ears have been Texasized now so that’s how I hear it. Plus, I really like to use my new accent, even if it is just in type. Okay, here’s how it…
Kids in front of Downtown Disney, drooling and wishing they were inside. We’ll go before we return to Alaska in the spring. Prickly tree near Knotts Mya being a puffer fish The Boys at the pool at Knotts Berry Farm Billy plays spring board for Robin Billy and Robin doing tricks Riding the roller coasters…
Placerita Canyon, California at the “waterfall”. Not. Kids had their FIRST ICE CREAM TRUCK EXPERIENCE! And learned about false advertising… Went swimming the day after Christmas…that’s just weird. Kids and cousins sporting their “Grammy Jammy’s”! Robin We took a subway at Union Station in downtown L.A. That was an experience… Universal Studies “City Walk” We…
This week we traveled over to Reno, spent two nights at Circus Circus in their mid-week absurdly cheap rooms, then we headed down the 395, eager to get out of the city. We camped two nights and spent three days between Reno and Mohave, landing tonight in a hotel because seriously….we were filthy and tired….
Cousin, Mary….”I dare you to take me out of this sink…” I can’t stop taking pictures of Mary… COUSINS!!!! Bagel and Beezie are SO happy to be be out of the truck!! Booboo…FREE AT LAST! Enjoying the beach, despite the snow! “Put me back in that truck and see what happens…” Mya and her babies……
I’ve actually got nothing funny to say about today…which is good news since that means nothing bad happened. Good for us, bad for entertainment value. It’s late, we drove about 13 hours today through windy, mountainous, freezing, roads and we’re tired. We drove, we ate, we watched me cower behind the truck while a buffalo…
We bedded down last night in Tok, Alaska in a highway frontage hotel. If I have learned anything on this trip so far it’s that there is no need for an alarm clock with five kids, three dogs, and two cats who are all used to the silence of the backwoods. Nobody sleeps through hotel…
We crested the hill just before our driveway in the backwoods of Alaska after six months traveling in the lower 48 and my girls jumped from the truck nearly before we could come to a stop. “Let us out to run,” they said, these teenage girls we’d dragged to the big city to see another…
Last night some random stranger invited my niece Amy and I on an evening boat ride around the Ventura, California Harbor. Sure, complete stranger on a dark and secluded dock, I’ll get in your boat and float away to who knows where…that seems smart. And so I climbed aboard. (Hey, he was wealthy, attractive and…
Yesterday Luke saw two black widows and a lizard…he has had enough of California and is ready to go home now. Actually, he thought the lizard was a scorpion…time for Alaska boy to get a desert education. Grandma’s house has been great. She lives in a guarded gate community which is nice because the kids…
I was born a nomad. In my forty-two years I have lived in 18 different homes in four different states and yet I feel like I’ve been stationary my whole life. My feet get the urge to wander and my family knows it’s time when I start thinning my belongings to a manageable heap. So…
I’m not an avid gun handler. I mean, I grew up lugging around a BB gun and could take out a Budweiser bottle as well as any filthy boy next door. I blew away ant hills and sabotaged unsuspecting spruce hen deep in the woods of Alaska late in the fall of my childhood. But…
Apparently we only have Sundays about once a month this summer…either that or I’ve just been TOO BUSY TO SIT AT THE COMPUTER! Probably, it’s the latter. But here’s a glimpse of the past few weeks. Our trucks long lost rich relative tracked us down in Anchorage… Bizarre lighting in the snow up above Portage…
They say you never really know your area until you have company…or at least that’s what it seems. This past two weeks my oldest daughter, Heather, and her boyfriend, Andrew, have been visiting from Oregon. SO we are playing touristy and seeing the sites. These pictures come from our ferry trip across from Homer to…