R & R in California

So, for those who never got to see what our house in California looked like when we first bought it, this is what the rear of the house used to look like...

Now it looks like this...we added the patio a couple of years ago and the grass you see (it's actually fake grass, no watering, no maintenance) we had put installed in early June. Pretty cool, huh?

Samira quickly became a big fan of the new grass...she was able to lay around on something a little softer than hard, dry dirt all day.

We had a bar-b-que on June 20th and had a pretty big turnout. The kids (including some of the "older kids") played kickball on the new grass. After that, I'm convinced that grass will stand up to anything Mother Nature can throw at it.

The house and yard took up the majority of our time (and money) while we were in California but we got plenty of chances to visit with the west coast friends and family.

Scott and Jenn with "Momma Nowka" (Jenn's mom)

Veronica, Jenn and Angel

We spent alot of time visiting with the west coast family, working on the house and trying to relax some (not much, though). On July 5th (our 12th anniversary) we flew out of LA into Honolulu for one night. While we were there, we had just enough time to pick-up a rental car, get checked into our hotel, check and make sure the girls (our two dogs, Randi and Samira) arrived safely, ensure they were being housed at a Customs facility for the night and were scheduled to fly on the same flight with us the following day to Guam. After all of that was completed, we took a nap. Jet lag got the better of us. We dragged ourselves out of bad late in the afternoon and got in touch with one of our old friends (she's not old, we just know her from about 10 years ago...sorry Ann). The following day (July 6th) we boarded the plane in Honolulu and headed to Guam. The next segment of this blog will be filled with lots of information and pictures...all about our adventures on Guam!

from Colorado to California

6-6-09

So, we left Castle Rock and headed for the Four Corners. There was a lot of beautiful scenery along the way...

...there were rolling rivers...

...majestic mountains...

...beautiful birds...

...and one lousy cop! Nope, no warning this time. Scott got a $162.00 memento from the state of Colorado (that's what it'll cost you if you get caught driving 70 mph in a 55 mph zone). Oh well, no big deal. After getting back on the road (making generous use of the cruise control this time) we continued on to the Four Corners.

Several hours later, we arrived! We took plenty of pictures during this stop. We'd been waiting to see this for a long time!

This is a picture of the marker that divides the four states. Once we had our fill of the Four Corners, we got back on the road. Our next destination was our home in California!

We saw a lot more beautiful scenery on our way to the California state line.

We stopped a couple of hours later in Kayenta, Arizona. We lucked out (again) and got a room at the only hotel in Keyanta that allowed dogs (there were only three hotels in Kayenta, so we really lucked out). We got up the next morning ate at Sonic (yuck, more fast food...it had been almost three weeks since our last real meal) and then continued on to California.

Eight hours later...

...(dramatic drumroll) TA-DA! We made it! We finally arrived at our house in California around 7:30 PM Sunday night (west coast time). The picture above is of our house (for those of you who have heard us talk about it but never seen pictures of it). We drove 3404 miles and crossed 15 states (yes, I'm counting all four states at the Four Corners).

Our plan for the next three and a half weeks includes working on the house and visiting with family and friends. So, we may not update this blog much until we get to Guam. We're scheduled to fly out of California on July 5th to continue our journey to Guam. Check back often after the Independence Day holiday and I'm sure we'll have all sorts of interesting stuff posted...

6-4-09

So, the drive across country so far has been, at times, interesting...

breath-taking...

and maybe a little boring.

But, we kept on truckin'. We finally made it to Rapid City, South Dakota. There, we stayed the night at an incredible Holiday Inn and hit the road again headed for Mount Rushmore.

6-5-09

After about 45 minutes of driving, we finally arrived at one of the nation's most recognized landmarks.

If you ever get a chance to visit Mount Rushmore, don't ask the Park Rangers what it would cost to have your face added to the monument. It's pretty outrageous... and they may ask you to leave the park.

Once we left Mount Rushmore we headed south towards the Four Corners (that's the place where Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona all meet). We stopped for the night in Castle Rock, Colorado early in the evening so we could get a good nights sleep and marvel at the fact that we have entered the land of Carl's Jr.!!

Good Bye NY !!!

6-2-09

Well, we did it! We made it out of NY alive. Even though we planned to leave NY at 10:00 am we didn't actually get out of there until around 1:00 pm.

We got the girls out of the kennel, filled up on gas and didn't stop to eat till we were two states away.

We were finally on the road to our first stop...Chicago. We took turns driving and sleeping but finally got there around 2:00 am (1:00 am local time)

6-3-09

We got up around 8:00 am (very slow moving by the way) and got ready to do a little sight seeing. We didn't really have a plan on what we wanted to do but Jenn just knew she wanted to go to Chicago. First stop, Dunkin Dounuts for a large coffee! Jenn drove while Scott navigated. The weather was cool and WINDY!

First we went to the Navy Pier to check out the shops and walk the girls around a little. The water is beautiful here, by the way. Then we hopped into the car and drove around town.

We visited Wrigley Field...

...and Buckingham Fountain which, you may recognize from the opening credits of "Married with Children" (love and marriage, love and marriage...). We also saw a lot of historical statues around town.

Then after grabbing lunch we headed back to the hotel for a nap. Tomorrow we are back in the car heading to Mount Rushmore.