Off we go!!

Yay! Our family vacation is finally here! Every year for the last eight summers we have spent our vacation time and money heading from San Jose to Minnesota and Michigan (with some rendezvous in Wisconsin) to visit our families. We so adore that time and love love love staying connected with our loved ones. But this year, due to our big life change (Brian and I working together and making one income “work”) we decided that a big trip to the mid-west was not a wise choice. Instead, we sent our middle two as family ambassadors, and planned to do something fun at home. But then, our wheels began to turn. What if we head up the coast and visit our friends in Portland and our family in Washington? That would be fun. So we spent a Sunday afternoon looking through camping and travel books about HWY 1 and the beautiful coast. But “Houston, we have a problem!”; we sold all of our camping gear last fall to make room in the garage for Brian’s office. Well, okay, hotels then, but suddenly, our plan cheap road trip plans were adding up. Hmmm. . . thinking outside the box, or van, or airplane . . . what about a train?? Within a few days of coming up with our brilliant plan, we had six round-trip tickets on the Coast Starlight, Amtrak’s flag-ship line, up the coast of California, Oregon and into Washington. Now, how cool is THAT? Best part? The tickets were $100 each way per person!! Um, wow! So there you have it; the Mayer family adventure is about to begin. I am excited and a little nervous. Four kids on a train, in the dark, in the rain . . . wait, I am waxing Dr. Suess. Anyway, it should be a blast, and of course, there will be MANY photos to prove it (or show how crazy it is). Who knows, maybe I will convert you all to rail travel!

Just in case you are a “bad-guy” thinking about our empty house, our neighbor, who’s sister-in-law is staying with her for weeks and weeks with her twin 2 year olds and her 3 year old is sacking out at our place for a little peace and tranquility. Oh, and even though she has pretty polish on her toes, she wears steal-toed boots; so don’t bother her!

Oops! Edited to add photos I HAVEN’T already shared! And since I know you will all be sad if I don’t post any images, here are some of my Lydia one morning making and enjoying “turtle ‘roadkill’ pancakes”. My dad, Grandpa Doug, has always been a fun and funny guy with kids. When we were little we ALWAYS had fun pancakes: turtles, snowmen, pac-man. But in recent years, in an effort, perhaps, to appeal to the latest generation’s obsession with grossness, has started making “donkey lips” pancakes. These are really just gross blobs of batter passed off as “donkey lips” (do donkeys HAVE lips?) This summer, however, they stepped it up a notch. Now we have “donkey ‘butt’ pancakes” oooookaaaay, Grandpa Doug! I don’t even want to know what those look like!

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