On the Road Again...

So - it was pointed out that we should update the girls' ages - yes, they are now 5 and we are yet again, headed out on a wild adventure of a road trip.

This time - headed to Portland for a Jimmy Buffett concert, then a mad dash south on I-5 to catch ANOTHER Jimmy Buffett concert in Irvine two days later. Plans are to spend some time with family and friends along the way (and at the concerts) and then afterwards play in S. Cal for a couple of days before making yet another mad dash back up the I-5 corridor in time for me to be back to work by Tuesday.

Can we do it?! I hope so! The grass skirts are packed, the girls are psyched and I have the concert tickets printed...

Parrotheads - HERE COME THE BONDYS!

Bad Blogger Mommy...

So - the trip to WDW and Cocoa Beach was an absolute blast - we managed to spend time at all 4 of the Disney Florida parks, spent a day at Blizzard Beach water park, visited Gatorland, spent time on Cocoa Beach, "surfing" (aka body boarding) in the waves created by the hurricanes out in the Atlantic and just enjoying our time on vacation.

Some highlights of the rides for the girls were the Tower of Terror (yes, they actually did this AND loved it!), Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Peter Pan's Wild Ride and the Speedway. They got their photos taken with lots of characters, including Pooh and Friends (for a character lunch), a ton of princesses (for a character breakfast), Buzz Lightyear and Sherriff Woody, Lightning McQueen and 'Mater, Stitch and of course, Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto.

We took a ton of pictures (even some for our Drive By Pics blog) but have been slowed from posting them due to computer issues!

So - in summary - the girls' first trip to Florida was a smashing success - and they are already talking about when they get to go back.

HERE WE GO AGAIN!

Another Great Adventure - Walt Disney World - here come the Bondys!

Home Again Home Again Jiggity Jig

That was a rhyme my Grandmother Margaret used to say, nearly every time she pulled the car into the garage, funny how some memories return all these many years later.

We made it back to Maple Valley, finally, about 12:30 this morning. We arrived home to our house, intact (see the regular-stuff blog from a couple of weeks before we left) and cold cold cold. We had turned the heat off before we left - and as we pulled into the driveway, noticed the front window was fogged over - uh oh. Thankfully - we have the gas fireplace, which we promptly heated up and snuggled the girls in front of...just like old times for them.

So - some trip statistics:

We haven't yet added up all of the gas and other travel necessities (Junior Mints, Good N Plenty, Diet Pepsi, etc.) but I would say that the experience was worth every penny! Wow, what a great time we have had!

Southern and Central Oregon were beautiful this morning - the colors going over Grants Pass were amazing!

The final leg of the trip was quite amusing, as Lloyd took photos of random people driving, riding and hitchiking on I-5 through Oregon. This game would have continued into WA as well, but it got too dark to shoot those photos without a flash and a flash could really cause some problems on the drive.

Some folks were oblivious, some annoyed and some found humor in it. We were actually surprised that we never got any middle fingers! The following photos are some of the folks that we hope that we cheered up a bit anyway.

This was the sign Lloyd devised and held up for each shot.

One of our early subjects - didn't appear to be that happy to be driving his Prius (see how nicely this game tracked with our Prius game?!)

We figured we would also take some photos of some passengers, this poor guy appears to have lost something...

The eyebrows on this motorcycle driver said "WHAT THE HECK?"

Our first subject was a trucker who actually laughed out loud - or appeared to anyway.

This vision of health seems to be saying "Anybody got a light?"

Is it illegal in Oregon to be on a cell phone while driving?

Here's an Estelle Getty look-a-like who was obviously enjoying getting her photo taken.

We tried over and over to get this Obama supporter to smile, or even look at us - but her gaze was locked on the road ahead! Maybe she was watching for change?

Clearly...not amused.

Clearly amused. This lady actually gave us the thumbs up before we took her photo! Although I suspect her driver was a bit annoyed since I had to hit the brakes in front of him in order to capture one of the others...

Finally, our "PEACE" guy. This guy was so happy to have his photo taken, he actually sped up so that Lloyd could get a better shot!

So - all things considered, we drove a lot, ate a lot, played a lot, took lots and lots of photos and had a wonderful time. Our sincere thank yous to all of our friends/family members who welcomed us so warmly, and apologies to all that we were unable to see along the way.

Thanks to those of you who read along with our daily adventures and gave us encouragement to keep on posting.

Until the next big adventure...

The Final Leg

We are preparing to take off from Medford - after a wonderful stay in the local Hampton Inn. We have really had great luck at this chain of hotels and this was no different. This one even had a pool - so after the free breakfast with the girls - we hit the pool. The girls should be nice and tired out now for the beginning of our drive this morning.

Lloyd is planning on taking candid photos of other drivers on I5 - so that means Tina is driving. :)

Port-a-Potties, Peacocks and Hootels

We headed north today, though not in any hurry, along the scenic west side of the lake. Again, took the opportunity to spend some time in the places we used to really love to visit – such as Emerald Bay. There the girls took the opportunity to try a little “free” climbing. Although Lloyd and I are debating whether “free” or "solo" means without ropes. Essentially – they were bouldering, but having a great time of it. Both girls are pretty much naturals. Although there is some concern that Madeline may try “base jumping” at some point – since she got to the top then launched herself off at her dad. Good thing he has quick reflexes!

From Emerald Bay, we continued along the lakeside, stopped along the way to pick up sandwiches for a picnic (although really we were trying to use their bathroom – irritating when they won’t even let customers use them! Especially with two kids who are trying to do the whole potty training thing!) Anyway…the guy at the deli counter kindly directed us down the road about 3 miles to a port-a-potty. Can I just say how challenging it is to try and take a toddler to the bathroom in a port-a-potty? “Don’t touch, don’t move, don’t touch, don’t move” – was pretty much my mantra through two separate trips. We do everything in twos...

After that lovely experience, we headed to Squaw Valley (site of the 1960 Winter Olympics) to take a photo of the girls in the big chair!

Those that came to visit us, know that along with the Camel Races photo, the big chair at Squaw was another mandatory photo op. After that – we pointed the van for Medford, Oregon. The girls kept asking if we were going back to Uncle El's house tonight, and we’ve told them that no – we are going to a hotel tonight somewhere in Oregon. So – for the last few hours we’ve fielded questions about “is this the hootel?” The girls really have some of the funniest pronunciations.

Somewhere in northern California, randomly – we are driving on a highway and out of nowhere appeared 2 PEACOCKS!

Lloyd, our trip photographer, was too surprised to pick up the camera quickly enough and I (as the driver at that point) was trying to make sure the birds didn’t join the scores of grasshoppers on our grill.

The girls have been such incredibly good travelers this whole trip. They have watched a few DVDs when we are driving after dark. Their favorite shows these days are Monsters Inc and Madagascar. Apparently, Madeline believes that the movies are interactive. A few minutes ago, all of a sudden we hear her go “rawr”! And, as I’m not driving, and don’t have the benefit of the rearview mirror, Lloyd tells me that her claws actually came up as well.

Since we are on the major highways and approaching Oregon, OLGA is our friend again. She tells us we should arrive in Medford around 11 tonight. Too late for a swim, but Madeline will be thrilled when we finally arrive at the "hootel".

Nothing like playing tourist somewhere you used to live!

It's an interesting phenomenon, when you move from a place, you realized all of the things that you never took the time to do when you lived there. This happened to us when we first left WA to move to Nevada, and then again, when we moved from Nevada back to Washington. There are still some things in WA that we must do (Ride the Ducks, visit the EMP...) but for now, we will have to be happy with doing some of the Nevada things on this visit, as well as reliving some of the fun that we had while we were here. Playing "chick or dude", people watching and hitting some of our favorite spots.

Since arriving, we have had a wonderful time here in Lake Tahoe / Carson City. We have had a chance to drive around (gas is under $3 here!) and see what all is new, what remains unchanged and marvel at how beautiful the changing colors are around here. Yesterday we headed out to Taylor Creek for an interpretive nature walk with Uncle El & Carol, to see spawning Kokanee salmon and hoping for a bear sighting. There have reportedly been many lately. I think Lloyd and Carol are going to go back out tomorrow morning to try again if Lloyd can get his behind out of bed. HAHA

The girls have really taken to being here at Uncle Els! Madeline came running into the house yesterday afternoon, searching all over the place saying "where are my friends?!" El and Carol have been spoiling the girls rotten with attention. Last night they were kind enough to watch the girls for us for a couple of hours while Lloyd and I enjoyed an adult dinner with Bob & Kat Riser at Fire and Ice there at the base of Heavenly. Lloyd worked with Bob at Lyon County Fire, Bob is now a Captain (yea!) and Kat is a Starbucks store manager for the Dayton store, who just made Manager of the Quarter and her store also placed 1st NATIONWIDE for Customer Voice Survey! Both of which are great accomplishments! YEA KAT! :) Afterwards, we all came back to El & Carol's so that Bob and Kat could see how big the girls have grown since we moved.

We also spent some time at Station 39 in Dayton, visiting with the folks there. They were kind enough to let the girls not only sit in the brand new engine, but honk the horn as well!

Today we spent the day really touring around town, both Carson City and Virginia City. Actually - it gave the girls a great nap in the car. We woke them up once we got to VC, and asked them if they wanted to play "dress up". Note the picture at the beginning of the post. They were both happy to do so, and really did a great job of cooperating. We also had to take a photo of them at the Camel Races sign. For those of you who visited us while we were living in Dayton, you will recall that this is a "must do" when you go to Virginia City.

We also stopped at Cave Rock for some pictures, what a beautiful fall day!

Finally, we ended the day with some time at Mills Park in Carson City, with our friends Sarah and Eric. Sarah and I played soccer together while we were living here, and then ended up having our 1st (and in my case, 2nd) babies just 5 days apart. After some play time and then of course some photos ops, the kids LOVED not only running across the little footbridge together, but insisted on holding hands, we met up with husband/father Josh at Reds 395 BBQ. Another of our favorite places while we were living here. Food was just as good as ever, service was just the same Nevada-quality that we remembered. Ahhh.... And for those of you who joined us for a meal at Reds, my mint-snaging abilities have rusted. I only managed to get 5 - and then I thought I was going to have to share those with the girls. Lucky for me, I still had a bag of "Smartees" ready for the next bribe.

What a wonderful vacation we have had, and are still having. We are planning on heading north out of Lake Tahoe tomorrow morning (hopefully after Lloyd gets a photo or two of a bear eating breakfast) and taking our time driving into somewhere in Oregon. Hopefully we will have a "trooper-free" drive home!