Our Last Few Days

We've been home for a week, so this is a little bit late, but here are our last few days.

We stayed the night in Missoula, MT and decided that we wanted to be home to surprise our moms on Mother's Day. But we still had about four days left of travel and only three days before we needed to be home, so the last stretch was a little rushed.

The next night we stayed in Seattle. It was a Holiday Inn at the airport, and we didn't realize until we got there that there was a $12 fee for parking. I complained a little about how stupid it was and the guy waived it for me. We slept there till about 3:15 and then got up and hit the road.

The sunrise was beautiful over Southern Washington. We stopped by a little inlet from the Pacific and watched the sky change colors for a few minutes (mostly we were falling asleep and needed to just move so we could stay awake). Jim wanted to see Astoria, where the Goonies took place, so we drove down Hwy 101 and over the Astoria Bridge, which is amazingly long and sits just on the water. It's an interesting bridge. And we saw the rock Mikey used in the movie to find the restaurant where the treasure was buried.

From there we drove along the Oregon Coast the rest of the way to California, stopping twice: once at the Tilamook Cheese Factory and once at the KOA we had booked that wouldn't let us cancel. We slept for about three hours and hit the road again.

The next time we stopped was in McKinleyville, CA for groceries (and because we had to pee) before it got too late. We didn't get into Shelter Cove until after eleven and everything between McKinleyville and there (with the exception of maybe Eureka) was closed.

Shelter Cove Lighthouse

We woke up at Shelter Cove to pleasant temperatures and clear skies, a rarity up there sometimes. I spent the morning cleaning the house while Jim watched TV and in the afternoon we went down to the Cove for fish burgers and some tide pool watching. We saw lots of little crabs, only a few starfish and the cutest little puppy who found himself a crab in the rocks.

It was the perfect last day, really. We had cheese and crackers and the rest of our carrots and snap peas and our last bottle of wine for dinner. The sunset was beautiful until the fog rolled in. 

Our trip is over. It's a little sad, but it's nice to be home too. I don't know that I found any place that I'd like to live. I have a dilemma: I don't love it here, but everyone I love is here. I just don't know if the tradeoff is worth it. There was one place, though, that Jim and I both really liked, where we could see living: Sonoma County...Petaluma, Cotati, somewhere on the coast maybe. The weather is nice, it's close enough to family, exepnsive as hell, but I went to school there and I loved it, and I think I could be happy living there. I guess we'll see what the future holds.

Jim  has gone back to work. He's working at his old bosses auto shop (I guess he's not really Jim's OLD boss anymore...) as the shop manager, giving quotes, performing safety inspections and anything else that needs to be done.

I'm working too...on my novel. I'm determined to get that thing finished and sent to (and picked up by) and agent this year. I got my third draft back from my editor when I got home and I have some work to do on it, but hopefully I'm close. I'll keep ya posted. :)