want to plan a virtual vacation?

My cousin Deb is coming to the US in a few days, and is going to be in New York, Chicago, Orlando, Nashville, Dallas, Vegas and San Francisco. She'll be spending just over a month touring round and has been asking me for months for ideas, and me being very lame am only just getting around to it (yeah, I know - I suck)... anyhoo, I was thinking that we could have some fun and plan a virtual roadtrip to these places and come up with some ideas of cool things she could do (making up for my lack of planning ahead) what do you think???

so here is where you guys come in - I need recommendations on fun things to do in all these cities, then I'll post (over the next few days) some of the things I have come up with and we can add it altogether.

Here is her rough itinerary:

New York - 1 to 9 August

Chicago - 9 to 14 August

Orlando - 14 to 18 August

Nashville - 18 to 21 August

Dallas - 21 to 24 August

Las Vegas - 24 to 28 August

San Francisco - 28 August

Depart Los Angeles - 5 September

and technically it's not a road trip because she is flying from city to city, but that gives extra time in each place :)

happy friday!

this is a particularly wonderful friday for me because bryce and I took the day off to make an extra loong memorial day weekend! and although the week has been kinda rainy and on the cooler side this morning when I woke up the sky looks like this picture - gorgeous!

we are packing up the campervan and the canoe and the puppies and heading to Bass Lake for the long weekend!

what excitement do you have planned?

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

photo here

road trip

we're hitting the road again today and taking a road trip to Portland, Oregon to visit Bryce's family for Thanksgiving. It's a 12 hour drive, and we hear there might be snow on the way, so we're going to take it easy.

I hope you all have a wonderful thanksgiving (for those of you in the US) and a great week to the rest of you!

Special Van Friends?

Vans in the sand

Magical sunset

Kate and Bryce have been shopping around for the perfect VW bus and today I started looking online at a variety of camper van sites to see what they were all about. At http://www.gowesty.com/ I found this link to a camper van calendar contest and fell in love with the idea of travelling all around in a camper van of my own! My great-uncle Reese actually did exactly that when he was about 65 years old and my great-aunt Lidy was about 70. They sold their house in Cupertino and headed off to Europe where they bought a van in Amsterdam and spent over a year driving all around Europe and living on the road. I'll look for the pictures from that trip so you can see them too. These vans are pretty cool so maybe Bryce and Kate will end up with us as their camper van friends and we can throw the kids in the van for roadtrips.

happy friday!

I took this photo a few years ago at Port Campbell, Victoria, Australia on our Great Ocean Road tour.

It was such a great trip and if you're ever down that way I suggest you rent a campervan, take a few days and just stop wherever the mood takes you. We visited Torquay, Bell's Beach, Lorne, The 12 Apostles, Gibson Steps, London Arch, Loch Ard Gorge, the Grotto, Great Otway National Park just to name a few. We saw lots of wildlife from koalas to echidnas just on the side of the road...

Plan B

I have always longed to go on an endless road trip and frequently fantasize about my plan B. Plan B involves me living in my car with the dog and the boyfriend as we travel all over the continent visiting interesting and beautiful places and people. This plan is in the back of my mind for if, or when, I ever get laid off and don't want the burden of home ownership or frequent showering any more. Some people I mention my dream of car-cationing to think it sounds weird that I'm excited about one day living on the road, to me it sounds very, very fun. There are tons of places on my list of places to see, but the first stop is definitely the Amargosa Opera House in Death Valley.