Homeward Bound

So, that night in Tucson Emily was asleep around 9PM.  I wish we had followed much closer behind because she woke up on Texas time (the day before we were in TX after all) but with the two hour time change it was only 3AM.  BRUTAL!  We tried to get her back to sleep but it didn't work out so she hung out in our bed "trying to sleep" for a while but eventually watched a couple of shows before it was light enough outside to explore before breakfast.

Unfortunately, breakfast was not very relaxing since our two year old was functioning on 6 hours of sleep!!  Plus, Paul called the moving company (since we hadn't heard anything about our truck) only to find out that our things would not be delivered during our promised delivery period - Wed. to Fri. - but, instead, would be arriving the following Monday or Tuesday.  Not great!  There was nothing we could do about that though, Paul tried, so I decided that the one thing we could deal with was the whiny, overtired two year old.  Getting outside and burning some energy before buckling back in the car again was a MUST.  So, with her bathing suit neatly packed away for the road I did what any parent would do - stripped her down and encouraged her to play "naked" in the fountain.




It worked... that day Emily slept for 2 hours in the car!!!!  A new record! 
She only awoke when we crossed the border at 12:15 and had our trailer checked.
Everyone had been waiting for her to wake up but didn't dare interrupt so at our first opportunity we stopped for some lunch.  Lucky us, there was an In-N-Out!!!
Emily stuck with her old fave though.
It was smooth sailing up from the south and through the mountains (even though it seemed to take forever, as it always does when you are near the end) and at 5:01PM we saw our off ramp!!!
Paul thought that was a good time to open the sunroof and let in the cool air and California sun...
for the last couple of miles to our new house.
Finally!!!
We were pretty happy to be "home..."
and just as we promised, there was a bunny in the backyard waiting to greet Emily.
What I didn't remember there being... a lemon tree!!!
After exploring the house a little and kicking it outside for a few minutes we decided that everyone deserved a treat - no unloading and unpacking - 
we headed straight for the BEACH!!!!
Of course, our tired girl fell asleep on that short trip and was a little reluctant to hit the water.


Getting close didn't even work...
it was time to get serious!  (thanks Dad for the assistance)



And then, just like that...
our California girl was born!

Emily LOVES the beach and invited everyone to dip their toes in with her...
(okay, so she dipped more than her toes but we had a change of clothes)






We finished off our evening with dinner and a walk on the pier.
We had traveled over 1700 miles, seen a lot, experienced all kinds of new things, sweat, cried (or was that just me?), laughed, and bonded.  Thank you all for a great great trip!

How Big IS Texas?

Day 3 of our trip - second full day of driving - began in Lajitas, TX and ended in Tucson, AZ.  That means we finally crossed out of Texas, drove across New Mexico, and a good way into Arizona.  But it all began with sunrise on the Rio Grande...

and Emily's turn to take a dip.

(After all, she was the only Texan in the group.)
Immediately followed by a good rinse since we had no time to lose.
Our drive took us across the bottom of Texas along the Rio Grande...
and past some livestock...
(RIGHT past some livestock)

But, those cows were nothing compared to the band of javelinas we almost ran over.  Promise.  Of course, I was in the lead car and didn't have the camera so we were only able to snap a couple when they were off the road.  See...

What do you mean you can't see the javelina?  Look again.  Here is the path along which they walked - look right below the arrow at the emptiness.

Now look in the same spot... see the javelina?!

If you see this...

then you have keen eyes and a wild imagination... just what I look for in a blog reader.  :)

Other than those fun sightings, the road looked much like this...

until we saw this.

A genuine UFO which gave us something to ponder and talk about for 15 minutes...
until we got close enough to see that it was tethered to the ground and probably some sort of weather balloon.
After that it was back to the same 'ol car fun...
the kind where Emily tries unsuccessfully to sleep, 
and makes it hard for others to do so.
We finally crossed out of Texas at 12:15PM on June 21st and somewhere around 5 o'clock we stopped at Council Rock - a rest area that was REQUIRED viewing.
After all, we have MUCH history there.  Like when my mom and I FIRST made the drive east on the move to TX in '95...

when Victoria made her first drive to CA in '01...
and again in '04 for our wedding reception.
You can understand why we had to have some photos taken...





before grinding out the last part of the drive into Tucson - where we arrived at about 8 o'clock.  I am sure we looked a little different than the normal travelers arriving at their nice hotel.
We sure did have a lot of STUFF!  Even Emily had her own assignment...
good thing, since it gave her something to do while they figured out where to hide all of us put us for the night.
Finally, home "suite" home...

complete with a bed for Emily.
Good night!!  Final road day tomorrow!