Business as usual

Well, I'm back. I left home all by myself and lived to tell the tale. I missed the girls "show bad" as Amelia would say, but had a really fun time with my friend Amy, who has not changed a bit since we were kids. I only have a few pictures to share at this time since our computer is on the fritz, but I'll add more when I can.

Here we are in front of the Arch (Thanks for the pics Amy; sorry but I just HAD to use this shot! It shows us exactly like we were all weekend - laughing and joking and being silly and trying not to pee ourselves.). We did some of the obligatory things like seeing the Arch, but we did it in style atop a four-seater bike through the downtown traffic, swerving to miss the horse manure left by the fancy tourist buggies.

To prevent your sheer boredom, I won't share the vast majority of the pictures I took on this trip. There are lots of things that my kids don't see very often, if ever.... bridges, traffic, trains, sky-scrapers, graffitti, billboards, farms, muddy rivers, fall colors, pollution... the list is endless. And while I had a great time catching up with Amy and meeting her family (they.... are..... AWESOME!), I had a really hard time being in the big city. (Hope I didn't complain too much, Amy!) It was quite the eye-opener for me to realize how truly Alaskan I am to the core.

I'm not sure I'll ever do another trip without the girls and Greg while the girls are still young, but being away gave me exactly the break I needed and the focus that I was lacking before I went. Next time I might just head out the road for an overnight hike/camp instead.