Yes, we have been home since Friday night. You forget how good your own bed and pillow feel! My body did not like the three-day ride from California and proceeded to have pain for a couple of days afterwards from sitting in the same position for so long, probably also putting my feet up on the dash for comfort! I refer to this condition now as “carlag” it’s similar to jet lag, but instead of going 1,000 miles an hour for five hours, it’s from going 80 miles an hour for three days! Those effects are fading as we get further from the drive time.

Some reflections on our California trip…

• Loved being by the sea and all the cities that we visited adjacent to it. We are definitely beach people and need to remember that.
• The mountains are beautiful, too, for contrast, and we have some of the most beautiful in the Pacific Northwest.
• Loved staying with our friends and found it was good to limit visits to a few days or go off and do things ourselves during day and spend the evening with them.
• That we don’t have to go back to Vegas for a LONG time.
• That Glenn does not want to “ever drive again in LA!”
• That it’s good to get away and, as nice as all the places were that we visited, its good to be in another reality to appreciate the one you choose to live in.
• When you are traveling it’s much easier to see your words and thoughts manifest.
• We have now worked with our navigation system in our SUV for the past two weeks and we got lots of good tips, especially in LA for avoiding traffic, but at times you just want that sweet voice to shut up!

Summer in Oregon is in all it’s glory with fresh fruit of all kinds on the tress, in the market, and farmers markets. We have a Shiro plum tree (yellow, sweet small plums) that is loaded and ready for picking. So, if you are in the vicinity let me know and bring a bucket! The peaches down the road at Jossy Farms are ripe and our warehouseman, Larry, knows which ones to pick! All kinds of berries are available like raspberries, goose berries, blackberries, Logan berries. There’s a great place on Sauvies Island on the Columbia river that has a pick it yourself berry farm with at least 25 kinds of berries. I really want to get out there this summer and pick some really large berries and make a pie!

My next journey on The Pilgrimage

I’m preparing for another trip without the airstream. The airstream is still in Eugene at the dealer getting some warranty items fixed. This trips too far and involves an ocean. It also involves a significant birthday. I’m a water dragon (so you can figure out my age) born in Honolulu, so I’m going back to the scene of my birth and first thirty years of my life.

I will celebrate with dear friends in Hawaii and some who are flying in for the party. I’m staying on the beach where I grew up during summers next door to my family’s house (which was sold long ago) in the house that belonged to Don Ho, the famous Hawaiian  singer who died a few years ago. You see photos of the two islands off the beach in many of the brochures for Hawaii travel. The sand is like sugar and the beach at Lanikai has been voted many times one of the best beaches in the world.

It will be kind of like a “Big Chill” week with close friends coming to stay with us for the week on my favorite beach in the world.  A dream come true.

Will share more of the journey with you as the two weeks progress.