"I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move." 

--Robert Louis Stevenson

Forgive my lack of blog presence lately, but we just returned from a most blissful vacation. I have all sorts of lovely details and photos to share.

I just love me a good road trip. We hopped in the van and drove up through Idaho, along the Columbia River, down the Oregon coast, dipped into California, then pushed through that ugly vast wasteland we refer to as Nevada, and landed back into our driveway yesterday evening. The loop amounted to about 2500 miles when all was said and done.

There is no DVD player in our van. We rely solely on a plethora of music to keep us entertained on our journey. We listened to everything from Enya, to Simon & Garfunkel and Queen, to Depeche Mode and U2, to Louis Armstrong and Frank Sinatra, to Beethoven and Dvorak. 

It was about as close as you get to a perfect vacation. There was  the perfect balance of relaxation and sightseeing, pre-planned ventures and spontaneous stumblings, city adventures and nature therapy, challenging hikes and putting our feet up in front of the fire. I love when vacations come together better than you ever could have planned. There was delicious food, fun conversation, cool temps, and gorgeous scenery. We made enough delightful memories to hold us over to at least the end of the year, when the travel bug bites us again. And I will tell you all about our adventures a little bit at a time. It would require forgoing food and sleep to recount it all right now, and I can't afford to give up either one this week. It's a good thing we enjoyed ten days of complete undisturbed family time, because the next few weeks are going to prove exhausting I'm afraid. 

As I grow weary after packing my 200th box, I'll stop and remember a carefree week in a beautiful place, and maybe that will give me the strength to keep going.