Polka Dotted Highways.

There are two tools we have used as we drive from here to there. One is a tattered oversized state farm road atlas that stays with us in the front seat. The other is Rory's phone with GPS, his gadgety dream come true. Typically I am consulting the map while he is looking at the phone. Too bad no one is looking at the road.

As we began our road trip, I started to figure out that my lovely atlas marks beautiful scenic drives by a line of polka dots next to the drawn highway. We didn't plan to do this when we set out, but the majority of our drives have been on polka dotted scenic drives.

I have become quite accomplished at taking scenic pictures with my hand flapping in the wind out my window as Rory flies us down the highway at 70 miles per hour. Here are a few of my favorite:

Sweet Lizzie

We spent election night at Anne and Ross Kedl's in Denver. Anne, is my Godmother (I had nine incredible men and women as sponsors at my baptism, and she is one of them) and my parents are her godparents, and I am her son Justin's godmother. Anne is 10 years older than I am, and as life progresses it is so fun to realize that we are growing in to good friends (I love how age gaps begin to fade when you get older.) I didn't get a picture of the whole family last night, but I have this one from when we got together with them this summer in Alexandria. And since then, they have adopted Lizzie from China.

When we saw Anne and Ross in July, they were anxiously waiting for the go ahead to go and get their daughter. I read their blog religiously, trying to imagine the intensity of all of their feelings as they walked through this process. And now, just two months later, it was pure joy to see Lizzie at home, loved SO FULLY by her mom and dad and phenomenal brothers. We watched the election results come in last night and Ben and Justin were kind enough to SHARE THEIR HALLOWEEN CANDY!!!! WHAAAHOOOOOO!!!

Aspen

While looking through our Aspen pictures, I realized that we had taken many more pictures of ourselves than we did of the scenery. And it made me happy because for me, these pictures sum up our trip the best. We have loved and cherished each other well on this adventure. I am so grateful for this time on the road and how fully I live life with my best friend.

We had stunning weather in Aspen, and walked around a lot. We spent an entire morning at the Aspen library reading our books in a sunny window on cushy chairs. We had a picnic in the city park, and got a caramel apple at the Rocky Mountain Candy company. It was pretty dreamy.

Arches!

Our trip to Arches was a three hour detour from our planned route to Aspen and ended up being a complete highlight of the whole trip for me. When I saw the rock next to the picture of me below I laughed. There is so much joy in God's creation- and some of it is just comical- the gigantic redwood trees, the huge rocks jutting out of the ocean in Oregon, and now this...these phenomenal rock formations right in the middle of the desert.

The Pharisees told Jesus to silence the crowd who were praising God, and Jesus replied, "I tell you, even if they keep quiet, the stones themselves will cry out."

Reno and Salt Lake City

Rory has been using kayak.com to find our hotels on this trip, and in Reno we broke our record for a cheap hotel. We stayed at casino hotel for $35! Reno was a bit of a riot...it felt like this must have been the hot spot in the 70's. All of the casinos from the outside had a strong feel from that time.

We were then on to Salt Lake City and actually, in our two days there, never even saw the Great Salt Lake. :( We drove in to the area in the dark and stayed in a suburb outside of the city and didn't drive that direction again. But we saw lots of salt driving into the area that looked a lot like snow.

The lovely Lake Tahoe

When we end up in a sweet little town (and we know one when we see one) Rory says, "Oh, I have to get an ice cream cone here." And then we venture out to find him his treat to honor the charming, quaint town we find ourselves in.

It was another beautiful day. We walked the shoreline for a while and took in the fall colors.

Troll Knoll

I think the pictures paint the best picture of this magnificent place:

We spent the past two nights at Troll Knoll, gorgeous in every way. John and Anne, parents of my sister-in-law Stephanie, graciously welcomed us on our road trip. I had heard stories of this glorious place, seen pictures before, but wow was it something to behold! There are paths that cover all 20 acres that are filled with gardens, orchards and witty humor. We lodged in Annesville, down one of the paths on their property, in this lovely home in the middle of this mining town.

Annesville is located just down the path from a state of the art Squirrel Socialization Center and just before hitting Pinky's Trailer Park. Here is the Squirrel Socialization Center and a sign to help you get around:

The gardens are filled with these clever destinations that left me smiling a cheesy grin everywhere we walked. There was a beautiful article written about Troll Knoll in August and since then, John and Anne have welcomed hundreds of people to their gardens. This year they have had over 4,000 visitors! They just hired some help, but mostly this is entirely the fruits of their own labor.

Check out this news segment that aired at the beginning of October. I think it paints the best picture of the joy and whimsy found in this place. The segment will appear in a box above the ant pictures...just give it a minute to load. It is completely worth it:

http://www.news10.net/life/entertainment/story.aspx?storyid=48968&catid=34

And the website for more pictures is http://www.trollknoll.com/

Thanks to John and Anne for incredible conversation and delicious food in a glorious setting.

Friday in Santa Cruz

We were greeted by dolphins and a few sea lions and spent a glorious day enjoying the sun. It was 81 degrees, and actually got so hot we had to leave the beach for a while to get out of the sun. But before we left, Rory announced that the ocean was calling him.

The water was very, very cold, and I did not hear the ocean calling me.

We came back in the afternoon to watch the sunset...now that is the beauty of the west coast. The sun always sets on the water. It actually took me a while to realize that this would happen everywhere as we drove down the coast.