Wayne, America

I just spent a week in the homeland, the good life of Nebraska.  It was so good to be home. Here's my trip by the numbers with a few photos tossed in for good measure:

Number of smokers I had to sit between on the plane:  2  Blech.

Best friends visited:  3

Total number of bottles of wine consumed:  4

New kittens on the farm:  6

Kittens Alex let me take home to Oregon:  0

Relatives at the Von Seggern family reunion:  65

Von Seggern relatives caught line-dancing on camera:  about 50

Time spent playing the game "Aggravation" before we quit because it was too aggravating:  1 hour, 15 minutes

Years my grandparents have been married:  60

Boats on Lewis and Clark lake at 9am on Monday morning:  3

Times I wiped out on the water skis:  3

Chinese restaurants unexpectedly closed in downtown Wayne:  1

Relatives visited in Concord, NE:  6

Population of Concord, NE:  150

High school friends spotted at the Wayne County Fair:  15

Price of pie a la mode at the Catholic Church food stand:  $1.50

Days it felt like the temperature and the dew point were the same:  3

Reasons to love the Midwest:  millions.

Carla, Mindy, Lisa and I snuggle up for the camera.

My Grandpa telling a story about their honeymoon.  Apparently, he forgot to bring along pajamas, but they "made do."

If you're a Von Seggern and you know it, do a line dance.

Craig and Butterscotch

Craig and me on the boat 

Mom kickin' back and relaxin'

Nebraska sunset outside of Hooper

Teaching my grandparents all about the fine art of the "self-portrait"

Scenes from the Commute

I've recently been riding my bike to work more.  With the gorgeous weather and the high gas prices, it feels good on my pale, white skin and keeps my pocketbook nice and fat.  Here are some scenes from my ride to and from work today.  (The last shot is of this hay field I ride by on my way home.  I love the smell of fresh cut hay.)

While Tigard's streets are friendly to cyclists, Tigard's motorists are not quite so much.  

To the driver of the Toyota 4x4 that felt the need to suddenly accelerate by me after he almost hit me trying to merge, I have this to say:  "I'm not impressed by your masculine sounding pick-up truck.  You should know that racing stripes are always a bad idea."

And to the woman who felt the need to cut her right turn early, therefore cutting me off, hear this:  "Get out of my bike lane.  If you were supposed to drive in it, there would be a white Lexus SUV painted on the street."

Americana

Ok, ok, just one more post from the vacation and then I promise to stop.  Promise.

So, when you drive 1600 miles one way to get somewhere, you see a lot.  Beautiful scenery, sunrises, sunsets, people from all parts of the country and maybe even the world.  You also see a lot of stuff that makes you do a double take and say, "what the.....?" All I can say is, thank goodness for fast digital cameras.

Take for example, what we'll call, Exhibit A.  The Hole 'N' the Rock in southeastern Utah.

We drove by so fast, we really weren't sure what it actually was, but a quick Google search brought me to the Hole in the Rock website.  Apparently, it's a house in the rock.  Complete with a gift shop of-course, as well as a petting zoo, trading post and guided tours.  Oh, and a $5 admission fee.  What kills me is that they turned the mountain into a freakin' billboard! Seriously, are you kidding me? 

And now, Exhibit B.  Goat tied to stick in Monticello, UT.

We were stuck in "downtown" Monticello waiting on some road construction and looked over to see this little guy tied to a stick in the side yard of a repair garage.  Anything that might at one time have been green in the circle of his rope was gone.  Who ties a goat to a stick?

And finally, Exhibit C.  Some genius advertising placement in Farmington, NM.

The 2-hour, $25 Detour

Have you ever been on a road trip and found yourself dreading driving back the way you came? Well, that's what happened to us on Monday as we got ready to leave ABQ.  We had driven southeast out of Salt Lake City in order to visit Arches and then continued southeast toward Albuquerque.  Well, to be perfectly honest, the only good part of all that road is the 30 miles into Moab and then the 30 miles out of Moab.  The rest is full of road construction, 55 mph zones, tiny, poverty-stricken towns and oh yeah, lots of nothing on the horizon.  Blech.  Let's just say I was not looking forward to that again.  So, we plotted a new course.  Westward, ho!

We headed west into Flagstaff, then north toward Utah.  We woke up on Tuesday morning on the edge of the Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell.

Our next stop was Zion National Park in southwest Utah.  The charge per vehicle to drive through Zion is $25.  That was 25 bones well spent.  Zion is one of most breathtakingly beautiful places I've ever been.  As the road curves through the park, you descend deeper into this huge canyon with sheer walls on each side.  The road cuts through the cliff walls in a tunnel about a mile long and since there are so many huge RVs that try to go through, they keep the tunnel to one lane.  We were lucky and ended up as the last car so we could stop and take photos through the lookouts.  Oh, and hand off the baton to the park ranger of-course.   The park has a great shuttle service that will take you up to the trailheads deep into another canyon, but since we had to make to Boise on Tuesday night, we just didn't have time for the shuttle.  Arrgh.   We only spent two hours in the park, but two hours were all I needed to know I have to go back.  We will so be back.

The best way to describe Zion is through the photos so enjoy!  (These were all taken on our point and shoot camera so I'll post some of the good shots from B's big dog camera once he gets them downloaded. )

A whole New Mexico

We closed out the weekend with some shopping in Albuquerque.  First stop was the artsy district, Nob Hill and then we spent the afternoon wandering around Old Town ABQ.  Here are my favorite images:

We had the best time.  New Mexico is definitely good for a vacation, but I think it was the company that made it so great.  Our last night in the cabin, we put the babies to bed and played cards for a couple of hours.  You know, that right there, was my favorite part.  It was as if we were all 20 again, back in dorms, playing games in the lobby.  I love you girls!

(Wow, you never know when a sentimental wave a nostalgia will hit do you?  Sheesh, this blog is getting so sappy.)

For more photos from our whole trip, check out my flickr site.

Babies and Mommies

I think my favorite part of the trip was being on vacation.  My second favorite part was being with my good friends for four days.  My third favorite part of the trip was these babies and laughing and watching the babies do what babies do. 

Let the games begin

The ultimate destination was a cabin in the Sandia mountains outside of Cedar Crest, east of Albuquerque.  Gwen, Karen and Jody all had babies last summer so we rented a house big enough for five Husker girls, three husbands and three babies.  We had such a blast. 

On Friday, we all piled in the cars and headed up to the Sandia Crest, the summit of the Sandia range, topping out at 10,678 feet.  It was weird to be up there and think that if we were back in Oregon, we'd be standing on about 20 feet or so of snow.  

Me and Baby #1, Gavin.

Gwen and Jody on the Sandia Crest Summit.

B on the summit.All of us-- Matt with Gavin on his back, Tom carrying Aubrie, Jody and Jonah.  Karen, Gwen, Liz and me in the back.  B, naturally, is behind the camera lens.

We quickly learned that when you have eight adults and three one year-olds, routine and schedules pretty much go out the window.  By the time some of us were ready to go, there was usually a baby that was sleeping or needed to eat.

This didn't phase us too much because we could just go outside and play a couple of rousing games of BlongoBall.  What is BlongoBall you ask?  Well, only the funnest yard game this side of the Mississippi.  My parents played this game at a friend's house and bought my brothers and I each a set for Christmas.  We had no idea my parents were so hip.  This game is seriously a good time. 

Matt kicking butt during a round of "Extreme BlongoBall."  i.e. playing with a baby on your back.

Arches over Moab

We left Portland on a Tuesday night and headed east.  Our plan was to camp at a state park on the Oregon/Idaho border, get up super early and then drive on Wednesday to Moab, Utah so we could check out Arches National Park.  

Let me just say that the drive from Ontario, Oregon to Moab, Utah will take you all day.  All. Day. We rolled into Moab around 11pm on Wednesday night, way past our estimated arrival time.  We had wanted to catch Arches in the evening light, but alas, it was not to be.  So, we decided to make it to the park early in the morning.

Early in the morning at a National Park definitely has its benefits.  You get shots like this:

This area is called Park Avenue.

Or this, of Bryan hiking up the slickrock trail to Delicate Arch.

Delicate Arch.  One of those things that I've seen photos of a thousand times.  It is so much different when you see first-hand for yourself.

More shots of the park: