Here We Go!

So, the car was packed to the brim. We left the house at about 6am, stopped for coffee and donuts for the kids (and Pierre), and hit I-80. It was a long day. We arrived in North Platte, Nebraska at 6:30pm, the boys swam in the hotel pool, we ate tamales and Thai curry that I packed for our dinner, and hit the hay. We all slept really well last night. We stayed at the North Platte Fairfield Inn. If you ever find yourself in North Platte, Nebraska (?), this is a very nice place to stay. It was uber-clean, the staff was very friendly, and the beds were oh-so-comfy. The complimentary breakfast includes make-it-yourself waffles. Jarun said that hotel waffles are his favorite part of going on vacation. (I suppose we could save a ton of money, and just stay at our local hotels to make waffles and forget the cross country plans in the future!)

Anyway, besides the hotel waffles, North Platte was uneventful.



Today, we drove through Colorado and into Utah. We visited the Rocky Mountain National Park 2 summers ago, so we decided not to spend too much time here. We did manage to find quite a few beautiful sights, Colorado never disappoints. We followed the Colorado river to our present location, Moab, Utah. We will explore Arches National Park tomorrow and then head over to Bryce Canyon.

So far, so good!

Getting Ready

We leave one week from today. The Griswald Family vacation starts in Chicago, leads us into the beautiful canyons of Utah, a meal in Las Vegas, a beach condo in Orange County and back home again. We will be traveling through 11 states, if you count our home state, Illinois.

The minivan was inspected and needed minor repairs have been completed. Our journey has been mapquested and the GPS is ready. Entertainment (in the form of a PS2 and an iPad) are ready for the offspring and my ipod is filled with fun music and comedy. Our emergency kit has been updated (although the dad of our group is wondering why it includes a fishing kit). We have a tentative calendar of activities, maps of the closest Costco stores, and enough sunscreen to create a solar eclipse.

My favorite (and only) brother and his beautiful wife will be caring for our dogs and housesitting. They are the best! We can leave knowing that our dogs will be cared for by people who really love them and my garden won't die while we are gone. I'm glad they enjoy using the pool and I hope SIL makes many frozen margaritas with the Magic Bullet!!


This year, we are vacationing with Pierre. Pierre is a lovely companion. He doesn't eat much and barely makes a peep. We picked him up at Governor's State University. I guess it's sort of an exchange program, we take him on our vacation, and if he enjoys himself, we can win some spectacular prize. We only need to document Pierre's travels and submit our pics to GSU. Easy peasy.

So, I am introducing you to Pierre, our traveling companion. HE likes my emergency kit (I think he likes fish or something).