Home again, home again . . .

Well, we made it back home.  After the ferry ride on Friday, the rest of the day turned out to be a nightmare, pretty much.  Since we got into Anacortes, WA a little earlier than we expected, we decided to forego the hotel room there and see how far we could get past Seattle.  Not the best choice.  It was Friday afternoon, and what should have taken a couple of hours (getting from Anacortes to Olympia, say) took 4+ hours and was a slow crawl the whole time.  Ugh.

A cute little frog from Butchart Gardens; linkup to Simple Things Sunday

Then we had to decide where to stop.  I was increasingly frantically trying to find us a room -- everywhere I called was full, and it was an agonizing process since the signal kept going in and out.  It took me forever to get through to the next possibility.  We went from Olympia through the rest of Washington, trying various hotels along the way; we finally got to Vancouver, Wa., and decided to just pull off the road and see what we could find.  The Red Lion we tried was full, full, full (with many happy conventioneers getting rip-roaring drunk, from what I could see), but the woman was kind enough to call around until she found us something.  We made it to our room (thanks, Fairfield Inn and Suites) around 10 PM -- having left our hotel in Victoria at 7:30 AM.  Yikes.  I was ready to sit down and cry. 

But.  Yesterday was much better, since we were going home!  We left Portland at 7:30 AM and pretty much drove straight through, stopping once for a meal.  We got home at 7 PM, but it really did seem like a short ride, especially when we got in the zone of recognition (I know where I am!).  We were in our jammies and relaxing before 10 minutes had passed, I'm sure.

    The magnificent Mt. Shasta, taken with cell phone from moving car . . . 

One of the best things about a drive through Northern California is the scenery -- Lake Shasta, forests, rolling hills, fields, and the great Mt. Shasta.  On the way up, it was pretty much lost in the clouds, but on the way home, we had a terrific view.  Grace took the picture out the car window.

So, here we are home again, and I'm so happy to be back with Little Buttercup.  Except she wouldn't come near me at first, she was clearly mad at me, and didn't relent until this morning, when she came in and went to sleep on my head.  I'm glad we made up.

Are you having a nice Sunday, wherever you may be?