Well, we are home. After my laptop decided that it too wanted a vacation, and we were unable and uninspired in the area of locating internet connections, I made the decision to forgo the updating of the blog while on the trip, and to simply chronicle our adventures after the fact. This had several benefits. First, enjoying the scenery and being with my family is so much more important than being stuck in front of a laptop screen. Second, some of the minor annoyances have begun to fade fom my, as of Wednesday, twenty-three year old brain, and leaves a more positive halo around the recollections of these writings. Third, there was this book I was reading… Well, you get the picture.

Therefore, I will present one or two days at a time, with the added bonus of pictures culled from the several thousand (I am not joking in the least) shots we returned with.

And without further ado, I now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

Day 4 3/14/08

No gas was purchased this day.

Written on May 20^th.

This is a post script to the last post. We found something at the national cemetery:

Yes, kind of strange… **Twilight Zone Music**

Aunt Brook’s house was a perfect venue in which to relax, and do nothing. One of the downsides of traveling is the constant level of activity. This can make people quite irritable, and close proximity while under such conditions makes one desirous of a small amount of personal space. Due to our manditory wait for the van repair, traveling was rendered impossible.

Sleeping in was the perfect start to this period of rest. I personally awoke at 10:30 am, to the sun streaming in the hatch, and the sound of songbirds gently rousing me from slumber. Life was much brighter than the night before.

During the late morning, advantage was taken of the fact that we were in suburbia, with its acres of concrete, to try our hand at setting up the sailboat. The pulled out the canvas (sails), deployed the mast, checked the rigging, and ran up the sails! I must point out that none of us are intimately familiar with the setting up a sailboat, and they do not come with a instruction manual. It was like building a model without knowing where all the parts go. The jib was put on backwards, we tangled the halyard, and it took several tries to get the mast upright. There were a couple parts that we couldn’t figure out what they did, but I am sure their function will become apparent when we are on the lake!

You can just see the thought, "I know this goes somewhere!".

Everyone took a couple of walks, and the kids played in the yard. It was quite interesting to see yards without fences. None of the houses had back fences, front fences, or barriers of any kind. You could look between the houses, and view four and five blocks of houses in one glance. This is highly strange to a California boy, who is used to people being not only willing to see their neighbors, but also seem to prefer not being reminded that neighbors even exist.  Such is the differing mindset between California, and the rest of the world.

Red, Goose, Thomas and I all went to the railroad tracks down the road. Trains passed will great regularity, and we took this opportunity to flatten a few pennies. It is still a matter of debate as to how many pennies it takes to derail a train, we did not find out, but let’s just say that hiding in the grass while the actual flattening occurred seemed like a good idea. I am baring my fangs, in case you were wondering...

And here is the last photo of the prisoner about to be executed. A moment of silence...

Again, we ate, we slept. It was a good day...