Do You Know the Way to Santa Fe...

The trip Santa Fe was 9 hours and just flew by, kinda looked up and ta-dah! we were there. None of us had ever been to SF but I have always heard it was great. And oh was it! I could have spent 3 full days there, and still been left wanting. But I'll get to our day in SF in a minute. First I would like to say that I knew the trip was gonna be fun, but we have done nothing but laugh and really enjoy each other. Sharon is such a blessing. I have been on at least 10 family vacations with her in my life, but never really known how prepared she is..... For anything, everything, or absolutely nothing. Mom and I (obviously) are exactly the same... We take all normal precautionary steps, pack all the clothes, shoes and make up we might need in case something happens and know that if anything does my dad will figure out a way to save us. Oh no, not with Sharon, she's a bona fide Mary-Poppins-eagle-scout! I might have gone with some sort of Mary Poppins military personnel, but I wouldn't let her bring a taser or pepper spray (I just had a hunch that we would find some way to set off the pepper spray in the car!)  The Mary Poppins comes from the fact that she keeps pulling more and more stuff from her bag. The things that she pulls from her bag are the exact type of bare minimum items that I said they were allowed to pack. 6 plastic rain ponchos, an emergency reflective blanket, not 1 but 2 headlights, the kind that clips to your ball cap with a white, red and blue setting, and a nifty strobe light setting, a small fan, an umbrella, 3 pair of sunglasses, a pair of scissors, and most importantly, an incredibly well thought out plan for our trek. I'm sure there are more things that I'm forgetting at the moment... I'll keep you updated on what other items she pulls out of her bag! I did get a set of jumper cables from my dear friends Tracy and John Daem, so thanks to them, I do at least have those, in case. 

We pulled into Santa Fe and stayed at the beautiful Inn at Loretto. Just off the main square, it was perfectly located. My friend Sam gave us awesome food recommendations, so we ate at The Shed, a very busy, authentic, spicy-as-hell, New Mexican restaurant with margaritas that really packed a punch. It was delicious! Conversation turns back and forth from humorous to serious quickly.  As most of you know, my uncle (mom's brother) Scott passed away almost a year ago. Sharon was as close to Scott as mom and me. We have lots of discussed memories and jokes. We are planning the 3rd Annual Kids Safety Fair in memory of Scott on April 23rd (we are looking for volunteers, donations, or people who want to bring their families out for a great educational morning. Message me if you're interested! Unfortunately, I'm going to miss it, I was in charge of the balloon animals, dang it!!) But conversations turns back just as fast when Sharon and I bet on the spices in the soup, I won, it was oregano, we ask our waitress what she measures with the one-inch ruler pendant on her necklace (hehe), or we explain  our vacation to just about everyone we talk to. 

The second best thing in SF to the jewelry, is the window shopping, which involves a lot of jewelry, but still.  All of the shops have great display windows that they fill with their best pieces that entice you right in the front door. Fortunately, it was late, so after deciding on what shops we had to hit the next day due to their windows, we headed back to our hotel for a night cap and a snooze. Note... All I've ever heard of is the La Fonda hotel in SF and unless I missed something, the Inn at Loretto was just as conveniently located and much more beautiful, just sayin'. 

Get Out Tha Door!!

We planned to leave at 7:30am Wednesday morning. Well, the goal was 7:30 knowing it would be closer to 8ish. The -ish is important because it makes our 8:20 departure okay. Between me trying to find places to shove more things in my car and mom trying to get some business finished up, I thought 8:20 was pretty impressive. We had to stop by Azle High School to drop off some t-shirts and we were off to pick up Sharon, who lives about 10 minutes from the high school. 

We pull into her drive way and she sees how full the car is... Slight panic about how everything is going to fit and hurriedly jumps in the back seat, "I'm ready... Road Triiip!!" We pull out of the drive way, drive 20 feet and I realize that I forgot to leave the keys to my dad's truck at her house, can't take those to Alaska! So we turn around, I jump out and put them on a shelf. Back on our way. We get about 5 minutes from the house and "Does anyone see my folder?!? Nicole we gotta go back." So we go back and get the folder..... 4 minutes back down the road, "Has anyone seen my purse?!? I think I left it on the floor in the house!! We gotta go back!" So, back we went... A girl's gotta have her purse, especially when she's going on a week long road trip across half of the US... So that's how the trip started, mom and me nearly an hour late, and Sharon got a little bamboozled.... I think it's going to be an accurate theme for the trip. 

Packing: Part 3

Let's just put it this way... My father is my hero, and a packing extraordinaire! While I did literally have to leave about half of my planned clothes at home and he is going to ship them to me, my Daddio still managed to fill up EVERY CUBIC CENTIMETER of my trunk. 

Here was our goal... I have a Honda Accord coupe (aka 2 door) that I was not going to let sit in Ft. Worth, while I was in Sitka.  I'm just too Texan to not have a car. Yes, There are 3 of us, so the idea was to put all of my belongings in the trunk, then each of us have our own carry on that we would stack in the passenger-back seat. 

So I had my main items in one pile that I really thought I needed. I got those space saver vacuum bags from Wal-Mart and loaded those things down. Pillows, towels, comforter, all turned into but a smidge of their original size! Then I had a second stack of things that I was HOPING to take if we had the extra room (that may or may not have included 17 pair of shoes) (EEk! But they ARE all necessary). My dad patiently stuffed and squeezed and organized it all into my trunk. I'm usually not a quitter, but I do admit I lost alot of gusto during the packing process and my dad saved me! Thanks Pops!! He packed every single thing that I wanted in my car....I know you're thinking it, yeah, even all 17 pair of shoes in that itty bitty teensy weensy car!! It was amazing!

Ok, ok, fine... 3 pair of flip flops, (solid black, hot pink leopard, and my gypsy soules) converse, sanouks, toms, work out tennis shoes, hunter boots, Bogs, Hitchcock cowboy boots, polo stud cowboy boots, black heeled boots, grey heeled boots, kitten heels, ballet flats, toms wedges.... I was proud of myself for only bringing 2 pair of cowboy boots, I tried to limit it to one, but got suckered in to the other pair (kboo)! 

I am having flashes of my trunk flying open while driving 80mph down I-40, but we are just going to leave that to the imagination and know it's not going to happen.... Hopefully. 

Packing: Part Dos

That's it.... At my wits end trying to fit all this stuff in my car. I'm thinking a glass of wine is really going to help make sense of everything... Packing: Part 3 to come.

Packing: Part Uno

Here I lay in bed at 1:15am trying to do something to occupy my brain. It's going a hundred miles an hour not only because I have a hundred-bazillion thing to do over the next 2 days, but the fact that I'm still on Hawaiian time does not help things... Right now, it feels like 8pm. Perfect. I have a 10am appointment, which consequently will feel like 5am, for a car tune up to make sure the dang thing is going to make it to Seattle. In case you don't know, morning is not in my repertoire, but we do what we must for the sake of adventure.

Speaking of adventure, allow me to highly recommend Hawaii.  We spent 3 days on Kauai. (Oh yeah, did I mention we were evacuated for the tsunami?!?) Anyways, rode super dirty, mudbug ATVs, which was a ball, then was planning on a snorkel trip along the Na'pali coastline (instead we thought it'd be more fun to sit in our "evacuated" car in a "safe" Costco parking lot for 6 hrs). We did end up getting to drive all over that beautiful island and ate at some kick ass restaurants, Bar Acuda being my favorite little tapas bar (Amazing! Marcona almonds, roasted tomato bruchetta, tomato asparagus salad, shrimp romesco, scallop with mashed potato, flank steak skewers, braised short ribs and sweet and salty brownie with butterscotch ice cream....YUM!) Kauai was gorgeous and I can't wait to go back.  Then we flew to the Big Island and met the rest of the family. From swimming with spinner dolphins  and manta rays to going to a luau to just making Lily into a sand mermaid on the beach, I have an amazing family and we had the best time. It always goes soo fast! I'll post some of my favorite pics from the trip instead of just writing all about it! 

As for Alaska, I am leaving early Wednesday morning, am maybe 30% packed, and 100% positive that there's no way that all the junk that I feel like I can't live without is all going to fit in my car.... Crap. But it is all going to work out... I hope. (I've noticed that I use the word HOPE frequently when talking about this trip... Lots of "hoping" ex. I hope I get some insurance, I hope I will have days off, I hope I like them, I hope I don't get eaten by a bear, hope I like living by myself, hope they like me, hope they don't send me out on a float plane every other week, hope I quit a perfectly perfect job for some sort of reason... Just little things like that that I'm "hoping" for.)  I'll keep ya updated on the packing situation over the next few days, please help me hope I can get all my things shoved into my car. 

One last thing that I haven't told you...www.alaskajewelry.com. That's the website of the new company I'm going to work for!! They (we) sell beautiful Alaskan jewelry, sculptures and all sorts of wonderful expensive things! It's a completely foreign genre to me, however in a very familiar setting. (Would you believe that before I worked at the Maverick, I had never even owned a pair of cowboy boots, so the genre is no prob bob!!)  Tourists, people getting off the cruise ships, those just visiting for the summer and of course, locals coming in to shop... Just like somewhere I used to know. I am "hoping" for some great opportunities with Goldsmith Gallery (that's their storefront name). It is a beautiful store and I can't wait to get started!

Ok, now that it has made it's way to 2:07, I think I really need to focus on closing the eyes.