Still "on the move"

Our cross-country trip is over but I still intend to update the blog with posts (past due and present). We still are looking for a house and of course we still feel like we just got here (because we did) so there's plenty of relocation thoughts still to come.

But for faithful friends who have been reading and wondering what we've been up to...

Temp housing - We are now in our second week of corporate temp housing. It's a great apartment -- 3BR, 3BA, which is bigger than our house in Sunnyvale! (And possibly more square footage too.) I've been enjoying having more space and less stuff -- I'm actually not really looking forward to getting all of our stuff from the moving company because it's been rather liberating living minimally since when our house was staged. Just goes to show how much *stuff* we Americans accumulate. Also a lesson for our next relo: get rid of stuff before, not after, you move. I already did, but I think there's a lot more that we could live without.

Exploring the new - It's been fun for me to explore the area. I enjoyed grocery shopping before (I know, bizarre), but now with new brands, new stores, new stuff (like WHITE American cheese), it's like an adventure for me. Some people prefer bush whacking in the jungle, I prefer finding new grocery stores. Last week I also made it a point to get into Lexington, our intended place to buy a house, once a day to get a feel for the town even more. I went to Wilson Farm for produce and the park at the center of town, even met a mom!

Getting around - Driving here has been an experience. It really is funny to see how the habits differ from coast to coast. My first venture out by myself was pretty insane. The GPS (thank GOODNESS for the GPS!) took me via local roads two towns over to the closest Target. None of the streets are straight nor intersect at 90 degree angles here so no wonder drivers here do crazy maneuvers to get where they want to go.

I was honked at no less than 3 times for not starting fast enough and while I thought I was abiding by the law by waiting for my right of way, I'd find Bostonians frantically waving me to go first like I was crazy not to take them up on their generosity. But when in Rome: I find myself feeling a little generous at times and waving my share of people into line.

Tobey has asked about the T a few times. And I'd love to take the kids on a T ride some time. But it seems like anywhere we'd go on the T is for "fun" and until we settle a little more, I'm afraid we won't have time for fun like that for a while.

Renting an apartment - Our timing was such that unless we went into 30-day closing the first day we got here, we'd have to find a rental apartment as an intermediate step from temp housing to buying a house. We wanted the flexibility of a short term lease so there were really only 2 available places in town, one old and one new. The newer one of course cost more but I could literally see myself hating the old place every time I had to do laundry in the basement or every time I banged my elbows on the narrow doors. And the kitchen of the old place was older than the kitchen in our house in Sunnyvale so in an effort not to move backwards in the housing food chain, we opted for the newer place. For local friends, we'll be at the Avalon in Lexington -- come drop by!

Finding a house - We interviewed 3 realtors, one of which we ruled out within 10 minutes of meeting him. Nice guy and humble, but just not the kind of realtor we need as people brand new to the area. We are still undecided between the realtor Sophie recommended after screening her realtor network or a realtor that a friend of friends used to buy their house in Sunnvyale. Each realtor has her strengths, both we like. We went out with the first realtor to see a couple of houses and were impressed with her attention to detail and willingness to point out the negatives of a house (and not just sell us anything to make a sale). We plan on going out with the second realtor as she seems to think outside the box, find properties early, act quickly. I feel like I'm on eHarmony, dating two realtors and needing to decide on committing to one in the coming weeks.

As for the houses themselves, we are slowly coming to the conclusion that the kind of house we intended to buy is at the tippy top of our price range, if not a bit beyond. So Lexington is still expensive although we still get more for the money than in Sunnyvale. We considered getting an older house on a good lot/location and then renovating it ourselves but even that isn't quite within range (or doesn't exist?? or just hasn't come on the market?). We opened the possibility of neighboring (cheaper) towns with good schools. It's just hard to believe that we made out so well selling our house in CA and we still struggle to find what we like here in Lexington. Makes me wonder if we are jumping a step from starter home to dream home. And I'm not even talking about dream home here, just home for the next 20 years kind of home. So I need to remind myself that God brought us this far and not to get too discouraged.

Friends - We do miss our friends back in CA dearly, but it has been nice to have some friends to reconnect with here in MA. We went over to my old roommate and college buddy Cecelia's house -- they live in Lexington and it was nice to vent about our housing search with them (as well as have play friends for Tobey and Eli). We saw many old friends at church the first Sunday we arrived. And tonight we're having our first friend over for dinner -- hosting at our tastefully decorated and furnished temp apartment that I had nothing to do with. :-) But we have no school friends yet (because no school) and no church family, and probably not for a while.

Family - The main reason for our move was to be closer to family and let's just say it's starting to pay off already. With our move to our apartment coming up, both my mom and Tom's mom offered to come up and help and while they probably would have (and DID) had we lived in CA, it's nice to know it's not such a big burden for them to come out and help.

As far as being within an hour and a half of Tom's brother's house? That's been GREAT. We went to their house last weekend (our first) to pick up our 2nd car which was shipped to their house. We just spent the day up there. This past weekend we went up for an overnight for the long weekend. It's been great to see the 4 kids play so well together. And their New Hampshire lifestyle certainly is like a vacation for us. It's nice to just spend the whole day basically at home or at the local playground, without feeling like we had to "do" something together. It's nice to be able to say goodbye without feeling like it will be another 6-12 months before we see them again.

What's next - We are starting the ball rolling on getting pre-approved. We are also getting ready to move into our apartment June 13 -- happy anniversary to us -- what a way to spend it. After we move in, we gotta turn around and head out to Indiana for my cousin's wedding, a week's vacation with my family and a nice little return visit to the Bay Area for Melissa's wedding that I'm standing in. After all that, maybe we'll start to settle in a little more.

The Eagle has landed!

My dad says "The Eagle has landed" every time they touchdown at an airport. As much as I'm tired of that historical phrase, I feel it appropriate after our long journey:

THE EAGLE HAS LANDED!

We made it! We made it to Boston! It's a little surreal to be here. We haven't seen anyone we know (yet, we're going to Tom's brother's house tomorrow), I haven't seen anything I truly recognize (I don't know Newton very well), we've got an apartment that does remind me of the 3-star hotels that we've been in for the past 3 weeks. Even the towels in the bathroom were folded the same way!

I felt like I left the west when the landscape turned green in eastern Texas. Still don't know when I will feel like I've moved here -- when we sign our first lease or contract? When I buy my first staples like food and toilet paper (which will have to be tomorrow!)? When Tobey starts school?

More later...

The Tally

Miles driven: Around 4,000, including day/side trips! Lego/Disneyland weren't exactly "on the way".
Miles driven by Ang: 0
Days on the road: 21
States crossed: 13, including CA, MA and the 13 miles in West Virginia
States with "welcome" sign caught on camera: 9, none for CA as we were leaving and 3 to be caught tomorrow

Cities stayed in: 14, not including Boston
Different hotels stayed in: 11
Days in a hotel: 14
Days we stayed in a Hampton Inn/Suites: 6, 7 if you include the Hilton in Scranton (same rewards program)
Times we swam in hotel pool: 4
Times Eli rolled off the hotel bed: 2, and then we started getting cribs for him everywhere
Favorite hotel of the trip: Drury Plaza Inn in St. Louis

Homecooked dinners: 5
Tom's Starbucks: 9
Ang's Starbucks: 2
Times eaten at McDonald's: 1
Times we duplicated a restaurant: 1, if you count the In-N-Out in Gilroy, just 45 min. into our trip. Otherwise, 0!
Times we ate at a Chinese restaurant: 1

National Parks/Monuments visited: 4
Amount spent on admission to National Parks: $78.50
Amount needed for annual pass to National Parks: $80
Days before we finally crossed CA border: 6

DVD's watched in the car: 0, as long as we can get through tomorrow without it too
Number of portable DVD players kids think we own: 0
Surprises/new toys given: too many, that's why we got away with no DVD's
Windmills counted: 54, mostly in Texas
Fights in the back of the car: I have a headache just thinking about them
Gadgets in the car: 5 (GPS, Blackberry, 2 cell phones, iPod)

Days left on our trip of a lifetime: 1

Day 20: Pittsburgh to Scranton

Our day's summary:

- Breakfast and pack at Tom's parents'
- Drive
- Stop for potty
- Drive
- Stop for potty
- Drive
- Arrive in Scranton
- Wild goose chase for Olive Garden dinner
- Swimming at the Hilton pool
- Easy bedtime because the kids were tired

Today our destination was Scranton because it's about halfway to Boston. I had heard of Scranton but didn't think much of it. And then The Office came along and Scranton all of a sudden has a kind of celebrity status for me, as if I think I'm going to see Steve Carell or Jenna Fisher walk down the street. I did look for the sign from The Office (parts of Scranton are indeed as industrial as the opening credits make it look) but it seems like they might have updated the signs since filming although I don't think I ever saw the true location of the sign. Unless it's a fictional sign and then I feel silly.

This is how you know we are "just making time" on our trip now -- we saw an interesting coal mine tour, but we thought maybe we should just get to MA tomorrow instead of stopping for something fun -- we do have a full 5 hours to drive. But so long as our kids are still youngish, if we ever do drive to Pittsburgh, we probably will be stopping in Scranton (and at this Hilton if the rates stay this low and the pool stays that warm!) and have a chance to do the tour another trip. Speaking of coal, I saw a sign that said "Anthracite Museum" and Tom was like, "Oh yeah, that's one kind of coal. The other is biticul-blah-blah-blah." He said he learned it in school. That's a Pittsburgh kid for ya.

Curiously missing from our day's summary is "lunch". That's because we ate lunch on the road. We first tried it on our 6.5 hour drive from Indy to Pittsburgh and Auntie Pauline made us sandwiches for the car. That saved quite a bit of time, calories, money (if we were paying!) as well as grief. It worked well so when Tom's mom offered this morning, I took it. I used to think of our lunch stops also as a stretch break but sometimes the kids are so hyper about being out of the car that half of the conversation at lunch is "Eli, get down from there" or "Tobey, use your restaurant voice." It's almost easier to stay in the car. They don't mind so much staying in the car if they are busy eating. We take other short potty/stretch breaks, but skipping a lunch stop certainly helped us get into town earlier in the end.

I first thought, "Darn, we should have thought of this sooner!" But 1) who would make us sandwiches when we stay in hotels? Me? Ha! Grocery shopping and food storage was the last thing on my mind this vacation. And 2) we were making tons of stops and weren't necessarily needing to make up time on the road.

These last two legs of driving (Indy to Pitt to Scranton) have been smooth. We're not looking for anything in particular but I've found a pattern for the day. Eli konks out soon after we get on the road. Tobey can either absorb himself in a book, play car games with Tom, or like this morning, take a nap himself! So sometimes I get to catch up on a morning nap while Tom is fueled by his Starbuck's. After Eli wakes up, it's usually time for lunch. After lunch, we are all awake so we try to do car games, stories, general car entertainment, listening to VeggieTales for the 3rd time in 2 hours. When the kids start getting antsy, it's time for a surprise from Collin, who is a schoolmate who gave us a goodie bag of "little" goodies to keep the ride interesting. Not that other friends didn't give us great gifts for the trip -- some we also gave during the trip or I'm saving for when we are in Boston. But the goodie bag by Collin's mom just happened to be all wrapped (upping the excitement factor) as well as "little" surprises (she said so herself) that I don't mind giving daily. Some of the other surprises were actually so nice that I would wait for a bigger event to give those. Anyway, after surprise time, there's usually just an hour or so left and it's not so bad when we are all anticipating an end to the driving day.

I realized when we sat at dinner tonight that it was our "last supper" on the road. Sure, we will probably eat out tomorrow night after we arrive into our corporate guest housing in Newton just because we will have nothing to eat at "home". But it will be different because we will already be "home", in our new home area. Kind of weird to think that. And like I predicted in the middle of our trip, I am sad to see this vacation end. It has had its ups and downs but mostly ups, many big ups and little ups, and some great family time. I can't believe we've made it all the way across the country. You can see the distance we drove on a globe. The trip we've talked about for so long is just about finished. I'll savor our last day on the road. And then it's time to move on.

On the road again...

My scribbled notes about Days 13-15 are in the car, so I'm still not caught up with the Midwest portion of our trip. But just to update, we've been in Pittsburgh at Tom's parents' for the past two days. It's been a nice break, home cooked food, getting to sleep in, even getting a movie night tonight (Iron Man -- quite good!). We went to the Pittsburgh Zoo and today mostly stayed home, played with silly string (thanks to Ramsey, Collin's mom), did some errand shopping for the remainder of our trip. The kids are quite self entertaining here, either with toys that we have from the car or just running around in the family room. And it sure helps to have the loving watchful eye of two grandparents around.

But as we prepare for the last two legs of our trip, I realize we are out of routine. Out of the road trip routine. When I was cleaning/organizing/repacking the car today, I saw the old relics of the first two weeks of *the* road trip: a map to Legoland, the EZ66 guide book, the kids meal toy from the Sonic drive in. We've only been here for two days and some of those things seem like ages ago already. Just like how, sadly, some aspects of life in Sunnyvale seem like months ago, even though it's only been a couple of weeks.

And though we embark on the last two legs of our trip, it's not with the same leisure that we did the first umpteen legs. We are trying to "make time" now, even more so than getting to Indianapolis before dinner or our 6.5 hour "marathon" to get here. In getting to Indianapolis and Pittsburgh, it was to get in before dinner or within a reasonable hour so we have time to spend with family in each place. But now, we are trying to get to Boston, to resume regular life.

We'll have to look for a rental, interview real estate agents, start working, apply for driver's licenses, etc. Cook, run errands, grocery shop. And although making and reconnecting with friends will hopefully be fun, it also comes with the extra burden of *needing* to make friends in order to start to feel connected. It wasn't the leisurely optional friend making, it's the kind where we hope to find someone to replace the Thomas & Alice's and Eric & Chia-Chi's of our lives. To find a church, a growth group, a mom's group, a school(s), housing, neighbors, etc. all to try to regain a semblance of the comfort we had after 15 years in CA.

It's been fun to talk to a couple friends from Sunnyvale. Our neighbors said it was weird to look across the street, see "our" door open and to feel like someone else was living in our house. Our growth group called and left a voicemail on the cell all saying Hi. I got to talk to Alice live and Tom got a message from Richard. It's nice to be in touch a little as we head into completely new territory.

Sooo, back on the road tomorrow. The kids did great in the car from Indy to here, 6.5 hours, our longest day. We have two 5-hour days ahead of us -- although there's a little bit of apprehension on my part, not knowing how the kids will do on the road again, I'm quite excited to roll into Boston and finally enter into this next phase of our lives

Cars and Route 66

I wish I had seen this guide to Route 66 and the Cars movie before our trip so I could make more connections between Cars and the real Route 66. Some of the fun things I didn't know were that the tractors were probably representative of the burros we saw wandering around Oatman and the "RS" that I never noticed on the rocks in Radiator Springs was a tipoff to the "T" that I DID see on the mountain in Tucumcari in real life. Well, but even so, we did make a lot of movie to real life connections and we watched the DVD extra where John Lasseter talks about the inspiration to Cars. It's nice to see someone who knows the Mother Road to put in the work into deciphering the movie to the rest of us. It makes me fall in love with the movie all over again.

So while we were driving through Shamrock, TX -- actually, we were just there to eat at the Pizza Hut but we drove through "town" since it was right off the highway. We found the tall Conoco spire that I wanted to see because our Route 66 guidebook author said it was great neon. While we passed it, Tobey says...

Tobey: "I want to see that! That!" (pointing)
Us: "What do you want to see?"
Tobey: "The thing that looks like Radiator Springs!"

And so I feel like all of our effort to choose Route 66 over the shorter northern route was all worth it. I was waiting for something to "click" for Tobey, that he recognizes Route 66 as being from the Cars movie that he knows so well. And to hear him mention Radiator Springs unprompted just makes it all worth it.

Route 66 Thoughts (Guest Blogger Tom)

Traveling on route 66 has been fun, but not for the reasons that I expected. I was expecting a lot of the old buildings, gas stations, and signs to be restored to their original pristine condition. In reality, only very few have been. Most of the sights are as run down and decrepit as I'd expect for being unmaintained for almost 30 years - faded, covered in graffiti, broken neon, etc. And it doesn't help that the guide that we bought seemed to be exaggerating the descriptions of the sights. A building would be described as being "well preserved and having vivid colors", and the only thing left would be 3 walls covered in grafitti. Maybe I'm exaggerating now, but that's what it felt like. We learned to take the descriptions with a grain of salt. When I heard about the Route 66 mini golf, I was joking that maybe they just give you a stick and a rock to play with. Also, the poor preservation of the Route 66 sights just seemed to pale in comparison to my trips to Europe, where buildings and sculptures seem to last for centuries in excellent condition.

I think the fun part for me about traveling Route 66 is that it's like a giant scavenger hunt played over thousands of miles. Drive for a few hours down some deserted road, and then look for some ruins described in the book, and snap a photo of it. It doesn't matter that the ruins look even worse than the guide's description. Point is, that we hunted it down and captured it (on camera). I don't think the kids understand at all -- they are barely amazed at the Grand Canyon, why would they be remotely interested by some broken neon sign? But that's how I'm "getting my kicks".

However, there have been some true gems on Route 66. Cadillac Ranch was a really fun stop. The only painting I've done in recent memory is the inside of my now-former house and I had to be very careful about not getting anything else dirty. And I can't remember the last time I did any spray painting, so it was very freeing to just buy 2 cans of spray paint at the local Home Depot, and just freehand paint on the cadillacs. And the idea of an orange construction sign with "Chang Xing '08" seemed to perfectly sum up the spirit of our trip.

- Tom

Finally moving east (warning: schmaltz ahead)

I am aware of the fact that I don't have a "travel blog" for yesterday and today. I haven't forgotten them nor Day 5: Disneyland, but out of fear that I will forever be behind, I will go ahead and blog some general thoughts I've been having, now that we've crossed the halfway point of our trip (time and mileage wise) and get back to the travel details later.

[By the way, I hope to make a book a la MyPublisher or Blurb of our cross country journey, pictures, edited entries and all. I'm really excited to do it (when I'll have the time, who knows) and I just wanted to say it publicly so that maybe someone will keep me accountable to it!]

Just east of Amarillo, we started noticing something we don't usually see in California this time of year: GREEN. The grass turned green. And then the trees that we saw weren't just dark green bushes that survive in deserts, they were real trees with real leaves, not pine needles. It looked lush, alive, and the vibe is totally different. Granted, the scenery along the interstate is more motonously green vs. the interesting rock formations or flat desert of the southwest. But entering the green zone really made me feel like I've left the west. In addition, at some point on the way to Tulsa today, we came down a hill and I could see a lot of green ahead and a couple tall buildings popping out in the distance. It totally reminded me of driving Route 2 from Lexington to Boston and you come down a slope and you can see the Boston skyline ahead over green trees. It just drilled in the point even more that we were maybe closer to Boston than California now.

I can't believe that Disneyland was only just over a week before and our house in Sunnyvale feels like at least a month ago. It's weird that the week leading up to our leaving, I couldn't imagine actually making it to our move date and I couldn't comprehend what we were getting ourselves into. And now that we're on our trip, I have a hard time thinking back to before our move and of course I can't comprehend what lies ahead for us. It's a little surreal. Today I talked to Denise, Tom's sister-in-law in NH. She said it hasn't hit her that we are moving into the area. And I said, "You're not the only one!"

Being on the road for 2 weeks really makes me miss our friends and family. We've called our parents once every couple of days to check in and make sure they know we are safe. And I'm blogging to let you all know (as well as keep a journal of) how our little trek is going. But for the most part, we are isolated. And so this is when I realize what we have left behind: numerous friends that we've gathered over 15 years, some that we see every day at school, multiple times a week, some we see weekly, some that we only see less than once a month but who have known us since our single days. We knew that no matter when we left California, it would never be easy to leave friends but I am starting to realize what leaving the friends feels like. We really do miss you guys -- it might be easier to be the leaver than the leavee, but it still wasn't easy for us to leave you all.

In between leaving past friends and making new ones, it's been fun being a little family pod (literally in our minivan, it feels like a travel pod for 4!) and we've had some great family times. I will be sad to see this vacation end. If you've been following our blog, being together with the boys 24/7 has had its ups and downs. But I will take it all, because I do feel like we are on a really special trip. How often do we get to be on vacation for this long without worrying about work or school schedules? And to see and learn different things from the grandest of all Grand Canyons to the craziest little sno-cone stop on Route 66? At this point in our trip, we just need to make up some time and even with 3 weeks allotted, I feel like we could totally spend more time exploring (or finding things in this giant scavenger hunt like Tom writes). Alas, reality awaits but even so, re-rooting down in Boston will also be exciting, just a different kind of exciting.

Tomorrow we visit St. Louis. We will only be there a day and given the time, the only thing we will see is The Arch. We'll probably have to do something nostalgic, like the four of us cross the Arch at the same time, symbolic of us moving east. It's cheesy but that's what I feel right now: a bit nostalgic. I think it will be strange when I go back to CA for a friend's wedding at the end of June. I wonder if I will feel like I never left or if I will already feel like a foreigner in a strange land.

Day 12: Santa Fe to Amarillo

We lost another hour due to crossing a time zone. At this rate, we're gonna be waking up at noon! But who cares? We're on VACATION! :-)

Our day's summary:

- Breakfast at the hotel, Inn of the Governors in Santa Fe

- Blogging from the road

- Lunch in Tucumcari, NM

- Flatlands into TX

- Cadillac Ranch

- Dinner at the Big Texan in Amarillo

BREAKFAST - I just could not eat much this morning. While we are NOT at a Hampton, I guess mediocre hotel food is getting to me. I eat the same exact breakfast everyday at home and don't get sick of it. But on the road, I guess I just have to be thankful I don't have to go grocery shopping or cook. Be thankful, be thankful...

BLOGGING FROM THE ROAD - For the first time, I'm blogging in the minivan! No internet connection of oourse, just laptopping. But I feel very high tech right now. Today we have no "real" stops, just getting to Amarillo and Cadillac Ranch (okay, so that's a stop but that's practically in Amarillo). So I've been doing some reading to the kids in the car, letting them play with toys, uploaded Tobey's camera photos (and thus, pulled out the laptop). The view out here is getting pretty flat and my ears are popping left and right. We must be hitting the plains where exits are dozens of miles apart. Of course this is when Eli wants a potty break. Thank goodness for "the jar" and boys.

The boys are currently doing fine in the car -- taking pictures (of each other) with the kiddie camera and playing with the slinky and crinkle tubes. I think we can get through today without mentioning the DVD AND we might get into Amarillo early enough to do a family movie night tonight. Uh oh, Tom just turned on the country music. It might be a long ride to Amarillo yet.

LUNCH IN TUCUMCARI - We did a fast food lunch (KFC, thought of you, Alice...and Krista!) and realized that we have yet to "repeat" a restaurant on this trip. Then again, when it comes to road food and fast food, how different can it really be? We are trying to do local fare when practical. We are saving McDonald's for when we encounter the biggest McD's in the world, somewhere in OK or MO. Tucumcari, while a real town, didn't have a Starbuck's for Tom to load up on caffeine. That's how you know you're in the middle of nowhere.

FLATLANDS - I read in our EZ66 book about counting windmills when we get into TX. So when I first started seeing them after Santa Fe, I suggested counting them. Tobey protested of course but when Tom and I started to count them, he got into it too. Current count into Amarillo = 32, if you include the fake one at the Big Texan (we excluded the windmill farm full of the big white modern windmills). It sure did make the "boring" ride into TX more enjoyable and another thing we would have missed if we had pulled out the DVD.

CADILLAC RANCH - The most exciting part about today was Cadillac Ranch, a bunch of old caddies dug into the ground nose first, a canvas for "public art" (read: graffiti). Although it was never on Route 66, it's kind of a Route 66 classic and its semblance even made it into the rocky scenery in "Cars". We dropped by the local Home Depot, bought some spray paint, and made our contribution. I think our family picture there might best represent our trip. It was mighty windy and when Eli tampered with our spray paint can, he sent a plastic glove flying down the flat cow field never to be seen again (he cried like he lost a balloon). We met some nice locals (even one who was proud to be barefoot) and had fun being part of a classic 66 tradition.

BIG TEXAN - The Big Texan is the restaurant where if you can eat a 72 oz. steak (plus sides) in 1 hour, you get it for free. It's an insane amount of meat but we were happy that one guy from Abilene TX tried to do it while we were there so we could be rubberneckers. We finished our dinner while he was at about the 38 min. mark (as in, 38 min. LEFT) and it seemed like he was already slowing down. After some arcade games and a whirl through the fudge and gift shops, we left the restaurant to find he had given up. I'm kind of glad he did -- it's kind of crazy to be able to finishing that thing. It was HUGE.

Texas is fun, lots of character. Sometimes when I hear a native talk, I keep thinking they're faking it like they are playing a movie role or something until I realize: they really do talk like that. We won't see any other cities in TX on this trip but we have 2 Chang cousin weddings coming up in the next year and it will be fun to come back and see more of the Lone Star state.

Tomorrow, Oklahoma!

Notes about being on the road

As if I didn't already have enough to say. Tom's co-worker once told him about how a friend of his took a trip and blogged about it. But the wife also sometimes wrote the blog. Whenever the wife wrote, the post was super long, explaining every detail. Whenever the husband wrote, it was like, "Today we went to Paris. Saw the Eiffel. Saw some museums. It was fun." I wonder what the posts would look like if Tom were to write?

So, some of my random notes about being on the road:

• This southwest weather is DRY. Tom and the boys are getting their signature Chang dry skin patches again. And I don't know if it's the white balance on the camera or what but our unmoisturized legs in shorts are looking mighty chalky.
• I'm *trying* to eat well. I never thought that after just 2 days of "road food" (i.e., burgers) that I'd be opting for small town Chinese food (Flagstaff) and grilled fish with veggies (Cracker Barrel in Gallup). And ever since our 2nd ever pitstop in before the Grapevine in southern CA, I vowed not to get a Starbuck's unless I'm the driver in need of sugar/caffeine. And since Tom's done ALL the driving so far, he's had like 10 Starbuck's mochas by now (well, I don't know about 10, but somewhere between 5-10).
• What kid doesn't love hotels because they get to watch TV? If it's still early in the morning, we can catch good shows for the kids (Clifford, Super Why) on PBS while we pack. But like today and at least one other day, we're gettin' close to check out deadline and the only thing on is Spongebob and Tom & Jerry. But what does Tobey like to watch? The Weather Channel! Hallelujah, a safe alternative!
• Speaking of weather, I wonder why Tobey is so interested in weather. Is it possibly because Northern CA weather is so boring? Tobey seems quite intrigued that it could rain in Boston in the summer. And with isolated T-storms in this southwest/southern area, I'd actually not mind getting caught in a thunderstorm, as long as it's just a driving day and not a day we want to see anything. So far on this trip, the weather has been nothing short of perfect. One day in Sedona it was in the 80's but it was so dry, you don't feel yourself sweating. As long as we don't get caught in a tornado while going across the plains states, I wouldn't mind seeing a little rain out here.
• Mad Libs - We call them "silly stories". We first encountered them in a Travel Activity Book that Tobey's teachers gave us. Tobey is the King of Silly so he has fun not only filling in the blanks (I write, he learns about nouns and adjectives), but he likes hearing the stories days later. My Cracker Barrel Country Store find? A real Mad Libs book.
• I think I mentioned in a previous post about (mostly Tobey's but sometimes also Eli's) disobedience. Things finally came to a head two days ago and Tobey earned himself a spanking for outright disobedience. I know sometimes a 2 year old can't control his impulses which is why Eli has still been getting time outs which mostly seem to work on him. But Tobey was getting out of control and I hated trying to nag/teach him the same rules and things over and over and over again (times two because Tom's been correcting him too). So one morning while we were packing, things just got so bad that he had to get a spanking and a lecture. I must say that by the next day, behavior has been markedly improving. Much less of his out of control, silly/hyper, lack of listening to us. And that means a much more enjoyable trip for all.
• On that note, I also wondered if the kids needed more attention from us. Hard to believe that you could be with someone 24/7 and them still not get enough attention. But since we're doing this trip on the fly, there's a lot of navigating and sightseeing going on and perhaps not as much "family time", the kind of simple family time that kids crave. So that's why I pushed for swimming this morning and Tom's been looking for an evening to do a movie night (which the kids love -- too bad the Route 66 Drive-In theater in Carthage, MO is only showing PG-13 movies). There's a Route 66 mini-golf in Oklahoma City and some rest stop in western OK that the book says is a must-stop because of a nice playground for kids. So especially since some of the big sights are behind us, we hope to do more "family time" kinds of activities.

One last note, don't forget about our Flickr pictures. We uploaded some more tonight.

Day 11 (today): Gallup to Santa Fe (with props to all of our technology)

Today we wanted to see something different: "a city different" -- Santa Fe, NM.

Our day's summary:
- Breakfast and indoor swimming at our hotel
- On the road at 1:30PM!
- The crazed search for the Continental Divide
- FUN lunch at a real Sonic Drive-In!
- Quick stop at Up N' Atom, the museum shop for the National Atomic Museum in Albuquerque
- Checked in to our Santa Fe hotel and walked around the "Plaza"
- Dinner at a concierge recommendation, "Tomasita's", listened to Mariachi!

BREAKFAST & SWIMMING - We were not very adjusted to the change to Mountain time. It doesn't make a big difference when you're on vacation but given that we are already starting to sleep later and wake up later, then lose an hour crossing a time zone, at 9:30AM, the kids and Tom were still sleeping. I go downstairs to gather up some of our usual Hampton Inn breakfast items and bring them upstairs. I think this is the 5th straight day of Hampton Inn (& Suites) in 3 different cities. There's something nicely comforting of finding the same thing while we're on the road for 3 weeks -- Tobey even knows how to help us set up the bathroom for our showers/baths and Eli's potty, it's pretty funny. But 5 days of the same breakfast (and I LOVE breakfast) is starting to get to me. I felt awful for leaving half of the food I brought upstairs but we just couldn't eat anymore of the same. We keep picking Hampton because we figured if there was ever a time to try to gather "frequent traveler" points, now is the time. I think we're gonna need to pick some other hotels in the same program soon. Waldorf-Astoria in Amarillo, Texas, maybe? ;-)

Today didn't have any big stops in store so we thought we'd take advantage of the time (and the indoor pool, given that isolated thunderstorms are in the region) and have some family time at the pool. We had a grand time, this time the kids throwing out the skimmer discs into the pool and me and Tom racing for them. I think they got a kick out of Mommy & Daddy playing together. I got a kick out of us playing together. It was nice to have a private pool!

CONTINENTAL DIVIDE - So because of swimming and late checkout, after a gas pit stop (NM gas is 86 octane, not 87?), we were finally on the road looking for the Continental Divide. It is no more than a brown sign commemorating the divide. We missed it the first time because we were distracted by the brightly colored Route 66 gift shop that said, "CONTINENTAL DIVIDE!! AND INDIAN KACHINA DOLLS!", which completely overshadowed the understated official brown sign off across the road.

Now I remember as a kid looking for the CD (pictures show that I was about 6). I didn't know what it was then and only now can I comprehend what it means (the west side is where the rain water drains to the Pacific, the east side to the Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico). Eli was konked out in the car so we just took pictures of Tobey (and me) at the CD to send back to his school friends. Apparently, they are still excited about the "Where in the World is Tobey Chang?" activity I started for them before we left. Ms. V says that the kids fight each day to see who gets to move Tobey's "head" to our next destination. I'm glad they're so excited about it. I feel bad that our progress is so slow (I did tell them it would take us 3 weeks!). Luckily, when we stayed in Flagstaff for 3 days to explore Grand Canyon, etc., it was the weekend so I didn't have to call 3 days and say "We're STILL in Flagstaff."

SONIC DRIVE-IN - At this point, it is 2:30PM or so and our original plan of finding "lunch" in Albuquerque (while still finding late green chile dinner in Santa Fe) was not working out, we went to our trusty GPS to tell us what restaurants were coming up in the area that we could eat at. The usual chains (McD's, Taco Hell, KFC...) popped up, but so did Sonic Drive-In. I had seen Sonics in CA before but have never been. So if we're just looking for a quick bite anyway, why not try a "new" fast food restaurant?

Turns out, Sonic Drive-In was AWESOME! The food was typical (although there were a plethora of frozen drinks to choose from from slushies, to creamy slushies, to shakes, to malts, to Java Blasters, all with multiple flavors. We lost some time just figuring out the menu. But what made lunch AWESOME was that this was a true drive-in restaurant. There were two rows of parking spaces each with a menu like when you do drive-thru. You push the button, call in your order and within a few minutes, a Sonic server bolts out the door and brings the food to your car! The only thing better was if she were on roller skates! So we had a fun lunch complete with tater tots and we were on our way to Albuquerque.

UP N' ATOM - Thanks to our EZ66 guide, we read about Up N' Atom, the museum shop to the National Atomic Museum. I guess there's all this space/atom bomb/nuclear stuff in NM because of Los Alamos, Sandia and all the testing, etc. done in the state. All we wanted was a little something fun to give to Tom's brother who works in a nuclear power plant. We arrived with 15 min. to spare (as reminded a few times by uptight older ladies who thought we were a bit *late* in coming). We walked out with a tie for Dennis (with nuclear atoms on it), a periodic table mug for my dad (chemical engineer) and a t-shirt for Tom's dad (physics prof) that says, "THE LAWS OF PHYSICS DON'T APPLY TO ME." The kids had a good time too because the somewhat nerdy young woman who was manning the register distracted them with cool toys. We were out of there in 15 minutes as promised with nothing more than a "Why are we leaving so fast?" from Tobey and a bagful of goodies.

PROPS TO TECHNOLOGY - We checked into our hotel in Santa Fe and at this point, I must say, how could we possibly do this trip without our trusty GPS, Blackberry, cell phones, laptops and hotels with wireless hi-speed internet connections? We change our itinerary day to day. We didn't expect to go to the Grand Canyon but in the end, we couldn't resist it. We are still deciding how many dayw we can spare and what to do with them before arriving in Boston. I suppose that being able to look up hotels and sightseeing suggestions each night makes it possible for us to be so spontaneous. At the same time, if we didn't have this kind of flexibility, I don't think this trip would be half as fun (and it would be twice as stressful). Oft in time, we driving out for the day, I've highlighted some Route 66 sights for photo ops, but otherwise, I'm on the Blackberry, looking up or calling hotels while we're just 1-2 hours away from checking into them. We look up info about suggested sightseeing to see if it's really worth our time. It's the ultimate in flying by the seat of our pants and the only way that is possible for semi-picky people like us to do this trip is with technology.

Having said all that, I have to also say that the trip is also not possible without our EZ66 book which gives us turn by turn map info that maps these days don't give for Historic 66, as well as our paper maps from AAA which give us a good overview of where we are going. There have been a couple of times that we've had to ignore Mr. GPS because he doesn't know about 66 or he isn't quite understanding where we are trying to go (we WANTED to take the windier scenic route out of Grand Canyon). But of course, after we put the kids to bed, Tom and I are back on our laptops, blogging, uploading photos, and researching our next stop.

SANTA FE - Santa Fe is truly a city different. All Southwest pueblo looking architecture and decor. We got a chance to walk around the shopping area before hititng our dinner place. We even picked up a Mother's Day gift for Tom's mom. (When the store owner mentioned Mother's Day, I was like, oh yeah, I forgot! I'll be on the road for my Mother's Day!). Tom asked me tonight if I wanted more shopping time tomorrow in and around Santa Fe. Besides the fact that I'm not into Southwest decor, the kids almost tore up the store we were in for Tom's mom's gift, I dare not bring them into an art gallery or fancier store. Thanks, but no thanks. Tomorrow, on to Amarillo.

Day 10 (yesterday): Flagstaff to Gallup

We're making forward progress again!

Our day's summary:
- Yet another Hampton Inn breakfast bar
- Spent 30 min. repacking the minivan again
- Visited Meteor Crater
- Stopped for a few photo ops on 66
- Sped to Petrified Forest National Park/Painted Desert
- Sped to Gallup, NM
- Dinner at 9PM (Mtn time)!

METEOR CRATER - I thought visiting the site of a meteor crater would be a 15 min. photo op stop. Little did we know there was a whole museum (for $15 per adult!) to be seen. The museum was well done -- hands on and interesting for the kids. We even got to experiment with different meteors and have them crash into Earth and see what happens (we made "total destruction" more than a few times). It was windy, it was interesting, it was worth the short detour off the highway.

PHOTO OPS ON 66 - The main photo op today was getting to the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, AZ. The Wigwam looks just like the Cozy Cone in "Cars" and was a must-see for me to show Tobey, to try to have him see the connection from the movie to real life. Of course Tobey falls asleep literally 2 minutes before we find the Wigwam. It was important enough to me that I actually wake him up, he sees the "cones", I say, "Does it look like the Cozy Cone?", he smiles and nods, within 5 seconds he's back to sleep. That made me happy that I at least showed it to him. Will he remember that 2 seconds of looking at the Cozy Cone in real life? Who knows but I will be sure to reinforce it to him with pictures. :-)

NATIONAL PARKS - I felt like a true Chang today. It was our 3rd National Park in 3 days (if you include Montezuma's Castle which is in the NPS). And because we spent so much time at Meteor Crater, we were speeding to get to the Petrified Forest/Painted Desert so we could see as much of it as possible before they close at 6PM. We made it and the place was really cool. For one thing, being off-peak season and near the end of the day, the place was eerily empty (we'd see a few cars here and there). Secondly, the bizarre landscape just made you feel like you were on Mars and because there was no one there, it really did FEEL like Mars!

After the first stop where we did a 0.3 mile walk to the big petrified log, most of the landscape didn't impress the kids -- or maybe it did for the first mile and the last 27 were just unnecessary. They were good in the car, self-entertaining, self-snacking, but most of that drive was me and Tom going "Wow!" and stopping at various viewpoints, literally jumping out of the car, taking a snapshot, and jumping back in. If our kids were older, for sure they would have complained or rolled their eyes about how picture crazy we were. In our harried state, we weren't really paying attention to the speed limit (empty two lane roads + 6PM closing time + Chang with National Park Fever at the wheel = recipe for disaster). We were spared a speeding ticket because the park rangers caught the guy we saw at one of our last photo stops instead of us. Phew!

MORE ROUTE 66 - Strangely, I had once mentioned (while reading our EZ66 book aloud) about a giant dinosaur statue eating a woman. I mentioned it to Tom in code so as to not scare Tobey. But eventually Tobey not only figured it out but wanted to see it! It was at a typical crazy Route 66 souvenier shop but this time more crazy because you can get free petrified wood, buy American Indian kachina dolls and feed ostriches all at the same place. It was so Route 66.

WE MADE IT TO NEW MEXICO! - By the time we were done snapping pictures of our trip to pseudo Mars and people eating dinosaurs, it was time to book it to Gallup NM. We ate dinner at a Lih favorite -- Cracker Barrel -- and I did my fastest browse through their country store ever because they were closing at 10PM. At this late hour, you would think we would just call it a night and turn in, but no, I saw this great looking neon that EZ66 author dude mentioned in Gallup. And it sounded like it was working neon so what better time to see it than at night! So after Tom realized I was hell bent on seeing it, we went looking for it at 10PM at night. I was looking for this great big neon with a car riding into the sunset and a big "Route 66" sign all in neon. Apparently, it turned out to be no larger than a large bathroom mirror. Eh, I took a picture anyway (in a scary part of Gallup) and we finally retired to a hotel.

No update today

We are realizing that as we travel east, we lose an hour each time we cross a time zone. We were spared this in AZ since they apparently don't recognize daylight savings. But now that we are in NM, we're on Mountain time. The kids are sleeping late as it is. Today they essentially went to sleep at 11PM (felt like 10PM to them). So no big update today. Ironic because finally we have a nice wireless connection.

Tonight we're in Gallup, NM. Tomorrow we're detouring (again?!) to Santa Fe. It just sounded interesting. It's called "a city different" -- I heard about all the architecture. Tom heard about green chili. So, we thought we'd take a detour since we have the time.

See you tomorrow!

Day 9: Sedona

Now our third day in the same hotel (probably the longest stay of the trip), we visited the red rocks of Sedona today.

Our day's summary:

• -Peeked at Oak Creek Canyon on the way from Flagstaff to Sedona
• -Visited Church of the Holy Cross

- Lunch at Blue Moon Cafe

- Visited Montezuma's Castle

- Naps and shopping in uptown Sedona

- Sunset on the airport mesa

- Junk food dinner back at the hotel

We chose to stay in Flagstaff because the two things we wanted to see in this area are the Grand Canyon and Sedona. Flagstaff was between the two without an unreasonably long drive. Flagstaff was also cheaper than Sedona. The drive from Flagstaff to Sedona on 89A was pretty, rather foresty with evidence of logging. I was hoping that the logging was beneficial for the forest, like maybe they needed to be thinned out once in a while. Wishful thinking. I wondered how we were going to go from dark green forest to red rock but as we descended lower and lower, you could see the white limestone rock morph into the red rock that makes Sedona famous. It was really beautiful.

OAK CREEK CANYON - Our first stop was Oak Creek Canyon because it was the first place we saw "scenic view" signs from the road. It was scenic but nothing red yet. There were Native American jewelry tables there with a clear deliniation of Native Americans on the selling side of the table and white European descent people on the buying. There were some really cute pieces of jewelry (more subtle than the large turqoise pieces) that I was considering buying, but I thought, eh, this is the first jewelry I've come across, I won't get sucked into buying on first sight. But as the day went on, whatever jewelry I saw, I didn't like as much as at Oak Creek Canyon. Well, so I guessed wrong this time.

CHURCH OF THE HOLY CROSS - Our first intentional stop was Church of the Holy Cross, supposedly a nice church nestled in the red rock. On the drive there, I noticed that all the architecture was simple and it was the same red color as the backdrop. They really did blend in, even the sidewalks and curbs were red instead of the usual white/gray concrete color. I can see why they did it but I didn't like it -- it felt like the whole region was covered in red dust. Back to the houses, some houses went so far as to have a red building, but a forest green roof, which I noticed when we were up on a hill looking down. Completely camouflaged! They're probably just trying to be one with nature.

MONTEZUMA'S CASTLE - We visited this Native American cliff dwelling and got another stamp in our National Parks passport. I thought we'd go, snap a few pictures and leave, 45 min. tops. But there was a whole little trail that goes along and with kids who want to know what the signs say, this little trail took twice as long, along with potty breaks, etc. It was really pleasant though, after we taught Eli not to step off the concrete sidewalk (fragile wildlife signs everywhere). Then both kids, armed with binoculars, were plenty entertained. Eli, I have to admit, looked really cute, since it's debatable whether he could see anything through binoculars or whether he was just pretending. He made more than a few other visitors chuckle. So this visit was mostly incident free until the end when, disregarding all warnings from Mommy, Eli backed into a cactus. There were about 5-7 very thin little needles poking out of his shirt or even his skin! He didn't cry or anything (so I was able to keep my cool to thoroughly remove all the needles), but it was kind of scary.

NAP & SHOPPING - On the way back, of course both kids konked out in the car. Tom was a sweetheart and said he could stay in the car while I shopped in uptown Sedona. How freeing to be able to browse without worrying if Eli is going to break something or if Tobey is going to make too much noise. Thanks, dude!

SUNSET ON THE AIRPORT MESA - The locals and some websites mentioning locals suggested the airport mesa as a place to view the sunset. It was pretty but apparently it's even more pretty on a semi-cloudy day.

JUNK FOOD DINNER - I have distinct childhood memories of being on road trips like this one (Yellowstone and Grand Teton come to mind) and we'd get stuck in the midle of nowhere with no place to eat and so our dinner comprised of the various snack foods that my mom had on hand. I remember dinners of vienna sausages on white bread and Pringles. Tonight, we weren't exactly in the middle of nowhere, but it was almost 9PM when we got back to Flagstaff and being so close to bedtime, we didn't think the kids needed a *real* dinner. So when we got back to the hotel, I grabbed the snack food that I had on hand and the kids had banana, canned peaches, Kix (w/o milk) and some bagel chips. Better than what I had growing up, but nonetheless, it was still in the spirit of the junk food dinner. I just hope the kids remember stuff like this when they grow up. I'm just glad that most of the hotels we are picking has breakfast in the morning so the kids have at least one balanced meal a day.

Sedona was hot today but not uncomfortable. Mid-80's but completely dry? I didn't break out into a sweat, at least not into a sweat that I could feel. It did make me wonder how I was going to handle this first East Coast summer coming up. But when Tom read the weather to me this morning, I didn't worry too much. Sedona: 32 degrees Celsius. Boston: 13. I don't know what that translates into in Fahrenheit but it almost didn't matter. It sounded a heck of a lot cooler in Boston, for now. So I'm just hoping that by the time we roll into Boston, we haven't missed the "2 weeks" of gorgeous spring that our native Bostonian friend Vince said Boston has before charging into hot and humid summer.

Tomorrow, we're back on 66 and hopefully make it to the next state: New Mexico!

Day 8: A Grand day

Another last minute decision: to visit the Grand Canyon!

Our day's summary:

• - Breakfast at hotel, pick up sandwiches at Safeway
• - Grand Canyon via I-40/64
• - Took a bazillion pictures at the Grand Canyon
• - Drove back on Route 180 - GORGEOUS
• - Dinner back in Flagstaff at a surprisingly good gourmet pizza place
• - Swimming in the pool
• - Bedtime

GRAND CANYON - We've been telling our friends back home that we would NOT visit the Grand Canyon on our Route 66 drive because we will probably come back when the kids are a little older and do a whole Southwest tour. But Tom couldn't resist the proximity (only 90 min. away from Flagstaff). We also knew we could "blow" a day at GC because we had also called Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico to find that the famous bats were NOT back from Mexico. So we kind of gained back a day there.

Grand Canyon was truly awesome. The last time I was there was when I was a kid, too young to truly appreciate the grandeur. And our kids are still too young to appreciate it. Tobey would kind of look and was generally cooperative. Eli, however, was very high maintenance. I don't even know if he noticed the canyon, all he cared about were the rocks on the ground. He would walk on the ones lining the path (the INSIDE of the path) or he'd try to climb a pile of rocks or he'd pick up gravel and rocks from the ground. And given that Eli is active, we held his hand anytime we were not well inland or in a parking lot. We saw Mather Point, the visitors center (stamped our national park passport), picnicked at Shrine of the Ages, went to Powell Point and walked to Hopi Point (only 0.3 miles) and got a peek at the Colorado River. By the time we got to Hopi, Tom and I basically took turns with Eli while the other enjoyed the view and snapped photos with Tobey. Now I know why we didn't see too many other families with small children there.

Although Tom was the one really wanting to see GC, I must admit, I've now caught what the Chang's call "National Park Fever". It's that feeling that there is so much to see around here in the Colorado Plateau (Zion, Bryce, GC, Arches, Canyonlands, Glen Canyon and on and on) and "the next park is only a 4 hour drive away!". We have to make time on our trip so I know we're not going to veer off to find any more national parks. But it does make me excited that one day we would come back when we don't have to hold our kids' hands all the time, maybe we'd come back with cousins and have a big trip together, and we could ALL truly enjoy the park.

ROUTE 180 - GPS (which I am starting to believe is NOT always right, at least on this trip) kept telling us to go back to Flagstaff the same way we came, on the interstate. But the paper map showed a slightly diagonal route that seemed to go through some mountains straight into Flagstaff. And I kept seeing this one mountain peak still with snow on it! So we ignored Mr. GPS and went on Route 180 on a beautiful drive. Part of it was beautiful because Eli slept the whole way and Tobey either amused himself with a pair of binoculars or slept himself. I took a million (not a bazillion, like at the canyon) pictures because we actually kept getting closer to the snow capped mountain and the views kept getting better and better. It finally climaxed at this open field with a newly built log cabin and the snow capped mountain in the background. I've been struggling with ISO settings all vacation so I hope these turn out okay.

SWIMMING - We got back to town, almost ate at another Chinese restaurant but ended up going to the gourmet pizza place next door instead. A quickish trip to Target and back to the hotel for some swimming! Although it was already 8:00PM by the time we started swimming, I really wanted to do it hoping it would get some energy out of the kids and make bedtime a little smoother. Boy was I wrong. Swimming was fun - Tobey is gaining more confidence swimming by himself, although he still depends on floaties. Eli just loves jumping in. But when we got back upstairs, they still had a good half an hour of bounciness after we put them to bed before they would finally calm down and sleep. I think the smoothest night of sleeping so far has been Disneyland when we really wore them out. Too bad not everyday is a Disneyland day.

Tomorrow we tackle Sedona. Back on the road on Monday.

Day 7: Route 66 Oatman to Flagstaff

Today is a little hard to blog because there were some ups and downs, not just in the road, but in our family.

Our day's summary:

• Late start in the morning
• Backtracked to Oatman on 66
• Back through Kingman and on to Peach Springs and Seligman
• Dinner in Flagstaff - Chinese!
• Staying the night in Flagstaff

LATE STARTS - We are realizing that despite good intentions, we are getting late starts in the morning. I'm sure we save some time by picking hotels with breakfast included (Tobey loves going to lobby breakfasts). But there is inevitably a period of time where Tom and I are still packing and showering and the kids are just watching TV waiting. So Tom and I are starting to become fans of nighttime showering so that it saves us precious daylight time for traveling.

It's not only hard to get out of the room, it's hard to get on the road. I had to spend 10-15 minutes cleaning up Eli's mess of dropped toys and things, throwing away trash in the minivan, etc. Tom had to pack the minivan, which is always a challenge of putting the most used stuff on the outside. He realized we left a laptop in the room (!). After he retrieved it, he pulled away only to hear Tobey, "Where are my Mickey Mouse ears?" Tom had to go up to the room again (this is all AFTER checkout so Tom has to ask to be let in the room each time). Luckily, Tom found them and a new rule was established: the Mickey ears stay in the car.

OATMAN - Oatman Hwy was depicted on our GPS as a thin gray line, the kind they use to indicate "We *think* there's a road here but we can't guarantee it." The GPS voice kept telling us to U-turn to get back on the interstate so we had to turn the voice off. Poor Route 66, not even recommended by our GPS. We found some neat things along the way like the newly refurbished Cool Springs gas station/gift shop/museum. We are following this EZ66 guide book and it's like a fun scavenger hunt looking for things along the way (although we think the author is a little dramatic/exaggerating and imaginative sometimes).

Oatman is nestled in the rocky mountain and it's basically a little tourist town now. We saw a staged gunfight and we fed carrots to the roaming burros in the street. We got an obligatory postcard and fridge magnet and ate at a local restaurant (they're all local, no chains make it up here). We had Navajo Tacos and Fry Bread (think funnel cakes but round/pancake style). It was charming to have ordered the Frito Pie only to have the server guy say, "Hmm, I think we are out of Fritos but I'll run to the general store next door -- they usually have some."

PEACH SPRINGS and SELIGMAN - The kids konked out after lunch in Oatman and Tom and I stopped for pictures and followed the EZ66 guide. Our main goal was to reach Seligman where we hoped to see some hot rods for the annual Fun Run and also get a snack at the Sno-Cap, a 66 legend. We did both (and we think we caught a quick glimpse of the Grand Canyon on the way) but patience was starting to wear thin. When we got out of the car, the kids were a bit hyper, wanting to wander/run/touch everything (there is a ton of interesting things to see at the Sno-Cap). We got ordered our treats along with the signature gags from Juan Delgadillo's family who now runs the stand. When we sat down, Eli did his usual stand in his chair to reach over the table and he spilled the entire cherry sno-cone which now looked like blood on the ground. And then after we were done with our shake and malt, we met a couple with a therapy dog named Cody. So the kids petted Cody while we chatted with the couple. When the kids were done with Cody, they started getting hyper again and started running around, getting into things they shouldn't. Things climaxed when I approached Eli who threw a big gravel rock at me while I hear in the background Tobey throwing a rock at a metal sign.

We had enough of the bad behavior and after a scolding, we said we were not ready to deal with them until we reached Flagstaff. Little did we know it was probably 70 miles away still. We heard our fair share of "I want snack", "Sorry we disobeyed", "Can you get my travel pillow that fell on the ground?", "Can you talk to me now?" from the backseat. Annoying as it was to hear their voices at the time, it was also liberating not to answer them. Tobey was a little frustrated but just kept at it like Chinese water torture. I could handle that. Eli however probably didn't fully understand what we were doing and eventually escalated himself from frustrated to a tizzy. But even he eventually gave up and fell asleep. We finally reached Flagstaff, gave our lectures (I'm pretty sure Eli understood at this point) and continued life talking to each other. Tom's been teaching the kids that when they disobey, they break the relationship and today's 1 hour silent treatment was an example of it.

On to happier things...

FLAGSTAFF - On the way to Flagstaff, I realized that we saw a real variety of landscapes today. We saw the classic semi-red rocky formations that we saw in Utah. But then it gave way to a really flat, almost prairie/midwestern kind of feeling, which gave way to pine trees and feeling like we were in Oregon! We arrive in Flagstaff at 7,000+ feet elevation.

Tom and I both have childhood memories of our parents wandering around some teeny town in search of Chinese food. In fact, when we vacationed with Tom's family early in our marriage (BC, before children), Tom's dad wanted to eat in a Chinese restaurant when we passed through Reading, CA. That dinner was awful, our whole 6 dish dinner was various meat and veggies in the same brown sauce. Ick.

But when we rolled into Flagstaff, curiously enough, neither Tom nor I wanted another burger, fast or fried food (Tobey, of course, wanted McDonald's). We're not big Mexican food fans so what was left? Chinese. And Flagstaff has at least 3 Chinese restaurants. We know we can't expect Cupertino standard Chinese food but we also wanted to find the best we could. The first restaurant, Szechuan somethingorother, was a buffet run by two Latino guys. The buffet looked sad and there was a stuffy smell to the place. And when I asked whether we had to do the buffet or whether we could order from the menu, they looked at me like, "Are you crazy? Why wouldn't you want to eat buffet?" Nothing against Latinos but would you want to eat at a Mexican place run by Chinese people? Actually, judging by the business, a lot of people didn't mind, but we wanted to try for more authenticity. The second place, China Garden, was more promising as a Chinese teenaged girl was the hostess (and I thought she seemed surprised to see us, Chinese people, walk through the door). We decided to try it and it turned out not half bad. Tom and I weren't that hungry (Sno-Cap shake and malt were still in us) but the kids gobbled up their fair share of the Mongolian Beef and broccoli that we ordered. Ah, veggies. Good for the internal plumbing. I never thought I'd choose only semi-decent Chinese food over a burger, but alas I did and may the pigs start flying! Plus, we have to give Tobey and Eli the same childhood memories of wandering around a small town for Chinese food!

HAMPTON INN - While dinner itself was fine, checking in at the hotel was just grating on my nerves. The kids, having been couped up all day in the car (or not having much freedom once they were outside of the car), were in their hyper mode. Climbing the furniture in the lobby. Being silly and loud. Jumping on the beds, falling off beds. Just general not listening to anything we said. Although he knew it wasn't quite right, Tom let the kids play around the room for a while, even though they were loud and it was after 9, because anything we said to them was not going to be obeyed, almost like they physically can't calm down and obey due to pent up energy. I had to get out of the room or they were going to drive me crazy. I only was out for a few minutes to ask the front desk for a crib and when I came back, there was still quite a bit of energy to be let out. But now at 11PM, they are finally out for the past half hour or so. This just teaches me that they need some free run around time each day or it will be an unhappy ending everyday for me. We will be staying put in Flagstaff for 2 days to take a peek at Grand Canyon and Sedona so I hope we will have more happy times.

As far as Hampton Inn itself, we stayed in one in Kingman and now in Flagstaff. They seem to be pretty good. We decided that we'd try to stick to Hampton and see if we can get rewards sometime during our trip. We'll see.

And so our day 7 ends a bit on a downer. Even more of a downer is our shady Internet connection. Hope the next 2 days "staying put" will be a little more happy all around.

Day 6: Finally out of California!

What happened to Day 5, you ask? We went to Disneyland. And while thoughts about the day abound, I just have to plow ahead or I'll forever be behind.

We are finally making forward progress towards Boston and reached a big milestone: we have crossed the California borderline. Some friends had hoped that we wouldn't and therefore would have to return to Sunnyvale and never move away. But alas, it hasn't happened. Sorry! :-(

Our day's summary:

• Late start out of Anaheim - packing and finding an ATM
• Lunch at Emma Jean's Holland Burger on Historic Route 66 in Victorville CA
• Quick stop at the Route 66 Museum in Victorville for some trip tips
• I-40 to Kingman, saw some of Route 66 that criss crosses the interstate
• Late decision to see the stretch of Route 66 near Amboy, backtracked
• Arrived in Kingman AZ at 8PM, a surprise find of In-N-Out for dinner

Speaking of In-N-Out, it is rare for me to decline a good burger. But the lunch at Emma Jean's, yummy that it was, sat in my tummy for hours. While the boys all snacked in the car by 6PM, I could honestly still say that I wasn't hungry. And on a trip where I'm looking at days on end of eating out with hard to find fresh fruit and veggies, I'm trying to watch myself not to indulge too much. So feeling lumpy, I actually ordered my burger "protein style" at In-N-Out. Not bad, actually.

Some other notes from today:

• Looking forward to hitting the open road, I was surprised to find traffic in Pomona at noonetime on our way out of the L.A. general area. Probably native L.A.ers are used to this but all I can say is thank goodness for the 24/7 carpool lane.


• We saw snow on the backside of the highest peaks of what looked like the San Gabriel Mountains but I don't know if the SG Mountains technically stretch as far east as we were on I-15. But it's just a strange thing to have to shift mental gears about the weather all the time. Last Sunday in Pasadena it was 98 (and unusually hot day), but then Anaheim was a perfect 70 when we were there. Now we see snow on peaks, reminding me that it's not summer quite yet and where we are headed is a little chillier because of elevation. It just makes me feel better about the packed suitcases we had since I did pack for warm and cool weather. I think the other day Tom saw that Boston was still high of 54 degrees.


• Tobey saw a couple of McDonald's and each time he yells out, "McDonald's! Let's eat at McDonald's!" How do you explain to a 4 year old that we are going to try to 1) eat healthier if possible and 2) eat local fare if possible. How long can we go before we "have" to eat at a McDonald's? Any betters out there?


• When we first entered I-40, which apparently starts in Barstow, we saw a sign: "Wilmington N.C. 2554 miles." A sense of humor they've got.


• When we finally reached our exit off I-40, the gas light in our car went on. Wow. We were really close to running out of gas and where we were today, there was nothing. NOTHING, between Barstow and Needles. I think we read about one Chevron in Ludlow on 66 but other than that, our trusty EZ66 guide was not kidding when it said to gas up in Barstow. We had done it back in Anaheim. I think we will be more conservative next time.

Some notes about road tripping with a 4.5 and 2.5 year old:

• I know we are lucky that our kids do as well as they do in the car BUT...


• I'm starting to realize that we are with these kids 24/7 and I don't get a break. I can't break for a nap because they don't nap at the same time as at home, where I can manipulate their sleep schedules better. We can't just shut the door on their bedroom at bedtime because we are in one room hotel rooms. We haven't pulled out the DVD player yet because that will open up a whole new world of whines and complaints about wanting to watch all the time. So all this time together means that there are that many more "opportunities" to have to deal with them. In the car is not too bad -- there are fights about who is touching whose toys and wanting snacks, etc. And Eli drops EVERYTHING from his carseat to the point that I have to be careful of the inevitable avalanche when I open his door at a stop. But despite all this, I'm hoping to hold out on the DVD until the plains states - TX, OK. And I'm still rationing all the great little surprises that friends gave us for the road trip.


• Speaking of sleeping, the kids are pretty well rested on this trip, especially Tobey, because they can't escape the hum of the car. If he gets a 1.5 hour nap in the car, that means he'll be up late at night, and also, ironically, up early in the morning. The best day was Disneyland when he didn't nap and had a really exciting day. He was out within 5 minutes of hitting the pillow.


• Never try potty training on the road. We're not trying to, Eli is doing it himself, so I'm just saying, if you ever think of doing it, WHY? The double potty breaks are killing me. Since Eli isn't really trained, it's hard to get him to go at the same time as the rest of us. And since he hasn't gotten the poop down yet, and the last time we tried Pull Ups he didn't think he was allowed to poop in those, we have to put a diaper on him standing up each time which is a pain in the bottom. The good news is he successfully pooped in a potty for the first time while we were in San Diego at my cousin's house. But his poops are only teeny poops, he's still holding something in, poor guy. He saves it all for when we settle in a hotel for the night. That can't be comfortable.


• I'm not sure how much the Route 66/Cars connection is happening inside the kids' brains. I guess I'm waiting for that first, "This is just like in Cars when..." kind of comment from Tobey. I've already thought that a few times as we made our first foray onto 66. I just want Tobey to say it and I'll be satisfied.

Summary of the trip so far: It's going well. I have a feeling that even though right now it seems like progress is slow, we are going to arrive in Boston and I'll look back and say, aww, it's over already? Don't all fun vacations feel like that?

Uploading pictures online

With all the move craziness, we haven't uploaded pictures to Flickr since Christmas. But since friends and family are following our journey, we've started uploading some of our trip pictures. But you need to become my Flickr friend, add "lihchang".

We're also going to try to get one famil picture per day in a place that characterizes where we were for the day. Those will get posted to the corresponding blog post whenever I catch up with pictures and writing.

Enjoy!