Home, Sweet, Home

After an 18-hour day on the road yesterday, we are home again from our two-week holiday in Alberta.  It’s nice use my own computer (faster internet!) and sleep in my own bed, though I also need to put away a few stacks of laundry and get some groceries and figure out what else needs to go on the to-do list for this week.

Sunshine bounced out of bed this morning and immediately requested to watch a movie—Doodlebops.  I guess there are things that each of us miss about being at home!

We took off in mid-August as soon as my husband and I had finished our summer classes.  For some variety, we decided to drive “home” via a different route—across the northern United States.  We caught the ferry from Sidney to Anacortes at noon and then drove to Spokane, Washington on Friday.

On Saturday, we continued across Washington through Idaho and into Montana, then drove over the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier National Park and stayed somewhere outside of St. Mary’s.

On Sunday morning, we went for breakfast at Many Glaciers Lodge, caught Mass at Babb (it was starting at we drove past), and then continued to Lethbridge to visit with my best friend before heading on to my husband’s parents the next day.

It was a lot of driving (Lily got very cranky by the end of each day) but it was fascinating to see the scenery change.  Having driven east-west across three states and two provinces now, we’ve noticed how much geography runs north-south.  Coastal Washington was green and hilly, much like coastal BC; then we got into hot, dry areas that reminded us of the Okanagan before we came out onto flat, farmer’s fields—much like southern Alberta.  The name Pend Oreille caught my attention until I realized that this was country that David Thompson had explored in his travels.

The girls were awesome in the vehicle, other than a few fights and a few very late night meltdowns when we hadn’t yet found a hotel.  For this trip, we bought them a travel AquaDoodle which turned out to be an awesome Jeep toy.  They could share it in the Jeep (once my husband bought a second pen for them) and we didn’t have to worry about what they were colouring on.

They also played hide and seek with each other (to my great amusement, since they were sitting next to each other and had no way to hide) and I Spy with us (though Lily always said, when it was her turn, “I spy with my little eye something that is pink.” “Your blanket?” “Yes!!!” and we’d all laugh).

We spent about a week with my husband’s parents and about a week with my mom and squeezed in as many visits with friends as we could.  Forgetting our address book this trip made it a bit more complicated to get together with some people, but we managed to use Facebook or get phone numbers from mutual friends or just leave notes on doors.  It’s always great to catch up with people we haven’t seen since the last time we were back in Alberta, but by the end of a week or two of visiting, I get tired of repeating “this is what we’ve been up to for the last year and what we’ll be doing for the next year.”

And so, after a final weekend of visiting with cousins and relatives at my husband’s family reunion, we hit the road again yesterday.  Now it’s time to get back into routine for September…

How was the end of your summer?  Did you get a big holiday or family vacation this year?

This post contains affiliate links; as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.