Last Leg of Europe

It was a short drive for us from Salamanca to Madrid.  About 3 hours because we took the no-toll roads.  It was a nice drive and took us right into the hustle of the city.  We unloaded our packs at our new place and returned the rental.  We were able to walk from the rental return (train station) back to our apartment.  Our apartment was in a great location and we were able to walk most places.
By this leg of our journey our exploring muscle was a little worn out, but we managed to hone in on the key things we wanted to see.

Baguettes and B.O.

We returned out rental car in Plymouth and caught the train back to London and then to Paris.  It was a long day of travel, but we made it safely to Paris.  Diego's cousins met us at the station and guided us to our new rental.

Southwest England

We have been in Plymouth for the past 10 days.  It is located on the peninsula in the southwest part of England. This peninsula is mostly part of the county of Cornwall, which is where many of the British go for holiday (aka: vacation).  Plymouth is just outside of Cornwall in Devon County.  The weather was much more organized down here and although we had several stereotypical grey days we also had quite a few beautiful days.

Hallow Redding

Made the pass from California's coast inland toward Redding.  The drive was very scenic with a hint of fall colors.

The pass from Arcata to Redding.  Beautiful drive.

NPS Recreation area on our way into Redding.

Redding was a nice change of scenery.  Much drier conditions and lots of sunshine!  The laundry has become my humidity test.  There are so many things that we don't put in the dryer and when I hang them out to dry, depending on our where we are, it can take anywhere from 30 minutes up to 3 days to dry.  In the Coos Bay area I thought they would never dry.  This was a "30 minutes to dry" stop.

Columbia River Gorge

We had thought we would stay on the coast heading south through Oregon, but it turned out we needed an airport for Diego, so we decided to head a little inland and check out Portland.  We stayed at a state park about 40 minutes southeast of the city called Milo McIver.

There was an episode of Grimm being filmed just on the other side of our campground.  I don't know that show and wouldn't have even known it was being filmed except that we went on a hike and saw a couple of security guys and asked them what was going on.  The were hanging out near the dam located on the river there.

Hydrothermal Dam near Milo McIver state park.

The Trail Ends with the Goonies

Beautiful drive from Port Ludlow to Astoria.

Bridge from Washington to Oregon

Our campsite was at Fort Stevens State Park, just over the bridge from Astoria, in Warrenton, OR.

The park was very nice.  Well maintained and the biggest state park I have ever seen.  It has over 400 sites and a very nice biking/hiking system that goes for miles.

The Mother Road

We spent this past week in Albuquerque and it was pretty nice.  Besides the cold snap that hit a few days after we arrived the weather is very nice.  Warm sun with a fresh mountain breeze.  The cold snap was tough though, dropping below freezing one night.  It was 20 degrees warmer in Haddonfield one of the days I checked my phone.  Crazy.

We arrived, did our usual check out of the city after setting up camp.  That checking out includes grocery shopping.........Trader Joe's stop.  YAY!  Big city stops tend to be half for getting to know and visiting the city and half about restocking.  We have been seeing a Target and Trader Joe's about once a month, so we gotta get it while we can.

We took Route 66 to the Museum of Natural History on Monday.  We have become museum experts and the girls love it.  I had several other stops planned that afternoon, but I had what I am pretty sure were altitude issues.  I started to feels nauseous and had a splitting headache.  All plans were derailed, but these girls are so LEGO crazy they might have been glad we were headed home.

Decided to take a tour of the city.

ABQ Trolley Tours

Sand Dunes and Sunsets

Monday, April 6, 2015

We arrived to Alamogordo, NM yesterday evening and are staying at Oliver Lee Memorial State Park, south of the city.  The sunset that was going on during set up was beautiful.  

Dallas with Toño and Neelima

After leaving Austin we headed north to visit Toño and Neelima in Dallas.  Yeehaw!  It had been at least 3 or 4 years since we had seen each other and we finally got to meet Arjun :)  Such a cutie!

The girls had a great time carrying him around all over the place.

Artsy Austin

Austin was a fun city!  We arrived on a Sunday and stayed for a week.  We stayed at McKinney State Park just outside of the city and once we arrived we set up camp and then took off to explore.  We had our bike rack clips on hold at REI and wanted to get a feel for the city before our work week started. It was rainy that night though, so mostly we just did some errands and spent a good few hours in a book store called Book People.  It's always great when we find a good bookstore because we leave with a new list of things to check out at the library on their nooks.  It is so cool that they can check out books through their nook just like they were at home.  Thank you Jordan!!

Rain!

We just left Raleigh, NC.

The weather was not very cooperative for outdoor activities, so the girls and I went to some of the science museums that we have access to through our Franklin Institute reciprocal membership in Philly. The downtown area of Raleigh seemed nice and the museums were awesome.