I'm Baaaaaaaaack

So we are back from our Great Road Trip That Wasn't!

Oh, hadn't I mentioned that?  Yes, we ended up having to scrap The Great Southwest Road Trip of 2011.  Well, sort of.  

(And it wasn't for any lack of fabulous suggestions mind you, because many of you got a A+ when it came to making recommendations for that trip and I thank you for that.  They are stored in my little idea book for the future!)

The short story is that the whole thing ended up being much more complicated (read: expensive) than we originally anticipated.  Especially when you are trying to drive SUV rentals over 2 state lines.  We were Last Minute Larrys about the whole thing and in the end we realized that we were looking to drive about 2900 miles in 5 days (we wanted to make sure we had about 5 days to spend with The Parents before flying home) and after that realization the trip just started looking more like a comedy of errors and less like a vacation.  We ended up just buying plane tickets to New Mexico and hanging with Garrett's parents for 6 of those 10 days instead, and can I tell you -- buying last minute plane tickets saved us like $1,000 compared to renting a car (not to mention all that time) so seriously -- YOU ARE RIDICULOUS, RENTAL CAR COMPANIES!  But that is another story for another time.  


For the 4 day weekend that preceded our New Mexico adventure, we ended up scratching the Road Trip Itch by driving down to the Central Coast to visit with my good friend Sarah which turned out to be a fantastic idea.  There were scenic drives, ice cream at the beach, steaks and sunshine, bike gangs and olive oil tastings.  I mean, it basically had all the fantastic things you need for a fun mini-weekend getaway.  We took a scenic route home that included trips to two different bookstores, repacked our suitcases, slept for a few hours and then flew our tired tookuses out to New Mexico.   

The sacrifice of flying there for 6 days was that we ended up having to save the northern part of the state for our next trip (Oh Taos, I will see you one day!)  Since Garrett's parents live about 3 hours South of the Albuquerque Airport we concentrated our exploration in the Southeast part of the Southwest.  It was a more relaxed trip than we would have had trying to do all that driving so in the end I'm so glad we made that decision.  I guess I am getting old because there is just something so alluring about a vacation where you just get to go home.  Even when it's not your home.  Having Garrett's parents cook for us, laying around and chit chatting in person instead of on the phone, reading books, hiking and playing with the animals was just awesome.  And we even squeezed in some touristy things to boot, which I will totally tell you all about once I have the energy to upload the pictures.  
 
Obviously we are still in the recovery phase of vacationing you know?  Monday was all about getting back to work and just surviving (Note to self:  Stop schedule flights that land at 10pm on Sunday night when you have to go to work Monday morning.)  Yesterday afternoon our house turned into a ceremonious post-vacation laundry jungle, and last night I went to the Grocery Store around 9:30 and absolutely filled my cart to overflowing levels because otherwise we were going to be eating toothpicks and wilted spinach for breakfast today.  Though I was smugly proud of going through all of our perishables before we left, our kitchen was a bit post-apocalyptic when we got home, which was inconvenient since we immediately jumped back into CrossFit and started our Half Marathon Training.  Obviously, it was only a matter of time before we starting eating each other. 

Even though it was freezing ass cold last night I diligently looked at my weekly grocery sale papers, created a menu plan and made a grocery list.  Of course then I got to the eerily deserted store last night (duh! It was almost 10 at night!) and realized that all of the sales that I had just carefully ogled didn't actually start until TODAY.  Which, really? Is such a rookie mistake.  The upside is I did manage to make it home with some food so we are no longer eyeballing each other post workout like those scary cannibal gangs in The Road. 

So ANYWAY, this is my long winded way of saying Hello!  I'm back!  I can't wait to sit down and chat and tell you about my adventures!  But a girl has got to catch her breath a minute and since Garrett is having dinner with a friend tonight, I plan to spend the evening ignoring The Internet and making out with my DVR if that's alright with you?  I hope you will forgive me but I may just go a little crazy if I don't confirm that Camille Grammar is still a nut-job.  We all have our quirks. 

It feels good to be home.