College Road Trip

last week was spring break so paul, gabi and i took off on a week long college road trip. we've just returned leaving 5 universities, 8 states and 3,209 miles behind us.......whoa! paul drove every inch of the trip (i kept offering but he kept saying he was good) and all i can say is that we are very happy to be home and out of the car!

we started the trip plowing through a colorado snowstorm and ended it hot, sweaty and dusty from new mexico with a whole lot happening in between. gabi had a list of universities she wanted to tour to assist in her final decision on next year's college bound plans so we tackled the challenge making sure to fit in some fun times along the way. 

making our way through colorado, wyoming, utah (with a quick stop at beautiful kolob canyons) and nevada, we headed to san diego to visit my 88 year old father and my brother greg who cares for dad. it was so good to be close to my dad, hold his hand, give him a back massage and spend an evening next to him watching american ninja warrior together. we said goodbye the next morning which was difficult. i love you dad.

from there, we drove to arizona and finished off the university visits with a special tour of asu's outstanding walter cronkite school of journalism and mass communication. we were then ready for the the fun to begin! we headed to new mexico, crossing over a little bit of texas and onto carlsbad caverns. i remember visiting the cave when i was a little girl and was very excited to be there again. we made our way down, down, steep down in the dark coolness amazed and entranced by all we saw. after a good exploration at the bottom, the three of us were ready for a workout and challenged ourselves to sprint walk up, up, steep up into the bright heat. nice!

the next day we met up with margo and andrew! they drove due west from midland, texas to spend the day and night with us in the little town of artesia, new mexico. we hit the top two "things to do in and around artesia" first, the living desert state park then on to sitting bull falls with a dip in the waterfall and cold, cold lake and a picnic on the warm cliffs. it was so good to be with margo and andrew again! thank you for making the effort you two, it ended our long trip on a high and gave gabi a break from a week of hanging out with her middle aged, boring parents :) like i said, we are all glad to be home!