Off to See the Big Mick

 

Hello, our wonderful friends. From my point of view, this weekend and some of last week has been the most incredible, magical, special, and most fun I believe I've ever had. It was special because I was able to spend it with my husband, Terry, who is also my best friend and partner forever. Incredible because I have never experienced anything so exciting and new. Magical, well, simply because I was taken back into my childhood again, loving every tiny detail and memory as it came. The weekend was a blast. This time spent in mouse land is a one-time adventure. And what an adventure it was. 

First, I have to claim my attraction to little details in life. I was not one who spent time out of state or off on adventures when I was growing up. I spent my time fantasizing in my own neighborhood and my backyard. Suddenly becoming a pioneer woman or a horseback ranching girl who had a blast was my idea of fun, at least until I was older. In my teenage years, I spent a lot of time with friends but still left time to live inside my head with plenty of experiences going on in there. 

I have been to California many times. My enjoyment came from seeing friends and mainly looking around their yards, examining the palm trees, huge aloe vera plants, and of course, the cacti that took over the garden area. These plants may seem mundane to some; however, I had never seen them in person being from Oregon. 

The best day of all was when a friend let me pick a Meyer lemon from his backyard tree. Oh, my lemon juice! That was so good! He suggested I peel it and eat the lucious fruit, so that is what I did. I loved every sour moment of eating that citrus. Sweet for a lemon, yet sour because it was a lemon (if that makes sense), and huge in size. They just don't grow well in Oregon. They love the California sun. 

But today we are off to a true California destination of Disneyland. I was excited to know that soon we would be hanging out in a childhood favorite resort. In about 12 hours to be exact. Terry reserved a hotel room the first night, to break up the long drive, and thank the sleep Gods he did! I was exhausted after that first day of travel. We welcomed that bed.

In the next few posts, we thought we could take you all through the trip we took. It was long. It was hot. It was exhausting at our age, but it was worth every single strained muscle, sunburned area of our skin, and every difficult step we took toward the end of the day. Terry pulled off the most perfect day of my life, and for that, I thank him to the ends of the earth. He wanted me to experience Disneyland just one time in my life and how do you repay someone for beautiful memories? I love him to the Snow White castle and back again for giving me such a wonderful anniversary gift. These are memories I will cherish for the rest of my life. He gave me a gift of being able to experience childhood fun, and that's difficult to accomplish. 

Here are photos of our trip, in this post and the next ones that will follow in the blog. 

The third anniversary began with gifts. My sweet husband thought ahead and ordered some special presents to celebrate what we feel like is a divine union. I, on the other hand, didn't think ahead but saved the shopping until the last minute. I gave him a couple of t-shirts that had funny sayings on them. I need to get with the program.

He brought in a huge vase full of flowers. 

A beautiful, sentimental card ...

A cute t-shirt that is fitting as we are Siberian husky owners.

A very special light up clear ball on a stand that changes color and gives me the memory of my favorite stadium. Autzen Stadium is where my Ducks play, and the memories I've had of basically living in this stadium on weekends during the games came flooding back. I watched the team over the years as they fought hard for every win and took their heartbreaking losses like the classy men, they are. I'm not materialistic but this I will cherish until I'm done on this earth. 

Another gift that truly hit my heart. We have always told each other we wished we had met one another many years ago to be able to spend more time together. We were meant to meet when we did, and that's a great thing too. We simply need to enjoy each moment as a couple and explore the last leg of life together. 

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Wednesday the 17th of June came around, and off we went!

As people must, we stopped in to use the restroom. Terry smoked a cigar. I sat close to the river to enjoy the peace and quiet of being away from the road. 

It's great to see the Klamath River so full. 

Sidewalks in the rest area were lined with beautiful lilies. 

Soon it was time to return to the car and be on our way again. We had traveled a couple of hours out of our six hours to the hotel. Time was speeding by. 

I finally spotted a breathtaking view of a familiar sight in Mount Shasta. Since my hands were on the steering wheel, Terry got these gorgeous shots of this spectacular sight.

We stopped at a nice restaurant and had some dinner before going to the hotel. Wow! What a wonderful dinner it was too!

I ordered a burrito. They sure make burritos huge in California! About as large as they grow their fruit!

My sweet man ordered a chili relleno. It comes with the traditional beans and rice. The meal started with chips and salsa too. 

Terry enjoyed his meal, as did I. Wow, that burrito was so good! I had to take half of it back to the hotel with me that night simply because it was so large. Filled with beans, beef, rice, cilantro, tomatoes, avocado, and sour cream, it was the perfect burrito. 

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Since our trip is a long one, we will end this post here. This was our first day on the road. Tomorrow was another travel day, covering the second leg of the race before we get to the main event. We were meeting Terry's brother and sister-in-law tomorrow night too, which I was pretty jazzed about. They live in Arizona, so we don't meet too often. I've never met either of them so that has me excited to finally be able to. 

Thank you for coming along on our trip. Hugs to you all and thank you so much for reading the blog. We appreciate you! Our trip continues in the following post.