End of Summer 2009 - The Drive Home (Day 13)

We woke up early this morning and Leissa cooked us a delicious waffle and bacon breakfast! How nice!!! We ate it outside in the morning air on her deck and it was the perfect start to our day. We said our goodbyes and set our GPS to lead us back to Salt Lake. The distance is 780 miles, which is about 12 hours and our goal was to make it the entire way on one day so we could sleep in our own beds and snuggle with our lonely kitties.

The drive up the Columbia Gorge was beautiful and we had wanted to stop at Multnomah Falls to take some quick pictures, but the exit was on the left hand side of the freeway which I hadn't anticipated for and we missed the opportunity to exit. So instead, Brandon took photos out the car window as we drove up the Gorge and we listened to our book on tape of Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I have to say that books on tape make a 12 hour car trip seem fast. I'm very glad my friend Matt convinced me to try them because otherwise I think we would have had a much longer feeling drive.

Once you're past the Gorge, the drive to Utah is boring and uneventful. Not much scenery to love and long straight stretches of road that seem to go on forever. But, we made fantastic time and with our two short food/gas stops, we arrived in our driveway at 10:30pm. Our kitties were elated to see us and as I type this they are both almost touching me they're sitting so close. Almost 14 days is a long time to leave them at home without anyone to love them. I'm sure they'll be very needy and clingy for several days until we get back into our routines.

We are glad to be home and can't believe our trip is over. It seems like it was long, and like it went by too fast, all at the same time. I am so glad we got to visit with everyone we saw... John, Jenni & Will, Joe, Carolyn & Ron, Jim & Lori, Leissa... it was a fantastic time and a great end to our summer.