Our first week on the trip has been a resounding success!  Our first event of note was a blogger meet up.  At the last minute we realized we would be right in Theresa's backyard and quickly arranged a get-together.  We had a wonderful time visiting with Theresa, her hubby and darling children – a boy and twin girls.

Theresa actually hasn't been blogging that much because, in addition to being a wonderful wife, mum and homeschooling her children, she designs scrapbook kits for Heritage Scrap and Faith Sisters.  I don't think her kits are showing up yet on Faith Sisters, but stay tuned.  Bless her heart, she gave me a disc with some of her new kits on it.  How cool is that?  We also found out that we had so much more in common than we thought.  She is also a spinner and we compared our experiences and she was excited to show me her new lace pattern from Fiddlesticks Knitting.  It's the same one I brought with me on the trip!  It's the pattern for the Featherlight Shawls.  More on that later.

Our first touristy stop was Yosemite.  Everyone had told us how fantastic it was, but words just cannot express the beauty of the place.  As an added bonus, the weather was on the cooler side (only 90) and for some reason on the day we were there, the crowds had disappeared, so it was relatively relaxed.

El Capitan – it still just boggles my mind that we saw several climbers on the face.

We stayed at a wonderful B&B way, way back in the woods.  Together with 2 other couples, we had the run of the entire house – the host does not even live there, but invited us to make ourselves at home.  Two wonderful ladies came and took care of us in the morning and then disappeared to give us privacy the rest of the time.

As we made our way out of California, we were surprised to discover that we were going right through Loma Linda, where my former boss (who made this trip possible with a generous contribution to my retirement plan), is going to graduate school.  We zipped off the highway and managed to surprise him as he was studying in one of the student lounges.  It was complete serendipity that we tracked him down, courtesy of his wife, but the look on his face was worth it.  I got the best hug!!  Only after we left did I realize I completely forgot to take a picture.

Our next stop was at hubby's cousin's house in Arizona.  Can you say HOT??  The temps ranged from a balmy 100 all the way up to 117.  But hubby had a wonderful time visiting with three of his favorite cousins and they delivered some outstanding hospitality.

Today was spent at the Grand Canyon.  I suppose we should have expected huge crowds on a Labor Day weekend, but it was even more crowded than we expected.  It made for long waits for the shuttles and some pretty cranky park rangers.  We were surprised at the contrast between the personnel at Yosemite and the Grand Canyon.  At Yosemite everyone was so nice and just couldn't do enough for us.  At the Canyon, everyone was pretty short, but that could be explained somewhat by the huge crowds.  But despite it all, the vistas were absolutely mind boggling.

The next three days will be travel days and not much sightseeing unless we see something by the side of the road that looks interesting.  That means a lot of knitting will be accomplished.  So far I've gotten quite a bit done.  I finished the Aeolian shawl.  Toward the end the rows got incredibly long and I was glad to see the end of it.  Of course, no blocking until I get home.  I've now started the Rosevine Shawl – no pictures.  I took one, but it didn't come out that well and I am SO tired!  Off to run a hot bath and relax.